Tired of movies? Read a book
September 15th, 2008 at 04:54pm Will Pfeifer
This post about cult movies led to some reader comments about CULT MOVIES, the book by Danny Peary, and a few of Peary’s follow-up volumes. (All come highly recommended by this book and movie lover.) So, continuing in that spirit, here are a few more of my favorite movie books …
DARK CITY: THE LOST WORLD OF FILM NOIR by Eddie Muller — Muller’s a bonifide noir expert, and this book gives a compelling, fact-filled overview of the genre by dividing the films into categories that mirror the neighborhoods of a dark, drama-drenched city. There’s a ton of great images (including some posters in full color), but the real drawing card here is Muller’s punchy, well-informed prose. (Also great — Muller’s history of exploitation films, GRINDHOUSE.)
HOLLYWOOD HELLFIRE CLUB by William Gregory Mank, Charles Heard and Bill Nelson — A hilarious page-turner all about the wild and crazy times of John Barrymore, W.C. Fields, Errol Flynn, John Decker, William Fowler, John Carradine, Ben Hecht, Sadakichi Hartmann and others who formed the (extremely) loose knit collection of oddballs in the early years of the 20th century. As their lives get more out of the control, the book gets more entertaining. You think modern stars behave badly? You have no idea. (But at least these guys did it with a little panache.)
MENTAL HYGIENE by Ken Smith — Smith takes a genre everyone else ignores — those education films generations of students had to endure — and writes a fascinating film history. Tracing the history of the producers, from All-American Coronet to crazed Sid Davis, Smith illustrates how young minds were molded via social engineering cinema. He also reviews hundreds of these short films, pointing out their faults but never descending into a “so bad they’re good” outlook.
THE MONSTER SHOW by David Skal — Probably the best history of horror movies I’ve ever read, this compact tome traces the genre from its silent roots up through the modern day, always taking time to discuss the real-world event behind the imaginary horrors. Skal’s discussion of how the mangled bodies of World War I paralleled the popularity of Lon Chaney (who knew how to mangle his own body for maximum effect) is just one example of his perceptive writing.
More to come –Â and please, suggest some of your own in the comments!
Entry Filed under: books
3 Comments Add your own
1. John N | September 16th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
That MONSTER SHOW book sounds great! I’m putting it on my Amazon.com wish list now.
By the way, you’ve mentioned David Bordwell and his wife Kristin Thompson in past columns. I really enjoyed and got a lot out of his book “The Way Hollywood Tells It: Story and Style in Modern Movies.” Bordwell is a retired film teacher, but he still lends some of his incredible knowledge about what goes into moviemaking and how they’re composed and edited in this book.
For great essays on great movies, you can’t do wrong with Roger Ebert’s GREAT MOVIES series, although you can also read them online for free on his website.
2. Dr. K | September 17th, 2008 at 6:12 am
All great choices here, especially DARK CITY and THE MONSTER SHOW.
Eddie Muller’s follow up to DARK CITY, called DARK CITY DAMES: THE WICKED WOMEN OF FILM NOIR is also worth checking out for similar reasons: great writing and lots of images.
I’d also highly recommend Matthew Sweet’s SHEPPERTON BABYLON: THE LOST WORLDS OF BRITISH CINEMA. Sweet takes a contrarian approach to British film history, harshly criticizing some of the classic British actors and films while championing unknowns. The book covers dozens of films that I’ve never heard of but now desperately want to track down. He also includes some juicy tidbits of scandals and behind-the-scenes shenanigans in British cinema, and Sweet managed to track down many of the retired and forgotten stars and filmmakers of the day.
3. Will Pfeifer | September 17th, 2008 at 8:07 am
John — THE MONSTER SHOW is very, very good. Smart, entertaining and well written. I think you’ll like it. And I happen to have a copy of THE WAY HOLLYWOOD TELLS IT sitting on my desk right as we speak.
Dr. K — I’ve got DARK CITY DAMES, but I’ve never heard of SHEPPERTON BABYLON. Amazon, here I come!
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