Forgotten Horrors 4: Dreams That Money Can Buy

Nonfiction, Entertainment, Performing Arts, Film
Cover of the book Forgotten Horrors 4: Dreams That Money Can Buy by Michael H. Price, John Wooley, BearManor Media
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Michael H. Price, John Wooley ISBN: 9781386375715
Publisher: BearManor Media Publication: May 27, 2018
Imprint: Language: English
Author: Michael H. Price, John Wooley
ISBN: 9781386375715
Publisher: BearManor Media
Publication: May 27, 2018
Imprint:
Language: English

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.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

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.

More books from BearManor Media

Cover of the book Mr. Chimp & Other Plays by Michael H. Price, John Wooley
Cover of the book Gods of Grindhouse: Interviews with Exploitation Filmmakers by Michael H. Price, John Wooley
Cover of the book The Joke’s OnMe…! by Michael H. Price, John Wooley
Cover of the book Another Nice Mess: The Laurel & Hardy Story by Michael H. Price, John Wooley
Cover of the book Turning Blue by Michael H. Price, John Wooley
Cover of the book Little House in the Hollywood Hills: A Bad Girl's Guide to Becoming Miss Beadle, Mary X, and Me by Michael H. Price, John Wooley
Cover of the book About Face: The Life and Times of Dottie Ponedel, Make-up Artist to the Stars by Michael H. Price, John Wooley
Cover of the book Fritz Von Erich: Triumph and Tragedy by Michael H. Price, John Wooley
Cover of the book Frank Lloyd: Master of Screen Melodrama by Michael H. Price, John Wooley
Cover of the book Fantastique: Interviews with Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy Filmmakers (Volume I) by Michael H. Price, John Wooley
Cover of the book Bob Hope on TV: Thanks for the Video Memories by Michael H. Price, John Wooley
Cover of the book The Old-Time Television Trivia Book II by Michael H. Price, John Wooley
Cover of the book The Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey Trivia Quiz: An Unauthorized Doctor Who Companion by Michael H. Price, John Wooley
Cover of the book MGM British Studios: Hollywood in Borehamwood by Michael H. Price, John Wooley
Cover of the book In the Presence of Greatness: My Sixty-Year Journey as an Actress by Michael H. Price, John Wooley
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy