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Post by allthingshorror on Jan 26, 2009 7:31:45 GMT
You should give Ed Wood a thread to himself Dem!!
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Post by carolinec on Jan 26, 2009 12:23:58 GMT
Thanks for the information about the Ed Wood book. I've just ordered myself a copy through Abe Books. Ed Wood is a fascinating character, who I would like to find out more about. The Tim Burton film is a brilliant appetiser, but like any film version of a person's life I know it contains a lot of "imaginative" alterations and embellishments, which I would like to counter with something, hopefully, a bit more factual. This sounds just the thing! Don't forget there's also his semi-autobiographical film, "Glen or Glenda?". Have you seen that? Yes, Ed Wood definitely deserves a thread of his own. There can't be anyone else who could make films so bad they're brilliant! ;D |
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Post by David A. Riley on Jan 26, 2009 13:31:54 GMT
I only ever watched the first ten minutes or so of that and couldn't stand anymore, but that was on TV some years ago before I really knew anything about him. I would probably watch it now with a better understanding, especially after watching the Ed Wood movie.
I am really looking forward to getting this book and I'll certainly share my reactions to it on this board. I can hardly think of any other film director more fitting of a place here!
David
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Post by andydecker on Jan 26, 2009 18:00:50 GMT
Yep, that´s the one, Dem.
Back when the movie Ed Wood was released they broadcast a couple of Wood´s movies on tv, also Glen or Glenda. You really don´t know if to laugh or to weep when you watch this stuff. Actually it was kind of sad.
There weren´t a lot of novels written by directors, or? Wood didn´t write for big outfits, but Jimmy Sangster comes to mind. Any others?
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Post by dem bones on Jan 26, 2009 19:44:48 GMT
Val Lewton wrote at least ten novels and even had a story, The Bagheeta, published in r Weird Tales (July 1930: I think it's reprinted in that 'Sean Richards' The Elephant Man book mentioned in the Peter Haining section). More information at Val Lewton. And how about Herschell Gordon Lewis's trashy novelisations of Blood Feast and 2000 Maniacs? |
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Post by carolinec on Jan 26, 2009 20:44:02 GMT
This is a more recent novel writer/film director than the ones you're talking about. Robin Hardy - director of The Wicker Man - has written in novel form what he calls a "reimagining" of that film called Cowboys For Christ. The idea was that he was going to then do the script and film it - with Chris Lee in the lead role. However, it's been stalled and stalled for several years now - no money, etc. And, of course, Chris Lee is no spring chicken any more (I certainly can't see him galloping about on a horse like his character in Cowboys For Christ would have to do!). So I don't know if that film will ever get made, but the novel certainly exists - I have a signed copy on my shelf right now, from my encounter with Robin Hardy at a Fantastic Films Weekend a few years ago. ;D
There are also novelists who film their own work. One who springs to mind is Stephen Gallagher, who produced and directed the TV movie version of his own novel Oktober.
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Post by dem bones on Jan 27, 2009 9:35:12 GMT
From one 'fifties icon to another. Here's a cover we needn't trouble ph*t*bucket with ....  Bunny Yeager - Betty Page: Queen of Pin-Up (Benedikt Taschen, June 1993)  Photo: Bunny Yeager"I just enjoyed all my years working as a model, and I don't regret any of that. And I certainly enjoyed working with you. You did some beautiful pictures of me." - Betty Page in conversation with Bunny Yeager, Andy Warhol's Interview, July 1993 Bunny regularly photographed the legendary Bettie during the Irving Klaw years and here the highlights of these sessions are reproduced over eighty pages. As ever, it's the mad mixture of cute glamour shots - the Jungle girl sequence being a good example - and the jaw-dropping, often laugh-out-loud funny bondage stuff - where Bettie's talent for pulling the most extraordinary faces really comes into it's own! - retain a peculiar charm. Queen Of Pin-Up may not be the most comprehensive of the Betty Page photo-galleries but it's a great place to start if you wanna know what all the fuss was about. R.I.P. Betty |
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Post by pulphack on Jan 27, 2009 12:29:01 GMT
betty... sigh... aren't Taschen wonderful?
