20846 Followers
24 Following
wesleyabritton

Wesley Britton's blog

For horror fans

— feeling bloody

 

 

BearManor Media Announces a new book for horror film fans:

Bela Lugosi & The Monogram 9

By Gary D. Rhodes and Robert Guffey

 

Between 1941 and 1944, Bela Lugosi starred in a series of low-budget films released by Monogram Pictures. To many viewers at the time and during the decades that followed, the “Monogram Nine” were overacted and underproduced, illogical and incoherent. But their increasing age has recast such condemnations into appropriate praise: in the 21st century, they seem so different not only from modern cinema, but also from Classical Hollywood, enough so as to make the aforementioned deficits into advantages. The entries in the Monogram Nine are bizarre and strange, populated by crazy, larger-than-life characters who exist in wacky, alternative worlds. In nine films, the improbable chases the impossible. This book, in turn, chases them.

 

“Gary Rhodes has become my favorite nonfiction author, while the subject of some of his writings, Bela Lugosi, has long been one of my favorite actors. Now Gary has teamed up with co-author Robert Guffey to present, for the first time, a collection of in-depth and insightful essays evaluating those lesser ‘classics’ that comprise the so-called ‘Monogram Nine.’ If you are a Lugosi fan and also a fan of old ‘B’ horror films, you will love this book.” – Donald F. Glut, filmmaker, Marvel Comics writer, and author of The Empire Strikes Back novelization

 

“An extraordinary volume. Rhodes and Guffey refract these films through the lens of surrealism, detailed genre study, auteurist-informed close readings, star studies, and vigorous historicism to name a few of the kaleidoscope of methods employed. This book provides a breakthrough model for serious work on films that have to date received very little scholarly attention.” – Michael Lee, Ph.D. (University of Oklahoma), editor at the journal Horror Studies

 

Learn more at:

http://www.bearmanormedia.com/bela-lugosi-and-monogram-9-softcover-edition-by-gary-d-rhodes-and-robert-guffey

 

Other horror titles you might enjoy:

 

Bela Lugosi in Person

by Gary D. Rhodes and Bill Kaffenberger

The latest in a series of books by researchers extraordinaire Gary D. Rhodes and Bill Kaffenberger, Bela Lugosi in Person brims with new facts,figures, and never-seen photos documenting the actor’s scores of live public performances from 1931 to 1945, the era of his greatest fame. Three-act plays, vaudeville sketches, variety shows, and personal appearances are all chronicled at length, bringing new perspective to Lugosi’s life and career.

 

Robert Florey's Frankenstein starring Bela Lugosi

by Philip J. Riley

With the success of Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, Universal Pictures was quick to capitalize on creating a new Lon Chaney in Bela Lugosi. Chaney had been the original choice to portray a duel role as both Dracula and Professor van Helsing, Dracula's adversary. Before production could begin, Chaney died, suddenly leaving Carl Laemmle Jr. without a star.

 

No Traveler Returns: The Lost Years of Bela Lugosi

by Gary D. Rhodes and Bill Kaffenberger

In No Traveler Returns, Bela Lugosi scholar extraordinaire Gary D. Rhodes and Bill Kaffenberger provide a fascinating time travel journey back to the late 1940s/early 1950s, when Lugosi – largely out of favor in Hollywood – embarked on a Gypsy-like existence of vaudeville, summer stock, and magic shows.

 

Scripts from the Crypt: Ed Wood and the Lost Lugosi Screenplays

by Gary D. Rhodes, Tom Weaver, Robert Cremer, and Lee R. Harris

With trowel and brush in hand, noted film archaeologist Gary D. Rhodes excavates the cinematic sepulcher of Ed Wood's unproduced scripts for Bela Lugosi, The Vampire's Tomb and The Ghoul Goes West. Joining Rhodes on the expedition are pith-helmeted horror movie expert Tom Weaver, plus Lugosi's original biographer Robert Cremer.

The Classic Horrors Club Podcast:

EP 30: The Dr. Phibes Companion

 

Check out this interview with Justin Humphries, author of The Dr. Phibes Companion on The Classic Horrors Club Podcast.

 

Click here for Podcast:

https://soundcloud.com/user-102192570/ep-30-the-dr-phibes-companion