From Zombos Closet

JM Cozzoli

A horror and movie fan with a blog. Scary.

Buck Rogers (1939) Pressbook

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The Buck Rogers serial launched a million imaginations, along with Flash Gordon. Buck Rogers (Buster Crabbe) and his sidekick Buddy (Jackie Moran) awake 500 years in the future. They soon find the world of the future is not a happy place and jump into action fighting Killer Kane (Anthony Warde). All this will be familiar to fans of the 1979 television series starring Gil Gerard (well, except for Buddy, who was replaced by Twiki (Felix Silla), the diminutive robot). But Buster Crabbe, who played Flash Gordon, was the first Buck, and this serial is a lot of retro fun. 

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Sing, Cowboy, Sing (1937) Pressbook

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I'm not sure how singing and cowboys became a thing for movie fans, but here's Tex Ritter's Sing, Cowboy, Sing. Also, it was always important for a cowboy to have a special horse, and here it's White Flash. Of course, Gene Autry's Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer topped the charts in 1949, so there's something to singing cowboys for sure.

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Dr. Cyclops (1940)
Mexican Lobby Card

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Fantastic special effects and fast pace keep this horror science fiction movie still enjoyable to watch. Wikipedia mentions it's the first American horror movie to use the three-strip technicolor process.  Albert Dekker is especially sinister and dangerous as a scientist with no moral center. The colorful poster art uses Dr. Cyclops and Doctor Cyclops in its titles.

DR Cyclops

The Ghost That Walks Alone (1944) Pressbook

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Here's another ghost-inspired crime comedy (cromedy?) from Columbia Pictures. Some pages are out of order but this 8 page pressbook is complete. The 1940s saw a lot of movies using a ghostly theme in storyline or title or both. This one seems to use it mainly in the title, sadly.

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Whispering Ghosts (1942) Pressbook

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Quite a bit of promotional push in this pressbook for Whispering Ghosts with Milton Berle and Willie Best. Best also starred with Bob Hope in The Ghost Breakers. Best's movie output was prolific, but according to Wikipedia "is sometimes reviled because he was often called upon to play stereotypically lazy, illiterate, and/or simple-minded characters in films. Of the 124 films he appeared in, he received screen credit in at least 77, an unusual feat for an African-American bit player."

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The Monster and the Girl (1941) Pressbook

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A fascinating and entertaining blend of crime, noir, gorilla, and horror. Paramount's The Monster and the Girl starts off as a noir in tone and camerawork, but then ignores that and moves on to an ape-murdering-for-vengeance storyline. It gets my vote for the best man-in-gorilla-suit movie produced in the 1940s and possible the best, period. The story plays all the emotional angles, and tosses in a faithful dog for good measure (like in Man-Mad Monster, also released in 1941). There's something simply mesmerizing, odd, and sometimes head-scratching with the mad-scientist and gorilla cycle of horror movies, but this movie works it's magic and makes it, well, work! I highly recommend it. As for this pressbook, my word, it's amazing! The amount of promotion and article coverage reaches twenty packed pages. 

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