Books published by Midnight Marquee Press, Inc.

The giallo-an Italian brand of thriller known for its stylish and lurid excesses-got its start in the cinema with the release of Mario Bava's THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH in 1963. Other filmmakers explored the possibilities of such material throughout the 1960s, but it took the release of Dario Argento's impressive debut THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE in 1970 to ensure the giallo a place alongside the Spaghetti Western and the poliziottesco (violent police thrillers) in the public consciousness. All good things must come to an end, however, and the glut of imitations throughout the early 1970s gradually wore down public interest in the genre. Even so, it stubbornly clung to life and mutated throughout the 1970s even as American filmmakers like John Carpenter and Sean S. Cunningham took inspiration from it to create the slasher film. SO DEADLY, SO PERVERSE: 50 YEARS OF ITALIAN GIALLO FILMS VOLUME TWO offers a look at the gradual decline of the giallo from 1974 until 2013. The decline of the Italian film industry in the 1980s hit every genre hard and the giallo is no exception. Despite the best efforts of directors like Argento to keep it alive and vibrant, the giallo simply never managed to rebound after a late period of stylistic and gory excess typified by offerings like Argento's TENEBRAE and Lucio Fulci's THE NEW YORK RIPPER in 1982. Author Troy Howarth explores the genre's decline and picks out some late period entries worthy of more serious praise and consideration. Volume two also offers an overview of the giallo and its place in the Italian film scene by Italian writer and filmmaker Luigi Cozzi, of CONTAMINATION fame. Like volume one, this edition is also lavishly illustrated with colorful still, posters and advertising art.

In the late 1950s, Mario Bava helped to create and define the Italian horror film. His classic directorial works of the 1960s and 1970s, including Black Sunday, Kill, Baby … Kill! and Lisa and the Devil, remain among the most colorful and imaginative in the history of the genre. Bava’s films are rife with unforgettable images—Barbara Steele’s uncanny beauty being brutally violated in Black Sunday, Christopher Lee returning from the grave marked by his bloody demise in The Whip and the Body, the angelic-looking ghost child of Kill, Baby … Kill!, the brutal murder scenes of Blood and Black Lace and Twitch of the Death Nerve—but they are also thematically rich and inter-connected. For many critics, Bava was a gifted stylist but few have bothered to look beneath the surface to uncover the deeper significance of his work. The Haunted World of Mario Bava was first published in 2002. It has now been updated, revised and expanded by author Troy Howarth to give a better overview of Bava’s remarkable legacy as a director and “cinema magician.” This new edition contains new contributions from Bava’s son, director Lamberto Bava, and genre icon Barbara Steele. The book examines all of Bava’s directorial works in detail while also providing a portrait of the man himself—a man for whom publicity and self-promotion was always shied away from, even as he continued to work himself to the point of exhaustion as he improvised and pushed himself to deliver films which would go on to influence such major filmmakers as William Friedkin, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Tim Burton and Joe Dante. Author Troy Howarth “discovered” Bava’s work as a child on late night TV and has worked hard to help bring more serious attention to his films. In addition to holding down a full-time job in the field of social work, he is also a contributor to We Belong Dead magazine and writes reviews for such websites as AV Maniacs and Eccentric Cinema.

Midnight Marquee Press, Inc. is pleased to introduce this volume that begins the "second phase" of Midnight Marquee Press’ acclaimed Actors Series. Having shone the spotlight on those titans of Golden and Silver Age horror (all American by birth or naturalization)—Lugosi, Karloff, Chaney, Jr., Price, and Lorre—Midnight Marquee now ventures into the Iron Age of Hammer (and British horror) with a collection examining the work of Peter Cushing. Cushing has been the subject of other books (and his own autobiographies, reprinted in one volume by Midnight Marquee Press, 1999), so one might question the need for yet another work. The answer, I think, lies in the essays that make up this volume, which put the emphasis squarely on the performer himself (as befits an Actors Series). Not only do Midnight Marquee’s stable of reliables and newcomers analyze 56 of Cushing’s performances in depth, but the annotated filmography offers capsule comments about most of his other roles. Anyone interested in the enormous contributions to horror film and film in general by the "Gentle Man of Horror"—arguably the most accomplished actor ever to become a horror star—will find a great deal of insight and intelligence within these pages.

