It Came from Horrorwood: Interviews with Moviemakers in the SF and Horror Tradition

Front Cover
McFarland, 2010 M06 28 - 396 pages

Tom Weaver's classic fifth volume of interviews is now back in print. Originally published as It Came from Weaver Five in 1996, this collection goes behind the scenes with 20 of the most talkative people of Hollywood's horror, science fiction and serial films of the 1930s through 1960s.

Delores Fuller loaned Ed Wood her angora sweater, but didn't fully realize he was a transvestite until Glen or Glenda was released. Tom Hennesy played the title role in Clint Eastwood's first movie--Revenge of the Creature. The interviewees include Fuller, Hennesy, Junior Coghlan, Charlotte Austin, Les Baxter, John Clifford, Mara Corday, Kathleen Crowley, Michael Fox, Anne Gwynne, Linda Harrison, Michael Pate, Gil Perkins, Walter Reed, Joseph F. Robertson, Aubrey Schenck, Sam Sherman, Gloria Stuart, Gregory Walcott and Robert Wise. Also included is "A Salute to Ed Wood," with illustrations by Drew Friedman.

From inside the book

Contents

Introduction
1
Charlotte Austin
7
Les Baxter
25
John Clifford
39
Frank Coghlan Jr
49
Mara Corday
65
Kathleen Crowley
87
Michael Fox
101
Michael Pate
187
Gil Perkins
209
Walter Reed
235
Joseph F Robertson
255
Aubrey Schenck
269
Sam Sherman
287
Gloria Stuart
313
Gregory Walcott
327

Dolores Fuller
123
Anne Gwynne
147
Linda Harrison
161
Tom Hennesy
175
Robert Wise
341
A Salute to Edward D Wood Jr
353
Index
369
Copyright

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Page 142 - Glen or Glenda, Bride of the Monster, and Plan 9 from Outer Space...
Page 131 - How did you get started on this, Bela?" He said, "I was going on stage in Europe, and I was in such agonizing pain, I couldn't go on. And so they called the doctor and the doctor gave me morphine." I'd never seen anyone do anything like that before; very quickly, he managed to tie up his arm and give himself an injection. And then the rest of the evening, he was all smiles and congenial and everything. But he was in terrible pain before he gave the injection to himself.
Page 148 - What an actor; what a man\ I had a key scene with Boris, the one where I'm urging him to take Stanley Ridges back home from New York. Well, we shot the entire scene with the camera on Boris. Arthur Lubin was the director, and for some reason I've always felt that he didn't like me. He said, "Wrap!
Page 343 - Number one, it was (for once) an alien from outer space who was not an evil alien. Also, it was a science fiction film set on Earth here, and I thought that was marvelous. I liked the setting, the fact that it was in Washington, the heart of our country; I thought that made it very real, very believable, very mundane. I tried to heighten that with my Patricia Neal is propped up into Gort's arms in this Day the Earth Stood Still publicity photo.
Page 1 - A specialist is one who knows everything about something and nothing about anything else.
Page 149 - All hype. All for publicity. I didn't believe it — it was all a put-on for the camera and the press. The studios always did those sorts of things.
Page 154 - He would pull practical jokes on people — and they did become quite cruel. He never bothered me at all — it was Evelyn who incurred his wrath. They worked together more often, and yet they couldn't stand each other, sort of like the way Jon Hall and Maria Montez never got along.
Page 33 - They could have used his comic talent very much more than they did. He was used in horror films, I guess, because he looked a little strange, and had a strange way of pronouncing his speeches, but he had a very pixie sense of humor that went along with it.

About the author (2010)

Tom Weaver of Sleepy Hollow, New York, has been interviewing moviemakers for 35 years. The New York Times called him a leading scholar in the horror field and USA Today has described him as the king of the monster hunters. Classic Images said he was “the best interviewer we have today.” A frequent contributor to film magazines, he has written many books about American popular culture and is also a Blu-ray audio commentator.

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