Books by Roy Kinnard

Produced in Italy from 1908 the sword and sandal (or peplum) films are one of the screen's most neglected and marginalized film genres. The sword and sandal films were present in Italian cinema from the silent era, but attained their greatest popularity in the 1960s when the release of Hercules (1959) provoked a global craze for these fantasy-adventures.

Flash Gordon, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, the most expensive and popular movie serials ever made, have been favorites of movie and comic fans for decades. The original 1936 serial, designated a cultural treasure, was selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry in 1996. Arranged in a chapter-by-chapter format conforming to the structure of the three original serials, the work provides full cast and crew information, plot synopses, and production notes for all 40 episodes. The work also has a wealth of background information and 159 photographs, along with comments from cast members interviewed--Buster Crabbe, Jean Rogers, and Carroll Borland. Appendices provide an overview of the serial Buck Rogers (1939), select filmographies for 50 of the most prominent Flash Gordon cast and crew, and a complete list of the serials' film and television remakes.

Though the horror film was not officially born until Frankenstein was released in 1931, there were many silent films that contained terrifying scenes and horrific elements. This filmography includes all such silent films.

Destination Moon; George Pal's 1950 Technicolor epic, is generally cited as the first noteworthy science fiction film. Influential serials such as ""The Phantom Empire"" (1935) and ""Flash Gordon"" (1936) brought science fiction themes to the big screen. This work covers these serials and 29 others, which provides cast and credit information.