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Abbott & Costello; Side 1: "Lucille Ball's Nylon Stockings"; Side 2: "Bela Lugosi's Haunted House". UPC = 051375406545 ... Read more

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Steve Vertlieb met science fiction icon Forry Ackerman when he was 19, and since that time he has written reviews and articles for dozens of publications, on such diverse topics as Star Trek, King Kong, the music of Bernard Herrmann, the films of Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Orson Welles, and interviewed several. He also became lifelong friends with such individuals as composer Miklos Rozsa and of course Forry Ackerman.

In this anthology, we collect together several of Steve's articles published in The Thunder Child webzine, plus a few that appeared in other locations and are reprinted here with their kind permission.

Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introducing Steve Vertlieb

Reminiscences
1.The Most “Famous Monster” of Them All: A Personal Remembrance of Forrest J. Ackerman
2.A Chip off the Old Bloch
3.How I Met the Blob
4.The “Milk” of Human Kindness

Tributes
1.The Gentle Monster – The Life of Boris Karloff
2.Vampire in the Shadows – The Life of Bela Lugosi
3.Xanadu: A Castle in the Clouds – The Life of Orson Welles
4.Time After Time – The Life of Miklos Rozsa
6.Between This World and the Next – The Twilight Zone

Documentaries
1. Under The Stars of Egypt: The Making of Kreating Karloff

Reviews
1. Movie:The Dark Knight
2. Movie: Peter Jackson’s King Kong
3. DVD Release: Peter Jackson’s King Kong Revisited
4. SoundtrackCDs: Tribute Film Classics: Mysterious Island, Fahrenheit 451 and “Walking Distance”, Varese Sarabande’s North By Northwest
5. Documentary: Music for the Movies: Bernard Herrmann
6. SoundtrackCDs: Monstrous Music: The Blob and The Intruder
7. SoundtrackCD: Howard Shore’s Return of the King
8. Rock Musical CD: Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds

Interviews
1.The Thunder Child Interviews Steve Vertlieb
2.The Return of Steve Vertlieb: The Thunder Child Interviews Steve Vertlieb Again
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Late 1929. The Stock market crash. At MGM Studios Irving Thalberg was involved in a power struggle. Lon Chaney's contract was coming up for renewal. Tod Browning, MGM's famed director of the macbre genre for the studio, had left and signed a contract back at his home studio, Universal. Carl Laemmle Jr was made production head of Universal for his father and he wanted to do a film version of Dracula. Carl Sr. agreed, as long as they had Lon Chaney as the star.

Early in August of 1930, Carl Junior, still attempting to sign Chaney for the role, ordered a treatment to be authored by Louis Bromfield. By Mid August he was teamed with screenwriter Dudley Murphy and they began work on the script. Then in the middle of the negotiations, Lon Chaney unexpected by everyone in the film industry, died on August 26th.

This volume of the Atlernate History of Classic Monster Films we present the full first Bromfield treatment, the incomplete first draft screenplay by Bromfield and Murphy.

In addition, when Dracula was finally produced, more in the fashion of the popular 1927 play than the Bram Stoker novel, as was intended by Laemmle for Chaney - A silent version of the Lugosi Dracula was prepared for theaters who had not yet converted to sound. We have also included a complete Title list from this version.

Also included in this volume is a translated version of F.W. Murnau's shooting script for the first screen version of Dracula - filmed in Germany in 1922 and called NOSFERATU, a symphony of horror. Murnau's hand annotations are included in bold print throughout the script. ... Read more

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Sections include: Transylvania, The Castle, The Prisoner, Possession, Release.HORROR, THE STAGES OF NIGHTMARES WITH QUOTES FROM BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA IN CONTEXT FOR EACH SECTION. INTERESTING, RARE PIECE LOADED WITH HORRIFIC REPROS.OVERSIZED , SOFT COVER ... Read more

