From Zombos Closet

JM Cozzoli

A horror and movie fan with a blog. Scary.

Weird Worlds Vol.2 Issue 1
February 1971

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Not the best stories of the bunch in this issue, but the artwork is always wonderful. After you read a lot of these magazines you realize that women were either married, looking to get married, or not pretty enough to be married. The men were either heroic, scientists or fools; or married, looking to get married, or not handsome enough to be married. The best stories hinge on revenge, murder or monsters, and dead things looking for revenge or murder. Often enough the married men and women were hellbent on revenge or murder. Oh, and yes, ghosts, ghouls, witches, zombies, vampires, and other assorted nasties churned up the mix too, and were always more interesting than the men or women.

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The Pearl of Death (1944) Pressbook

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This, The Pearl of Death, pressbook comes courtesy of director Joe Dante (Trailers from Hell, Gremlins, The ‘Burbs, The Howling, and more). Interesting story: I received an email from Charlie Largent asking if I’d like a bunch of pressbooks from Mr. Dante. Me, I’m thinking I’m being punked or scammed, but it turned out to be true. We worked out the logistics and, well, here we are. I’m always happy to hear from anyone who likes what I post, but when it comes from people like Joe Dante and Charlie Largent, it makes it especially pleasant. And I could never turn down an offer of pressbooks. Never.

Rondo Hatton is especially effective as the Hoxton Creeper, looming large and menacing, and Evelyn Ankers is always wonderful: a solid entry in the series.

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Call Northside 777 (1948) Pressbook

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The Wikipedia article for this movie states it was the first Hollywood feature film to be shot on location in Chicago. One of the main reasons I like watching old movies is the glimpse of town and city life, the buildings, the streets, the storefronts, the old cars; that glimpse of a lifetime ago is always fascinating. Call Northside 777 used the documentary-style crime drama approach and was based on a true story. With James Stewart playing the reporter, how could you go wrong?

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Gas House Kids in Hollywood (1947) Pressbook

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Alfalfa (Carl Switzer) and Butch the bully (Tommy Bond) from Our Gang are all grown up (mostly) in Gas House Kids in Hollywood. This is the third and last movie in the franchise. They mix it up with a mad scientist and a haunted house and cute “goils.”

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Shadow of Chinatown (1936) Pressbook

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You can read a review of this Victory Pictures serial over at The Files of Jerry Blake. Unfortunately, looks like the pressbook is more exciting than the serial or movie versions. Seems a small budget and less creativity kept the pacing and action to a minimum. Bela Lugosi, as always, deserved better.

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The Guilty (1947) Pressbook

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Monogram pulls down the noir shades with jumeuax identiques, in this crime whodunit based on a Cornell Woolrich story. (His book, Black Alibi, became The Leopard Man, directed by Jacques Tourneur.) For a budget movie, the pressbook is in color and well presented. I’m not sure the twin sundae idea is a good promotion, but crime and pretty dames times two sells seats anyway.

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Murder by Television (1935) Pressbook

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John Stanley, in his Creature Features Strikes Again movie guide, wrote: “Fuzzy, unadjusted Bela Lugosi whodunit in which two brothers…are involved with development of TV. There’s also a death ray…” Death rays were all the rage in the 1930s. Television must have been very mysterious and wondrous back then. Now, you can watch “television” on your cell phone, which kind of kills the wondrous aspect of it as we’re so over-saturated with streaming content. We’re spoiled rotten. Now, if my cell phone had a death ray…well, I’d be staring at it in wonder. I don’t think anyone’s written about putting death rays in cell phones yet, so you heard it here first. Then again, what if you pressed the death ray button instead of the camera button? On second thought, death rays on cell phones may prove disastrous for selfies. But I digress. There’s an interesting article in this pressbook, Lugosi Make-Up Filmland Wonder. My guess is it’s a fluff piece someone thought up, but I don’t recall reading about Lugosi’s talents with makeup. Usually, Lon Chaney was the one often mentioned, who puttied around with–oh, look, a pun!–the greasepaint and collodion.

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Kiss Me Deadly (1955) Pressbook

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Mickey Spillane wasn’t too happy with how Richard Aldrich’s movie version of his book turned out. Mike Hammer wasn’t nice at all, the dangerous and deadly something in the car trunk proved too hot to handle, and the downbeat storyline spiralling into worse makes Kiss Me Deadly quite an unnerving, unsavory, and brutal experience, permeated with existential fear. Perfect! You want film noir? This is the darkest you’ll come across. Ralph Meeker is brutal. The pressbook may play up the dames angle for all it’s worth, but the movie’s not about dames. It’s about death, violence, and more death. The deadly macguffin in the car trunk would be purloined by Repo Man (1984) with a less violent and fatal wind up.

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Decoy (1947) Pressbook

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Ah, the good old days, when promotion contests were all about the beautiful dames in movies. Well, maybe not so good with all that objectification of women in the movies of the time. They were either angels or devils, and the men on screen always had trouble telling the difference. At least in film noir the women usually gave as good (or bad) as they got. Are women more dangerous? You be the judge. As film noir goes, this one may be too much for you to handle. Are you hardboiled enough to take it?

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