You will find the answers to many questions and more as you read about the stage and film careers and lives of Dennis Price, George Coulouris and Andre Morell. What do Dennis Price, George Coulouris and Andre Morell have in common? They all essayed very different but quite remarkable screen villains.

Lee Gambin examines the extremely popular subgenre of the ecologically themed horror film, or, the natural horror film. Since Alfred Hitchcock gave us The Birds, the natural horror film (where animals or insects cause tremendous damage to the human population) is a much-loved subgenre, but one seldom referenced. This book offers insightful critiques on numerous films such as Them!, Squirm, Orca, The Pack, The Day of the Animals, Prophecy, Tentacles and many more. Over 100 titles are discussed and Gambin thoroughly scrutinizes the social and political impact of these films, dissects fundamental stock standards of this subgenre, as well as offers informative anecdotes relating to the production of these diverse movies. He critiques specific narrative devices and offers an analysis of performance, audience appreciation and filmmaking craft.

The Shrieking Sixties sets out to document and comment upon the British horror boom of the 1960s. Edited by Darrell Buxton (U.K. horror expert and critic whose work has appeared in publications including Samhain, Creeping Flesh and Giallo Page) and written by a variety of contributors, including Mike Hodges (Fangoria), Steven West (Is It...Uncut?) and Christopher Wood (British Horror Films website), the book features informative and lively reviews of 150 creepy, macabre and downright scary movies. Additional appendices cover the short films of the era, borderline titles and a study of how the censors handled an onslaught of on-screen shudders. From Hammer's Brides of Dracula and Plague of the Zombies, to cult classics like Witchfinder General and Scream and Scream Again, The Shrieking Sixties runs the gruesome gamut. Of particular note is the book's coverage of Lindsay Shonteff's 1969 shocker Night, After Night, After Night, revealing daring new information about this ahead-of-its-time proto-slasher, and the rarely seen and even more rarely discussed The Return of Dracula, a specialist vampire movie presented in British Sign Language. In the tradition of recent successful publications such as English Gothic, Fragments of Fear and Ten Years of Terror, The Shrieking Sixties seems set to become a vital, essential addition to any fright film fan's library

The FANEX film convention was held in Baltimore for 19 years. During that time many stars and filmmakers of Hollywood's Gold and Silver ages shared their memories with the devoted fans attending the show. Midnight Marquee is pleased to present their interviews, as well as the panel discussions, in which they participated. The talks are unedited and uncut. While we can't provide readers with the actual FANEX experience, this book will offer Hammer fans the fascinating insights and humorous stories as told by the people who actually helped make Hammer Films so special. It was a pleasure to spend some quality time with real ladies and gentlemen of the movies.

An argument could be made on which of the two is stranger and more exciting, mysterious, terrifying and eclectic-the reel adventures of movie star Ingrid Pitt or the real life adventures of daughter, wife, mother and new grandmother Ingrid Pitt. Ingrid Pitt: Darkness Before Dawn will help you find an answer to that argument as you follow the life story of the amazing Ingrid-from the terror-filled years in a Concentration Camp, hardships after the war, breaking into acting, becoming a wife and mother, world-wide adventures, making movies, writing and theatre. This memoir of a life filled with terror and tears and ultimately joy and laughter will paint a picture of Ingrid Pitt you will not soon forget.

The 3rd book in the critically acclaimed Forgotten Horrors series covers forgotten films from 1943 through 1946 and includes an extensive annotations, marginalia and addenda to prior volumes. Films such as Haunted Ranch, The Ape Man, Ghosts on the Loose, Women in Bondage, the Charlie Chan films, Fog Island, The Tiger Woman, etc. are covered as well as many other poverty row and low-budget films of the 1940s. This book is a must have for all fans of classic (and not-so-classic) genre cinema.