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9" x 12 " From the RKO-Radio Picture (In a Mystery With Music) "You'll Find Out" starring Kay Kyser. Featured on the cover: Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Ginny Simms and Kay Kyser. ... Read more

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Víctima del sueño americano y claro ejemplo de todos aquellos héroes anónimos que intentaron alcanzar sus metas y fracasaron estrepitosamente en el intento, Edward D. Wood, Jr. fue sin lugar a dudas uno de los personajes más carismáticos de la historia del cine del Hollywood de los cincuenta. Admirado por pocos y burlado por el resto, fue rescatado del olvido al ser galardonado injustamente por los Golden Turkey Awards como "el peor director de todos los tiempos", que le convirtieron de la noche al día en un icono de culto de la cultura popular.
Fetichista del angora y aficionado al travestismo, el valiente Wood luchó en la II Guerra Mundial vistiendo ropa interior femenina bajo su uniforme. De vuelta a la vida civil y sin ningún tipo de formación, Wood decide introducirse en el mundo del show-business a cualquier precio, llegando a rodar una serie de films en los que contaría con sus amigos y vecinos: la presentadora de televisión Vampira, el luchador de wrestling Tor Johnson, el futurólogo Criswell o su novia Dolores Fuller entre otros. Mención aparte merece uno de los más importantes pilares de su obra, la extinguida estrella de la Universal Pictures Bela Lugosi, con quien mantuvo una especial relación de amistad y respeto hasta el fin de sus días.
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"Just when you thought you knew everything about our beloved classic monsters - Philip Riley pulls another bat out of the hat with this new remarkable book series."
Stan Winston

"Philip J Riley continues to discover lost film lore - last was the amazing reconstruction of Lon Chaney's The Phantom of the Opera and now a treasure trove of scripts that no one knew existed."
Ray Bradbury

WHAT IF... Boris Karloff portrayed the Wolfman and The Invisible Man and Cagliostro, King of the Dead? What if Lon Chaney portrayed Count Dracula, or Lon Chaney Jr. appeared in what was to be the first Technicolor Classic Monster film.

What if Bela Lugosi starred in Frankenstein as the Doctor or the Monster or Wolfman vs. Dracula or in the script included in this first volume of the Alternate History of FilMonsters James Whale's DRACULA'S DAUGHTER?

Now through the discovery of these legendary filmscripts you will have your answers!

Contains the excised chapter from Dracula, entitled Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker

Plus the memories of Carl Laemmle Junior and R.C. Sherriff ... Read more

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Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, featuring the vampire Count Dracula.

The tale begins with Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, journeying by train and carriage from England to Count Dracula's crumbling, remote castle (situated in the Carpathian Mountains on the border of Transylvania and Moldavia). The purpose of his mission is to provide legal support to Dracula for a real estate transaction overseen by Harker's employer, Peter Hawkins, of Exeter in England. At first seduced by Dracula's gracious manner, Harker soon discovers that he has become a prisoner in the castle. He also begins to see disquieting facets of Dracula's nocturnal life. One night while searching for a way out of the castle, and against Dracula's strict admonition not to venture outside his room at night, Harker falls under the spell of three wanton female vampires, the Brides of Dracula
Amazon.com Review
Dracula is one of the few horror books to be honored byinclusion in the Norton Critical Edition series. (The others areFrankenstein, The Turn of the Screw, Heart ofDarkness, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and TheMetamorphosis.) This 100th-anniversary edition includes not onlythe complete authoritative text of the novel with illuminatingfootnotes, but also four contextual essays, five reviews from the timeof publication, five articles on dramatic and film variations, andseven selections from literary and academic criticism. Nina Auerbachof the University of Pennsylvania (author of Our Vampires,Ourselves) and horror scholar David J. Skal (author of Hollywood Gothic,The MonsterShow, and Screams of Reason) are the editors of thevolume. Especially fascinating are excerpts from materials that BramStoker consulted in his research for the book, and his working papersover the several years he was composing it. The selection of criticismincludes essays on how Dracula deals with female sexuality,gender inversion, homoerotic elements, and Victorian fears of"reverse colonization" by politically turbulentTransylvania. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (450)

awesome
This was one of the best books that I had to read for anthro. Keeps you interested about what's going to happen next. Very interesting and a good book

