While we are just finishing up Jon Towlson’s book The Turn to Gruesomeness in American Horror Films 1931 to 1936, it looks like we’ll be continuing our little history lesson with this new book by Raymond Valinoti Jr., entitled Hollywood’s Pre-Code Horrors 1931-1934, published by BearManor Media.
Valinoti Jr. has a Master’s in Library Science and is a freelance researcher, so I can only imagine this guy has done his homework on this subject, which is a damn fascinating one. With all the BS we hear about the goings-on with Hollywood and getting pictures released, it amazes me what they went through back in the ’30s, and was still able to get away with murder! Well, at least on the big screen!
Back before the MPAA, movie studios tended to get away with a lot more than they did have the late ’30s when they started to be held to a higher (and moral) standard. During the depression, the studios really pushed the limit, trying like hell to get people into the theaters with films like Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) and The Black Cat (1934).
This title is available in both softcover ($19.95) and hardcover ($30) editions and can be ordered from either Amazon or directly from BearManor Media. It’s the same price, so do a favor for the small business guy and order from BearManor Media. Just click HERE. They put out some great books, many of which I have in my own library.
Every single horror fan out there probably knows of and has seen The Blob. Probably both versions! But how many of them has seen the Caltiki: The Immortal Monster!
Thursday, we have lost the author of one of the greatest horror novels of all time, William Peter Blatty. If you’ve never read the actual novel of The Exorcist, you’d be surprised at how effective it is, digging into your core just as much as the film version, if not more. That’s how good Blatty was. Strange though that before this novel, he was known for the most part as a comedic writer, writing several films for Blake Edwards, including the Pink Panther movie A Shot in the Dark. But once The Exorcist came out, there really was no turning back for him and he would always be known as “that guy”. But while it did pigeon hole him, he told the Washington Post in 2013, “I can’t regret The Exorcist. It’s done so much for me and for my family. And it’s given me a great deal of freedom to write what I want.”