By laying down a dime or 15 cents at the box office, a gawky, socially awkward kid could live for a few hours in a dream world of jitterbugs and bobbysoxers, running right alongside Poverty Row stars bravely entering forbidding haunted houses and creepy cemeteries. And that is what most of the pictures in this volume are: little dreams, made all the more dreamlike by their obscurity. The pictures are not big-studio productions full of high-wattage star power, but quirky titles from little studios. Forgotten Horrors 4 remains focused on the tawdry (but no less magical) Hollywood backstreet known as Poverty Row. From their Poverty Row vantage, actors gazed out at the Golden City just beyond their grasp and, between shots on cheap sets in quickie productions for directors far beneath the station of DeMille, imagined life as Gregory Peck or Loretta Young. Seen today, these small-studio pictures carry a quirky, almost heartwarming nobility. They know what they are, and the people involved allowing for factors ranging from disillusionment to cynicism to John Barleycorn seem to be doing the best they can. They know it s not MGM or Paramount. But anyway, they are working. Without the bankable stars that all America knew, the people who made these films had to have Something Else going for them. And that Something Else was almost always an exploitable angle, something the theater owners could sell in lieu of marquee names. In the pictures examined between these covers, that Something Else was a horrific or bizarre element of one sort or another, ranging from simple murder to terrors far more fiendish. In the Westerns and the comedies, the horror element often came as a lagniappe, giving an extra thrill to the folks who probably would have shown up anyway. And rather than fading into obscurity, these little gems still manage to entertain us almost 60 years after their debuts.

Welcome to the Forgotten Horrors cinematic world of weird mysteries and patent oddities, if not outright chillers, from low-rent, independent, North American filmmaking companies. Hold on to your hats as we cover gems such as: The Lion Man; Thunderbolt; The Leavenworth Case; Prison Shadows; Kliou (The Tiger); Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island; African Holiday; Blake of Scotland Yard; Larceny on the Air; The Devil Diamond; Hit the Saddle; The Girl from Scotland Yard; It Happened Out West; Killers of the Sea; Angkor, or Forbidden Adventure; Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde; The 13th Man; Rod La Rocque's "Shadow"; Shadows of the Orient; Outlaws of the Orient; S O S Coast Guard; Sky Racket; Special Agent K-7; Safari on Wheels; Love Life of a Gorilla; Telephone Operator; Orphan of the Pecos; Wolves of the Sea; The Black Doll; Hollywood Stadium Mystery; Forbidden Adventure; Fury Below; The Adventures of Chico; Zamboanga; Life Returns; Durango Valley Raiders; It Happened in Chicago; The Night Hawk; The Karloff "Mr. Wong" Pictures; Shadows over Shanghai; Titans of the Deep; Mystery Plane; The Mystic Circle Murders; S.O.S.-Tidal Wave; Death Goes North; Daughter of the Tong; Adventures of the Masked Phantom; Torture Ship; Hitler-Beast of Berlin; The Devil's Daughter; The Invisible Killer; Son of Ingagi; Phantom Rancher; Drums of Fu Manchu; Sky Bandits; On the Spot; The Leopard Men of Africa; Haunted House; Billy the Kid Outlawed; The Ranger and the Lady; The Ape; Midnight Shadow; Phantom of Chinatown; The Devil Bat; The Blood of Jesus; The Lone Rider Rides On; You're Out of Luck; The Great Train Robbery; The Forgotten Village; Mr. District Attorney; City of Missing Girls; Adventures of Captain Marvel; Federal Fugitives; Bride of Buddha; Invisible Ghost; King of the Zombies; The Shark Woman; The Gang's All Here; Murder by Invitation; Criminals Within; Up Jumped the Devil; Saddle Mountain Roundup; Mercy Island; Jungle Man; Spooks Run Wild; The Devil Pays Off; I Killed That Man; Four Shall Die; Mr. District Attorney in the Carter Case; Private Snuffy Smith; Law of the Jungle; Lucky Ghost; Professor Creeps; Black Dragons; The Man with Two Lives; Spy Smasher; House of Errors; The Panther's Claw; Home in Wyomin'; The Corpse Vanishes; The Mad Monster; Jungle Siren; Tomorrow We Live; Phantom Killer; The Devil with Hitler; Criminal Investigator; Bowery at Midnight; Outlaws of Boulder Pass; Hitler-Dead or Alive; Valley of Hunted Men; The Living Ghost; Secrets of the Underground

He immortalized Henry Frankenstein in Hollywood's Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, but his too-brief life was often a horror saga as well. "One Man Crazy!" The Life and Death of Colin Clive is the first full biography of this brilliant, hypersensitive actor. Adventurously-researched, sympathetic yet unsparingly revealing, and featuring over 200 illustrations, this book illuminates Clive's genius - and the private demons that agonized the man who, as Monster-Making scientist Frankenstein, unforgettably cried, "It's alive!" Gregory William Mank is the author of such books as It's Alive! The Classic Cinema Saga of Frankenstein; Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff: The Expanded Story of a Haunting Collaboration; Hollywood's Maddest Doctors; and Laird Cregar: A Hollywood Tragedy.

Classic horror movie fans are familiar with the classic movie posters and images from the 1930s Golden Age of Horror, but this fascinating book of graphics includes articles, images and rare photos that will be appreciated and enjoyed by any movie fan.

Lionel Atwill: The Exquisite Villain contains a vast amount of new information which was discovered by author Neil Pettigrew on the controversial Golden Age of Hollywood star Lionel Atwill. Atwill starred in many classic films including Captain Blood, To B or Not to Be, Mystery of the Wax Museum, Murder in the Zoo, Mark of the Vampire and many, many more. The biography also contains many never before seen photographs and was written with the participation of Lionel Atwill's relatives, including a Foreword by Atwill's son, Lionel A. Atwill.

Man's Best Friend also happens to be one of Hollywood's Best Friends as Deborah Painter examines the contribution to the silver screen by lovable, talented and brave stars of the cinema: Hollywood's Top Dogs. Their bark was silent but their impact was great as you meet the canine stars of the early silent movies and then trot through time with the likes of Peter the Great, Rin-Tin-Tin, Ace, Flash, Lightnin', Lad, Lassie and Benji. These heroes are brave, pure and offer unequivocal love and devotion, and in today's depressing world, it's nice to find some real heroes of the silver screen.

Mantan Moreland would become Louisiana s richest gift to the funnyman traditions of Old Hollywood. He would happily wield his charm and charisma as second banana in a slew of films of the 1930s and 40s. Moreland found his place in the spotlight, if not quite the sun, during the waxed-and-waning years of the Great God A mighty Depression as These United States lurched back toward prosperity via warfare. Thus situated, Moreland stood his ground for more than a decade before he found himself maneuvered toward a lower station in an upheaval of Cultural Correction. Mantan Moreland was one of Old Hollywood s most energetic comedians all due respect to the enshrined houses of Marx, Fields, Keaton and Chaplin. And Moreland s story, related in the most direct terms short of his own account, shows him to have been the most resilient, defiant and resurgent of that lot, as well. That is, within the limits imposed by the spirit of the times, a forgetful mass audience, and the disloyal marketplace itself. Hopefully Mantan the Funnyman will help Mantan Moreland find his well-deserved place in the sun.

Finally, a funny book about Groucho Marx! You Bet Your Life was unique in two respects. Is comedy was based not on actors performing sketch material, but on the personalities and experiences of real people, drawing on their normal lives and occupatons. The program's distinction and quality, however, resulted primarily from its giving Groucho Marx an opportunity to exercise his unique skills without the restraints that broadcasting at that time otherwise imposed. Groucho's principal resource was his talent as an improviers of verbal comedy. Dwan will keep the reader giggling with his stories about You Bet Your Life.