WOW!Fantastic!
Just reading Count Dracula's greeting, "Welcome to my house.Come freely.Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring!" gave me chills as well as fantastically visual descriptions of the Count and the atmosphere.I was also glad that I had not had much exposure to the diluted, popularized versions of Vampire movies and contemporary Vampire trends, therefore was unaffected.This is a fantastically entertaining book, and not only about the Vampire but actually more about the characters and the culture, and the journal style of narratives by different characters works very well to really capture the experiences of horror, valor,faith, and intelligence of the characters. I actually think that Mina is the most interesting one that has multiple and sophisticated elements---somewhat of a martyr, ideal Victorian woman, and at the same time with a sharp analytical and investigave mind-- which is rather surprising considering the Victorian culture.The writing is so beautiful and clever that extreme violence, gore and sexuality that could have easily been over the top, are not disruptive of the story, or of the underlying concepts of eternal life through Christ's blood and the eternal youth and life through destruction.What a great treat!

"For the dead travel fast"
Surprisingly "Denn die Toten reiten schnell" or "For the dead travel fast" is more than an opening line to this tale of love in the dangerous moon light. After watching several Drac movies and a few Nosferatu's, I pretty much though I had a handle on the genera.Little did I know what a wonderful world of mystery and suspense that Bram Stoker opened up for me.

The story is told mostly third party though the papers, diaries, and phonograph recordings (on wax cylinders) of those people involve in a tale so bizarre that it almost defies belief.The general story line is that of a Count that plans to move to a more urban setting (from Borgo Pass to London) where there is a richer diet. There he finds succulent women; something he can sing his teeth in. Unfortunately for him a gang of ruffians (including a real-estate agent, asylum director, Texas cowboy and an Old Dutch abnormal psychologist) is out to detour his nocturnal munching.They think they have Drac on the run but with a wing and a prayer he is always one step ahead.

Of more value to the reader is the rich prose chosen by Stoker as he describes the morals and technology of the time. We have to come to grips with or decide if we can perform the rituals that are required to eliminate vampires verses the impropriety of opening graves and staking loved ones. The powers in the book differ from the movie versions in that they are more of persuasion and capabilities to manipulate the local weather. At one point the Dutch Dr. Van Helsing, is so overwhelmed by a beautiful vampire laying in the grave that he almost for gets why he is there and may become vamp chow.

All in all the story is more in the cunning chase. And the question as to will they succeed or will Dracula triumph.Remember "For the dead travel fast."

Dracula

Past its prime and victorian to boot!
I don't especially care for scary movies or books, so I've avoided this book over the years. However, with the preponderance of vampire lit in our culture I thought I'd finally crack the binding of this book. I didn't find it particularly spine-chilling or evocative-- perhaps I'm deadened to such paltry imagery summoned here compared with our modern mediums. Still, the plot was decent and as the progenitor of so much culture within the hoi polloi it is consistent with the recommendation of a must read.

Reads Better Than Most Modern Horror
Please read this instead of these wonky modern vampire books. Although it was written in the 19th century it flows in a modern way and the first 50 pages are the best opening of any book in horror history.
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Frankenstein and Dracula, two of literature's most frightening creations, are together in this Buki Editions collection. Experience the terror that only Shelley and Stoker can bring you! With function table of contents for ease of navigation. ... Read more

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1992 - Western Publishing Co - Paperback - 1st Edition - Official Universal Studios Monsters - Dracula Book - By Mike Teitelbaum: Adapted from the film - Illustrated by Art Ruiz - Includes Full-Color Pull-Out Poster Inside - Bela Lugosi - Out of Production - New - Collectible - A Great Gift Idea ... Read more