Atomic Age Cinema: The Offbeat! The Classic! The Obscure!

by Barry Atkinson

British author Barry Atkinson (You’re Not Old Enough Son; Indie Horrors!) plunges us into a cinematic world dominated by the atomic bomb and presents us with a buffet of delights, from the rare to the unusual. Although the classics get a deserved mention, the author concentrates mainly on the neglected lesser titles, many not seen for decades, giving them a much-needed public airing. Readers will indulge in chapters devoted to:

-Key actors, companies, directors and composers!
-Comparisons between Japanese monster movies and their Americanized counterparts!
-Scarce, unseen American, British and foreign horror, sci-fi, fantasy features!
-Stone Age women of the “B” variety!
-A couple of out-and-out schlock classics!
-The Abominable Snowman in the 1950s!
-A reappraisal of much-maligned, but much-loved, guilty pleasures!
-Toho’s forgotten monsters!
-Dr. Jekyll’s evil offspring!
-British science fiction and noir thrillers of the ’50s!
-Jungle Jim!
-Chaney, Karloff and Lugosi in the 1950s!
-Best entrant in Universal’s Creature trilogy!
-Does colorization enhance a black-and-white favorite?
-How do monster special effects rate before CGI?
-Do Regal International’s widescreen program fillers really add up to that much?
-Which scenes constitute the decade’s most memorable fantasy moments?
-Does dialogue matter?
-What impact did New Age science have on the vampire and werewolf myths of old?

All this and much, much more in a fresh evaluation of what most fans and critics now recognize as the pivotal decade for horror, sci-fi and fantasy.

317 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2014