i should be over on the ed wood thread, but there's a few other points, so quickly... ed is the perfect example of content over execution. the filsm are technicaly inept, and although this may in part be due to low budget, there are other low budget movie makers who get those bits right. possibly this was because he was actually following a vision that blocked out such considerations. his films and books (though the latter can be hard going) have a unique worldview, and an incredible sincerity that drives you on through technical flaws that would otherwise get in the way of communication. certainly, some of his syntax makes you double-take (rich coming from me, but nonetheless...). at first it seems like incomprehensible rubbish - especially when you apply 'normal' standards of film-making - but there's actually a mind working to its own agenda that has a skewed and fascinating take on the world. if you know it's not going to be a 'usual' sort of film, then you can get into a lot easier. at least, that's how i found it.
the book about him is incredibly sad, and bits of it (and the tim burton movie) keep me awake at nights for reasons that are between me, my therapist, and my bank manager, there but for the grace of god goes anyone who sets out to get in print or on film. yet it's also compulsive, and all the better for being in the oral history format.
anyway, directors who write. quite a lot, really. ones that come to mind and not mentioned are sam fuller (who LJ bought for NEL), ethan coen (excellent books of short sgtories) and peter farrelly (have i got the right brother?) who rote a pretty good novel called The Comedy Writer, about trying to make it in LA - i borrowed my copy, hence i can't reference if i've got the right bro'.
robin hardy also co-authored The Wicker Man p/b - read that, but not the one you mention, caroline. have you read both? if so, how do they compare (ps glad to see your serial killer writer hasn't caught up with you yet)?
special mention must go to jimmy sangster - i've only read Touchfeather and Touchfeather Too, but they are great and (watch out ade and franklin) are far better than modesty blaise. the novels, that is, not the strip, which outstrips o'donnell's prose by miles.
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Post by carolinec on Jan 27, 2009 14:04:09 GMT
robin hardy also co-authored The Wicker Man p/b - read that, but not the one you mention, caroline. have you read both? if so, how do they compare? Yes, he co-authored it with - er, I think it was some famous playwright whose name escapes me now - but I haven't read that book, only "Cowboys ..". "Cowboys for Christ", although in novel format, essentially reads like a script! He wouldn't have had a lot of work to do to turn it into a screenplay. I have a feeling Robin Hardy isn't really a proficient novelist and is more used to screenplay formats! But the story in "Cowboys .." is a little disappointing when compared to the film of "The Wicker Man" - I mean, it's just so obvious what's going to happen!  (ps glad to see your serial killer writer hasn't caught up with you yet) Ah, but he has! More on that when I have a little more time ...  |
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Post by David A. Riley on Jan 27, 2009 15:48:48 GMT
Since I wrote on Sunday, the Ed Wood book arrived today - which impressed me with the seller's speed. Phenomenal!  David |
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Post by andydecker on Jan 27, 2009 18:30:32 GMT
aah ... Betty! Always a pleasure. I have one of Sangster´s novels. Bought it because the name alone, never read it till now. It is "Touchfeather, Too", published in a crime edition. German title is "Die Lady im Goldsarg" (Lady in a golden coffin). It has a tiny blurb on the back, describing Sangster as a writer of 44 movies and tv-episodes. Back at the time (1970) I guess nobody knew that he did those Hammer movies. Hm, better than Modesty Blaise (which I only have a hazy recollection of, the books were very succesful in the 70s, when I read some of them as a young lad, they were published by a paperback outfit which then was mostly known as a publisher of literature; today they do everything including porn in the vein of Black Lace. How times change ) Now you made me interested. Guess I have to put this up on the stack. |
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Post by allthingshorror on Jan 27, 2009 19:44:30 GMT
Reading Sangsters Private I - unfortunately, it's not that good...
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