Imogen Hassall's brief life ultimately paralleled the tumultuous 1960s-the freedoms, the joy of life, the reckless excesses and the searing uncertainty of life itself. This is not a traditional showbiz biography. It is not a celebration of a long and illustrious career, or the brief but brilliant life of some bright and fleeting comet that blazed unforgettably across the Hollywood firmament. It is the human tragedy of a warm and caring, loving individual, who was broken inside and was lost. "She would be delighted to know that we're still talking about her."

In the late 1800s, a scientist working for Thomas Alva Edison invented an easy-to-use motion picture camera. Soon, people all over the world were using similar cameras to shoot “actuality” films, or films of people engaged in everyday activities, as well as excerpts from live plays. Things changed in 1896, however, when a French stage magician named Georges Méliès struck upon the idea of using motion picture cameras to create fantastic and unbelievable images. A series of short films featuring a bevy of incredible monsters followed. Before long, filmmakers all over the world were doing much the same, but it wasn’t until the real-life horrors of World War I that movie producers saw the potential of cinema to truly provide escapist entertainment. D.W. Griffith in the United States made the first feature-length dramas, while Paul Wegener and Robert Weine in war-torn Germany applied the artistic movement known as Expressionism to film. Together, these and other filmmakers established the horror genre as we know it, influencing it for decades to come. TOME OF TERROR is a series of books detailing the history of the horror genre, from the mid-1890s to the present day. Never before has such a series been attempted … or been so comprehensive. This entry, HORROR FILMS OF THE SILENT ERA, covers more than 1,000 films, beginning with the earliest known horror film, Trilby Hypnotic Scene from 1895, and concluding with The Woman in White from 1929. In addition to well-known horror classics from the United States and Great Britain, authors Christopher Workman and Troy Howarth also analyze films from Germany, France, Japan and Mexico, among other nations. The series is lavishly illustrated with original stills, lobby cards, newspaper articles, and poster art.

For many horror film fans, the name Lucio Fulci conjures images of gore and depravity. Derided by critics as a hack and an imitator and lionized by others as the "Godfather of Gore," Fulci remains a polarizing and controversial figure. However, many fans are unaware of the scope and breadth of his filmography. From his early days writing material for popular comics like Totò and Franco and Ciccio to directing films in such genres as the musical and the Spaghetti Western, Lucio Fulci was a filmmaker of great diversity. When he attained international notoriety with the release of his gory epic ZOMBIE, Fulci already had years of experience in the film industry; that film's success established him as one of Italy's premier masters of the macabre and he would continue to shock and delight fans until shrinking budgets and failing health began to compromise some of his later work. When he died in 1996, he was on the cusp of a major comeback, but in the years following his death the cult surrounding his legacy has continued to grow. Unfortunately, most studies of Fulci and his work have elected to focus only on a small part of his career. SPLINTERED VISIONS changes all of that by providing an in-depth exploration of Fulci's filmography, beginning with his work as a screenwriter and extending through all of his films as a director. The popular horror films and thrillers are given ample coverage, but the lesser-known works are finally put into their proper context. Author Howarth provides a detailed portrait of a complex man using newly conducted interviews with actors such as Richard Johnson and Franco Nero, which allows the reader a sense of who the director was and how he worked. The end result is the most comprehensive overview of Fulci, the man and Fulci, the filmmaker that has been published in English-making SPLINTERED VISIONS a cause for celebration among serious Fulci fans. The book is also lavishly illustrated with a number of rare stills, posters and advertising materials.

