Michael Raleigh's Blog: Raleigh's Corner - Posts Tagged "b-movies-comedy-weaver-monsters"
Tom Weaver: Homage to the Spooky Movies of My Youth
In my childhood I was addicted to horror films. I loved them all: pictures in which astronauts brought back a killer virus or a giant slug, pictures in which a praying mantis or a giant tarantula or a dinosaur or mutant ants or killer robots or a scorpion gone very wrong menace Tokyo or Rome or New York or -- in the case of the giant mantis -- Newark, New Jersey.
And so it is that in adulthood, some would say dotage, I have become addicted to the works of one Tom Weaver of Sleepy Hollow, New York.
Weaver is the Studs Terkel of movie interviews and his specialty is the wonderful B-movies of the 1940s and 1950s. In titles such as THEY FOUGHT IN THE CREATURE FEATURES and I TALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, Weaver interviews the directors, producers, screenwriters, actors and actresses who brought these half-baked but addictive movies to life. Some of his interviewees are Hollywood legends -- Boris Karloff and Vincent Price, for instance -- and others are now largely forgotten folks who graced one or two black-and-whites in the 1950s and went on to sell real estate in California or open a bar in Peoria. Weaver's questions are well-thought-out, but mostly he lets these people talk. Some have probably never been asked about their film careers.
It happens that for the last several years I've been writing a comic novel about a failed actor in Chicago who comes into a little cash and decides to make a horror flick. I read my first Tom Weaver book right at the beginning of this process and got hooked. I've since read eight more of his books, all the while telling wife, children and friends that this is all research, it is all part of the process. In truth, I'm just having fun reading of the improbable, loopy machinations of these people, many of them nearly forgotten, who brought hundreds of low-budget (in some cases, REALLY low-budget) movies to the screen. There are anecdotes galore in these interviews, inside secrets (in TARGET EARTH, a terrifying film in which a robot army from another planet has decimated the population of a large city, there was only one robot, filmed over and over again, sometimes in silhouette, to create the impression that these tin guys were everywhere.) and comic stories galore. I was reassured to read that Vincent Price was cultured, urbane, witty, and a nice man, and that everyone, I mean EVERYONE, loved Boris Karloff. His favorite role? Doing the narration for THE GRINCH THAT STOLE CHRISTMAS.
My book, called THE EDERLE BROTHERS PRESENT is one of those projects that an author gets into to amuse himself. I have no idea when I'll finish it or if I'll ever find a publisher for it. But if nothing else, it has given me an excuse over these past few years of reading the oddball and quite wonderful works of Tom Weaver. I recommend these books to anyone with any interest whatsoever in the old B horror movies of that much simpler time.
And so it is that in adulthood, some would say dotage, I have become addicted to the works of one Tom Weaver of Sleepy Hollow, New York.
Weaver is the Studs Terkel of movie interviews and his specialty is the wonderful B-movies of the 1940s and 1950s. In titles such as THEY FOUGHT IN THE CREATURE FEATURES and I TALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, Weaver interviews the directors, producers, screenwriters, actors and actresses who brought these half-baked but addictive movies to life. Some of his interviewees are Hollywood legends -- Boris Karloff and Vincent Price, for instance -- and others are now largely forgotten folks who graced one or two black-and-whites in the 1950s and went on to sell real estate in California or open a bar in Peoria. Weaver's questions are well-thought-out, but mostly he lets these people talk. Some have probably never been asked about their film careers.
It happens that for the last several years I've been writing a comic novel about a failed actor in Chicago who comes into a little cash and decides to make a horror flick. I read my first Tom Weaver book right at the beginning of this process and got hooked. I've since read eight more of his books, all the while telling wife, children and friends that this is all research, it is all part of the process. In truth, I'm just having fun reading of the improbable, loopy machinations of these people, many of them nearly forgotten, who brought hundreds of low-budget (in some cases, REALLY low-budget) movies to the screen. There are anecdotes galore in these interviews, inside secrets (in TARGET EARTH, a terrifying film in which a robot army from another planet has decimated the population of a large city, there was only one robot, filmed over and over again, sometimes in silhouette, to create the impression that these tin guys were everywhere.) and comic stories galore. I was reassured to read that Vincent Price was cultured, urbane, witty, and a nice man, and that everyone, I mean EVERYONE, loved Boris Karloff. His favorite role? Doing the narration for THE GRINCH THAT STOLE CHRISTMAS.
My book, called THE EDERLE BROTHERS PRESENT is one of those projects that an author gets into to amuse himself. I have no idea when I'll finish it or if I'll ever find a publisher for it. But if nothing else, it has given me an excuse over these past few years of reading the oddball and quite wonderful works of Tom Weaver. I recommend these books to anyone with any interest whatsoever in the old B horror movies of that much simpler time.
Raleigh's Corner
Being the rambling thoughts, notes, and opinions of Michael Raleigh on writing, on books (mostly other people's), and the publishing world.
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