From Zombos' Closet

Zombos' Closet...a vast trove of endearingly cheap thrills, including movie and book reviews, and scans of his collections of cinema pressbooks, goofy paper-cutout Halloween decorations, and his amazing collection of Mexican lobby cards from B-grade films. If you have time to descend into a serious rabbit-hole of marvelous trash-culture nostalgia, visit that site just as soon as you possibly can. (DangerousMinds.net)

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Freaks (1932) Re-Release Pressbook

Tod Browning's Freaks remains still freaky after all these years. Here's the 1949 re-release pressbook. I'm surprised the studio had enough gumption to make audiences again squirm in their seats with another showing. This movie works its black magic by turning the monstrous, like a reflection in a mirror, back to the viewers. Browning made us uncomfortable because of our limitations, not those of the circus performers considered freaks because of their physical differences. A truly amazing movie, whose awkwardness from silent movie conventions and melodramatic performances only heightens its unnerving effect one feels after watching it.

Comic reader version: Download Freaks Re-Release Pressbook

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Quasimodo's Monster Magazine Issue 4, 1975

In Quasimodo's Monster Magazine issue 4 you have a whopping 100 pages of monster goodness. Roger Corman, Lon Chaney, Jr., Space 1999, classic horrors, Doug McClure and The Land That Time Forgot, and enough bloody merchandise to scream about--oodles of monsterkid goodness. You can find more of the Quasimodo issues in my magazine morgue too!

For comic reader: Download Quasimodo's Monster Magazine Issue 4

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Island at the Top of the World (1974) Pressbook

A lost viking civilization in the Arctic provides the theme for this fantasy film with David Hartman. Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too was the other part of the double bill theater showing. Some critics at the time liked Winnie and Tigger more than Hartman. Island's pressbook, as usual, throws everything into promotion. Did you know that toothsome means attractive? Agneta Eckemyr is described as "toothsome enough to make a mummy drool." As usual with many pressbooks, female actors were often treated as mostly eye-candy fluff and glamour objects.

Comic reader version: Download Island at the Top of the World Pressbook

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The Strawberry Roan (1948) Pressbook

Gene Autry sets his mind to tame a wild horse after it throws a boy and paralyzes him. Autry sings inbetween the taming and the Western drama. This is Pat Buttram's first movie, although he's probably more remembered for the Green Acres sitcom with Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor.

Comic reader version: Download The Strawberry Roan Pressbook

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Stolen Identity (1953) Pressbook

In this Austrian movie, a cab driver dreams of going to America and steals the identity of a murdered man. Love triangle motivations complicate things. 

Comic reader version: Download Stolen Identity Pressbook

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West of Rainbow's End (1938) Pressbook

Tim McCoy goes looking for the killer of his friend in this Monogram Westerner. He had the best scarf in the West.

Comic reader version: Download West of Rainbow's End Pressbook

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Tron (1982) Pressbook

A Disney pressbook is always a tutorial on what movie promotion was all about in the decades before the internet and social media news. Disney, especially, went all out for tie-ins. This Tron pressbook is no exception when it comes to those tie-ins and promotions. There is also an interesting vibe in the articles regarding computer imagery: it's so 1980s. " The computer plays a major role in Tron, and, indeed, is playing a greater and greater role in our everyday lives. The use of the computer by the average person, while not yet commonplace, is growing phenomenally, and you should capitalize on this new interest..." For those of you who grew up during the birth of the home computer age, this pressbook provides a lot of nostalgia too. 

Comic reader version: Download Tron Pressbook

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The House of Hammer Issue 17, 1978

The highlight for this issue 17 of The House of Hammer (volume 2, number 5) is the Vampire Circus comic, followed by Van Helsing's Carnival of Fear. Dangerous children and Castle of the Living Dead add the movie-related info, along with Fairgrounds of Horror and Media Macabre. The artwork by Brian Holland and Goudenzi is splendid.

Comic reader version: Download House of Hammer Issue 17

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The Charge at Feather River (1953) Pressbook

This is the movie that introduced the name for the Wilhelm Scream. Used in countless movies and television shows since Distant Drums (1951), including Star Wars, and Indiana Jones, you'll recognize it immediately when you hear it. It's like that solitary wolf-baying you hear in The Munsters and countless other movies and television series, one sound effect used over and over again; though, I'm not sure if that wolf howling has a specific name attached to it. In this movie the Private Wilhelm character gets an arrow in his leg and screams (well, sound effect added, of course) the Wilhelm Scream. 

Other interesting things to note about this movie were the use of a View Master display to sell the 3D effect, and the cheesecake (and beefcake) used in promotion. The 3D color-in mat was creative, and the feather headband theater giveaway provided something for the matinee, drop the kids off at the theater, audiences.

Comic reader version: Download Charge at Feather River Pressbook

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Woman They Almost Lynched (1953) Mexican Lobby Card

Interesting that the leading lady doesn't receive top billing in this 1953 Western, Woman They Almost Lynched. She does get an embellished bosom, however, in this Mexican lobby card (and also in the American poster art). Of particular note is how she's holding two guns (again, also in the American poster art), but has only one holster. Hmm.

Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride Press Kit

Here's a pdf copy of Dyna-Mite! Entertainment's press kit for Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride (The Satanic Rites of Dracula). This Dynamite Entertainment is not related to the comic book publishing imprint of Dynamic Forces. 

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The Witch in Love (1966) Mexican Lobby Card

A very ominous Mexican lobby card for Damiano Damiani's The Witch in Love (La strega in amore).  This is a good example of how a simple layout can add subtle and not so subtle themes: the main scissor illustration showing violence and death; the younger woman on the left showing erotic fantasy but also foreboding as she faces toward the woman on the right; and the flaming passion or ill-intent shown by that older woman on the right. The eyes are drawn to each of these three visual statements in that order. The inset scene is one of action, too, which keeps the level of tension across this lobby card quite high.