3/9/2007

I told you about the various collectibles that I have yesterday- and someone wrote asking if I have collected any books about horror and sci fi movies. The answer is, of course, yes! Not only because I’m a fan of the genre, but also because- before the advent of the internet and easy “Google” searches for information about the movies and their stars, I needed some way to find out the facts- and having books right at hand (who has time to go to the library when you have to produce shows every week?) was the best way to get what I needed. Some books were more helpful than others- “The Great Book of Movie Monsters”, while providing some basic information in an alphabetical listing, it tended to be a little light on information about the films, and tended to get a little too cutesy (each entry ended with “what to do if you meet this monster”- with sage advice like “don’t look at it.”) Another older book that was more helpful was “Horrors: from Screen to Scream” by Ed Naha (Naha! Aha! Yatee benne fucchee…oh, no, wait, that’s a 3 Stooges bit.) This was a more complete alphabetical listing of movies and their stars, had a lot of great still pictures from the movies, and much more story information. A more in-depth study of horror films and the people who made them was “the Horror People” by John Brosnan. It had a lot of information about the various actors, writers and directors who worked on horror films, and the best background information I could find at the time. One of the most mind- boggling books was a three-volume set called ‘The Reference Guide to Fantastic Films” by Walt Lee. Although the set came out in 1976, the whole project was started almost thirty years earlier! It’s incredibly dense with titles and facts, and includes silent and foreign films- even some student films (including some really ridiculous titles like “Batman Meets Frankenstein” that are obviously some high school kid’s Super 8 epic.) There are still pictures scattered through out the volumes, and even a whole section of “lost” or “questionable” films that may or may not exist! The entries really only go up to the early 70s, so, like many of the books I used when I was “Son of Svengoolie” –there’s a world of newer films that aren’t covered. The intro to these volumes was written by Robert Bloch , the author of “Psycho”- and he says a couple very insightful things. He comments on how audiences have changed since they used to be terrified by the likes of the original Universal monster films and such- “The cruelties that once caused chills now evoke laughter and sadistic satisfaction.” Commenting on a big screen showing of the original 30s “King Kong”- Bloch, referring to the rudeness of some movie-goers, recalls the good old days “when the apes were up on the screen, instead of down in the audience.” (And today- the apes even have cell phones.) One more valuable Sven reference book? Why, “Golden Turkeys”-naturally! This Medved Bros. book about the worst movies ever made pretty much includes a major portion of the flicks I’ve shown- but- not the one I’ll be showing tomorrow night! Tell you all about it next time…