Pressbooks (Horror, Sci Fi, Fantasy)

In another instance where the pressbook is more exciting and thought out than the movie, The Neanderthal Man is not much to look at, with awful dialog and cheesy effects. Bill Warren, in his Keep Watching the Skies!, also notes how seeing Robert Shayne (Inspector Henderson on the 1950s Superman television series with George Reeves) must have made the kids do a double-take in their theater seats as he played the naughty professor. Do you sense a theme here? Crazy scientist pushing dangerous theory, harms people while making it his career goal, and creates a nightmare for everyone around him? Ah, the 1950s. Between the possible atomic extermination, monstrous mutation extermination, and alien creatures extermination, it's a wonder we survived the ravages of science run amok. Well, so far, anyway. Now I expect the AI movie cycle to begin, and the Terminator franchise to be reborn. How about a nice game of tic-tac-toe intead?

Here's the CBZ format for your comic book reader: Download The Neanderthal Man Pressbook

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The Neanderthal Man (1953) PressbookRead More »

Courtesy of fellow lover of the fantastic, Terry Mitchitsch, comes these scans of The Valley of Gwangi pressbook. Cowboys and dinosaurs, what's not to love? This movie marks Ray Harryhausen's final dinosaur stop-motion work. Like King Kong, the finding of an allosauros, they name Gwangi, leads to commercial exploitation, then mayhem. Perhaps the script would have been better if they just stuck with one lone dinosaur instead of having a bunch of them show up. That really doesn't work much, sensibly, except to give Harryhausen more skillful work. A lone dinosaur would have been more emotionally focused. But it's still not a bad movie and would actually make for a neat remake (sans the extra dinosaurs ;). Interesting to note that Willis O'Brien, who wrote the original script, Valley of the Mists, had only one dinosaur too (according to the Wiki). Check out the Beast of Hollow Mountain, another cowboys and dinosaurs movie.

This pressbook is rather basic, but still filled with some interesting promotional items that include a coloring contest and Gwangi Goodie Kit. You also have Richard Carlson and James Franciscus, so not too shabby.

ComicRack and YacReader version: Download Valley of Gwangi

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The Valley of Gwangi (1969) PressbookRead More »

Thanks to fellow movie and Ray Harryhausen fanatic Terry Michitsch, here's the theater herald to The Valley of Gwangi. Wikipedia has a nice write-up on this movie, which mentions that whenever an episode of Scarecrow and Mrs. King (a 1980s tv show) showed a television playing, The Valley of Gwangi was on the screen. We've seen cowboys and aliens on the big screen (a stinker, unfortunately), but seeing cowboys and dinosaurs again wouldn't be too shabby if done right.

Name the top classic horror actors and Peter Lorre must be included in that list. Those eyes, that voice. Standing still he looked sinister. Here's the pressbook for The Beast with Five Fingers. Don't miss his Stranger on the Third Floor (1940). I always get a chuckle out of the theater lobby promotions that included first aid stations, with fake nurses standing by to either give you a stress test or call the ambulance afterwards. I'm not so sure we've gone beyond the ballyhoo hokum; maybe just moved it online instead. Would be fun, though, to have a nicely old theater do the full monte for a midnight horror show, complete with fake nurses. One interesting tidbit, if true: Singing Waiters Group Honor Former Associate: Rober Alda "was once the youngest singing waiter in America…at the Old Barn in Brownsville, Brooklyn." 

ComicRack and YakReader version: Download The Beast with Five Fingers 1946

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The Beast with Five Fingers (1946)
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The Corpse Vanishes is often described as a weird movie. Probably, given to the Monogram budget, made weirder due to the lowest common denominator production values. Yes, a cheapie done quickly; yes, a slow burner; yes, the editing needed a bit more oomph (okay, more than a bit; and that's at a running time of 63 minutes). Bela Lugosi, however, delivered his usually interesting mad-scientist performance and the staging is other worldly due to dialog and blocking that's either undercooked or overdone. But there's something about Bela Lugosi that is always watchable and, especially with the stern, sinister, face of Elizabeth Russell (Cat People, Return of the Cat People, The Seventh Victim) adding to the glum proceedings, the hour goes by with limited eye-rolls (for me, anyway). There's something to be said for Monogram's poverty row horrors, which range from say what? to what did I just watch? that captures the 1940s like no other movie from that period does. With Angelo Rossito (all 34 inches of him) tossed into the mix (well, maybe 'tossed' is the wrong word to use around small persons, but you know what I mean), and Minerva Urecal adding the criminal element that she brings so well, I recommend you catch the blu ray for this movie or the MST3K laugh-fest version. I also point you to reading Poverty Row Horrors! by Tom Weaver, which covers the Monogram, PRC, and Republic horrors of the 1940s for more information on this notable category of horror cinema. While I don't always agree with Weaver's critical assessments, he does provide a lot of background information of interest.

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Here is a 14.25 x 21.5 inches Belgian poster for I Was a Teenage Frankenstein. The room left at the top allowed local theaters to add their promotional information. Not particularly rare, but a great illustration nonetheless.  Below it is a bit of fun with a scene from the movie.

Unfortunately, without the boffo effects of today, this serial pales in comparison to today's superhero magnum opuses. But the characters are still endearing and it must have been quite exciting to see your favorite comic book hero on the big screen for those young audiences. More of a budget would have helped a lot, too. I wish I had a lot of those tie-ups for my collection. 

ComicRack and YacReader version: Download Atom Man vs Superman pressbook

Fly over to to see more pressbooks From Zombos' Closet.

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Atom Man vs. Superman Pressbook (1950Read More »

Okay, so what if a young Joe Dante panned Cry of the Werewolf in an issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland. Sure, the poster art is the best thing about this movie, but at least you can read the Scary Wolf-Woman On Vegetable Diet for a laugh, anyway, on page 6.

ComicRack: Download Cry of the Werewolf

Don’t cry! You can paw your way over to more pressbooks from Zombos’ Closet.

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Here’s another rare pressbook: Tower of London with Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone. A wild and wonderful 17.5 x 23 inches when opened to read. I’m not sure if any pages are missing as I found this one in loose sheets. But what’s here is still stellar. Aside from the auctions selling the covers alone, this original release pressbook has not been shown before. You lucky devils. Universal really overdid themselves with this one. The Showmanship page lists really cool theater lobby promos. You will need a big screen to view this beauty in all its glory.

ComicRack reader version: Download Tower of London Pressbook

You don’t need to be sent to the Tower to find more head-lifting pressbooks from Zombos’ Closet.

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Tower of London (1939) PressbookRead More »

Here's a nifty giveaway for Blood Orgy of the She-Devils: the hypnotic eye psychometry test. It's very simple. What do you do to drum up interest in a no-budget horror by Ted V. Mikels? Why, just add orgy and blood in the movie's title and hand out cool stuff like this at the theater. Of course, that would entice me for sure, so I may be biased here. The double-sided card is 4 x 6 inches and I'd die to have a stack of these to hand out as tricks for Halloween. I can see those smiling faces on the kids' parents as I think of it.

While the non-American pressbooks can be short on pages and promotional and commercial tie-ins, the artwork and printing layout can be quite creative. Here's the French pressbook for Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy.

See Mary Poppins pressbook Part One.

In this second part of the Mary Poppins pressbook is the incredible merchandising. My favorite is the Louis Marx wind-up, but you will find Gold Key comics, Whitman books, records, puzzles, her carpet bag, Golden Books, clothes, and more. Toy merchandising on a grand scale may have started with the Star Wars franchise, but Disney was years ahead in tying loads of merchandise to its movies.

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Mary Poppins (1964) Pressbook
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