With the re-emergence of Hammer and their new releases including Let Me In (2010), which received critical praise, and their forthcoming 2012 release of The Woman in Black starring Daniel Radcliffe already garnering interest, we wanted to take a look back at our old faves and wallow in fond memories -even as we anxiously await their new films. So, for all those fans, who were vampire, Frankenstein and werewolf fans before it was cool, we offer a series of chapters on our favorite Hammer films. This book is not a complete listing of Hammer films-that's been done. Nor is it a chronological listing of their cinematic output. Rather it comprises articles from Midnight Marquee as well as several new entries that we think Hammer fans will enjoy. Chapters include: VAMPIRES Hammer Films and the Resurrection of Dracula Peter Cushing, Terence Fisher and Hammer's Vampire Christopher Lee, Count Dracula and Hammer Films Peter Cushing and Van Helsing The Dracula Films with No Dracula! Hammer's Hunt For A New Vein of Vampire Film: Three Semi-Classics from the 1970s Why the 1970s Bite Let Me In: The Return of Hammer and the Spirit of Val Lewton FRANKENSTEIN Evolving Worlds of Hammer's Baron Frankenstein SCI-FI X-The Unknown Val Guest and Nigel Kneale: Hammer's Dynamic Duo FANTASY Surviving the Lost Worlds of Hammer The Hammer Factory: Hammer Films, Corman Style The Abominable Snowman The Curse of the Werewolf The Devil Rides Out MUMMIES Christopher Lee Is The Mummy; Peter Cushing Is Kharismatic Hammer Films Unearth The Mummy PSYCHOS The Phantom of the Opera Paranormic and Nightmare To the Devil… a Daughter WAR Hammer Declares War Night Creatures

Includes a study of Alien and  A History of the Horror Film Portmanteau,Re: Aleien: Some of us find it hard to believe that 2011 marks the 32nd anniversary of Ridley Scott’s landmark science-fiction picture, Alien, which 20th Century Fox released on May 25, 1979 (exactly two years after the studio premièred George Lucas’s phenomenal Star Wars, although it’s hard to imagine two more different s.f. movies). This article was originally presented as a paper at the Fourth International Conference on the Fantastic (Boca Raton, Florida, March 26, 1981).. Since that time, there have been some major contributions to Alien studies, including David Thomson’s book-length study, The Alien Quartet (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 1999)—not to mention the commentary that can be found on the various DVD issues of the Alien films. But none has ever looked at the movie the way that “In Space, No One Can Hear Your Primal Scream” does. Thus, for the first-time publication of the complete text of this article, I have, for the most part, used as references those articles and interviews that came out shortly after the movie played theatrically, as they have the advantage of “freshness”—of being critics’ and filmmakers’ initial thoughts before the sequels and many imitations got in the way

The history of ghost cinema, as well as the haunting literature upon which the films are often based, is a noble tradition. Ghost films go back as far as the era of the Silents. This Midnight Marquee Press volume presents respected film writers' personal analyses of their favorite ghost films. Not necessarily the best of the genre, but always films of merit. The Mt. Everest of ghost films-the acclaimed classics-The Uninvited, The Innocents, The Haunting-are of course included. But also many neglected cinema specters are covered: Carnival of Souls, Lady in White, Portrait of Jennie, High Plains Drifter, etc. Most of these films are known by the average film buff, but several titles included may not be recognized (but are equally of merit and should be sought out). Often Ghost films have been overlooked by film historians and critics alike. This revised collection of Cinematic Hauntings hopes to remedy the situation.

My previous book on the subject of horror, science fiction, and fantasy films, "You're Not Old Enough Son," chronicled my journeys through the British fantasy cinema scene during the 1950s and 1960s. These were golden years as I viewed them. Years when fantasy fare spanning the decades 1930 to 1960 (but mostly the 1950s) was served up continuously week after week, month after month, and year after year I realized that an audience in the new decade of the 1970s couldn't (and wouldn't) possibly expect to put up good money to sit through a double bill of "Attack of the Crab Monsters" and "The Beast with a Million Eyes," which only a few years earlier would have drawn a full house on a rainy Sunday afternoon at Leatherhead's Crescent cinema. Maybe, just maybe, I should join them and stop burying my head in the past, however glorious that past may have been. So I endeavored to put a brave face on things and think more positively-for all one knew, what was around the corner might not be quite as bad as I imagined it to be. These, then, are my continued travels through the fantasy cinema in England from 1971 to 2005. The views on all films mentioned, as in my last book, are entirely my own!