The Big Book of Reel Murders is chockful of well-known authors like Dashiell Hammett, Arthur Conan Doyle, Ian Fleming, and W. Somerset Maugham. Even better, it has some of my favorite silver-age short story writers from 1950-1989 Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen mystery magazines like Cornell Woolrich and Stanley Ellin.Continue Reading
Running from Carrie through upcoming film Doctor Sleep, Stephen King at the Movies shows both the good and the bad of movie and tv miniseries adaptations of King’s work. But there are secrets scattered throughout the text. The Shining as a fugue or an autobiography? The original Pennywise in ItContinue Reading
Fascinating story about how the author of The Wizard of Oz went about Finding Dorothy interspersed with the making of the movie in 1938-39. Maud Baum is the unifying character in the two strands of her life described in the book. It begins with a 77-year-old Maud attempting to getContinue Reading
Have you ever wondered about the engine under the hood of your favorite movie or television show? If so, Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies is a comprehensive resource you need to read. Beginning with the screenplay, this book has a chapter about each part of the movie making process.Continue Reading
The Nightmare before Dinner includes recipes used in the famous Beetle House restaurants in New York and Los Angeles. There are chapters for sauces, appetizers, soups/salads, entrees, and desserts. Most look more tasty than scary though they do have clever names like Edward Burger Hands, Silence of the Lamb Chops,Continue Reading
From Mary Shelley’s 1818 book to The Munsters and beyond, the Vault of Frankenstein is an extensively researched look at the impact of a single book published 200 years ago. “Only Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan and Dracula have appeared more often in media than Frankenstein’s monster.” Not bad for a nineteen-year-oldContinue Reading
“Making a no-budget indie film is like going to war. But you’re not General MacArthur storming the beaches with a force of a hundred thousand soldiers. Instead, you’re more like a small squad of Vietcong guerillas behind enemy lines, trying to complete an impossible mission using guile and your wits,Continue Reading