JM Cozzoli

As Christopher Lee said, the first one should have been the last one. The Castle of Fu Manchu is the worst of the lot, but the first two are good, if questionable today. The first movie in the series is made better by Nigel Green as Nayland Smith. Here is the British pressbook. One thing, the pressbook states that the saying “one picture is worth a thousand words” is a Chinese proverb. Nope. Not even close. Fred R. Barnard is credited with saying it in 1921, although he did pretend it was a Chinese proverb.

ComicRack reader version: Download Face of Fu Manchu Pressbook

Let’s face it, you can see more pressbooks from Zombos’ Closet.

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The Face of Fu Manchu (1965) PressbookRead More »

In the 1970s, serials were rediscovered by the comic and science fiction fans for good reason: you can criticize the budgets, but the stories were pretty nifty and the imagination ran wild. I always liked Buck Rogers more than Flash Gordon, though I found both a lot of fun and exciting. There’s just something really cool about a person who wakes up 500 years later than the year he went to sleep in.

ComicRack reader version: Download Buck Rogers Pressbook

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Buck Rogers (1939) PressbookRead More »

One of my guilty pleasures, Target Earth lacks an army of robots (they made only one), lacks a good budget to sell the invasion angle, but does provide drama between the players who must survive the (did I mention only one) robot’s deadly intentions as well as those of the psychopath in their midst. Later movies, from zombies to aliens, would play up on the dealing-with-the-threat-from-without-and-within theme. While the robot isn’t designed all that well by today’s standards, it does create menace and has that 1940s/50s esthetic that I do find endearing. The pressbook is a tidy little number with enough articles, promotion, and poster art to help sell the movie. And, repeat after me, “beaverboard.” The pressbook mentions taking the 6-sheet poster, mounting it on beaverboard, and placing a flashing red light where the robot’s eye-panel is.  Whew. That would have been killer in the theater lobby.

ComicRack reader version: Download Target Earth Pressbook

You don’t need to go to Target to see more pressbooks from Zombos Closet.

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Target Earth (1954) PressbookRead More »

If it wasn’t Mars blasting the earth’s atmosphere with deadly rays it was an undersea or other hidden kingdom threatening doom with a disintegrator ray. Ah, the good old days when global warming wasn’t a problem; just evil minions and their maniacal leaders who apparently had little else to do but make trouble for everyone on earth. Mystery Science Theater 3000 can mock this movie all they want, but it’s still a wild ride with its mishmash of whatever costuming was available from the wardrobe department, and creative model work, and the volkites (tin can robots), all done  on a shoestring budget. As for scientific gadgets, the Reflector plate is very interesting mostly because the concept was used again in Star Trek’s Mirror Mirror episode with its Tantalus Field: a device that could see and hear anyone at any time, with a handy press-here-to-disintegrate button. There’s also the Invisible Wall of Atom Rays that acts a lot like the Enterprise’s shields. So make fun all you want: a fair amount of later science fiction staples came from this and other serials. This pressbook is huge at 13 x 20 inches and contains a lot of promotional material to get the kids into the theater.

ComicRack Reader version: Download Undersea Kingdom

You don’t have to dive deep to see more pressbooks from Zombos’ Closet.

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Undersea Kingdom (1936) PressbookRead More »