From Zombos Closet

Pressbooks (Horror, Sci Fi, Fantasy)

The Witching Hour (1934) Pressbook

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A clairvoyant gambler hypnotizes someone who later murders somebody else. Cue the crime and mystery drama. Early pressbooks were often printed on newsprint paper, so they don’t hold up too well and brown with age. But that gives them a certain charm, don’t you think? What’s also charming are the promotional ideas for The Witching Hour. For instance, take this one: “In every town there are large clocks displayed, on the sidewalk or in windows, which are daily consulted by large numbers of persons for the correct time. For example, there is usually such a clock in a telegraph office or jeweler’s window…” Then there’s the ambulating street clock that chimes as it goes. Ah, the good old days–of promotion, that is.

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The Invisible Boy (1957) Pressbook

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After Forbidden Planet, MGM needed another film to make use of Robby the Robot to help balance their books. That’s where The Invisible Boy comes into the picture. It’s an odd mix of science fiction and kid-fare, so the script is very 1950s. But delve a little deeper and you’ll find one of the screens more interesting and foreboding narratives about artificial intelligence and menacing technology. Robby is actually from the future (a nod to Forbidden Planet), but it takes Timmie, the lonely and misunderstood boy whose parents are eggheads times ten, to reassemble the robot after the supercomputer gives him the smarts. Unbeknownst to the boy, his newfound robotic playmate is under the control of the supercomputer, and that bit of technology has sinister plans for mankind. The Invisible Boy may be dated by its 1950s manners and mores, but deep down, there’s a prescient message for all us Timmies.

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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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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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Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein Pressbook

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Here's a great movie to watch on Halloween. Forget that the Wolf Man was cured earlier or that Dracula was dispatched in House of Dracula.  Or even that Frankenstein's Monster got bogged down in House of Frankenstein; here they romp with mirth and madness, and contrary to the naysayer purists who lambaste this movie for its treatment of the classic monsters, this is an essential and worthy entry to the Universal Horror Mythos. 

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The Uninvited (1944) Pressbook

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     One of the best haunted house movies ever made, watch this one late at night with the lights off. At 32 pages, this pressbook is almost as impressive as the movie. Of note is the Your Radio Campaign page, which reminds us of a time before social and commercial digital media. And of very special importance, this is the first movie to depict ghosts as real. Before this, there was always a rational reason to explain away the supernatural proceedings, usually fostered by criminal intent and delivered with comedy. Within the context of the Universal Monster horrors, it's also an interesting contrast: when Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolf man were seeking scientific cures for their "ailments," in other words, when Universal made their monsters rationally-existing as opposed to supernaturally, The Uninvited scared audiences with the real deal: No jokes, no slapstick, just good old-fashioned scares to chill the bones; and no explanation at the end to eliminate the supernatural as the cause, or leaving the audience with uncertainty such as in The Cat People (1942).

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Dead of Night (1945) Pressbook

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What else can be said about this classic horror anthology (or portmanteau if you prefer)? A movie, it is said, that influenced Fred Hoyle's input into the Steady State Theory. Not too shabby for a horror movie. Of course, I know, you just want to be scared this Halloween. So watch this movie. In the dead of night. You may be able to sleep afterwards. With the lights on. Maybe. (Read my review.)

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