2024 Year Review: Never to Forget

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David J. Skal – Rest in Peace

Book Review: Claude Rains: An Actor’s Voice

Claude Rains: An Actor’s Voice
Published by University Press of Kentucky, 2008. 290 pages.
By David J. Skal with Jessica Rains

Like most horror fans, I knew the name of Claude Rains because of his starring role in The Invisible Man (1933), as well his performances in The Wolf Man (1941), and Phantom of the Opera (1943). Eventually I would learn of his other pictures and that he had come from the world of the stage, starting out at a very young age, and even battling a speech impediment and strong cockney accent. I even wrote a retrospective on The Invisible Man for HorrorHound magazine, doing quite a bit of research, and thinking I had a good insight into the actor himself. But like most things in life, there is always room to learn more. And after reading Skal’s book, I realized how much more.

There are several biographies currently in publication on Rains that I had planned on adding to my library, but it was Skal’s book that I acquired first. While looking for the next book to read, this was still sitting off to the side, not yet put away in the bookshelf, I picked it up and started to read the introduction. The next thing I knew, I was already 50 pages deep into this wonderful story. I think that is where Skal excels here, in telling a very compelling story filling it in with bits of information here and there.

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Halloween Favorites

Fright FavoritesHorror scholar David J. Skal has a new book coming out this fall, just in time for Halloween, entitled Fright Favorites: 31 Movies to Haunt Your Halloween and Beyond. Presented by Turner Classic Movies, Skal takes on 31 films ranging from the silent era, hitting a few titles from each decade through the ’80s, and a few beyond that. Most of these everyone will agree are classics, with a few comedies listed in the later day titles. The description in Amazon says they are “family-friendly” but not sure The Exorcist (1973) and The Thing (1982) are ones I would be screening for 8-year old Timmy! Continue reading