Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold: Horror Films and the American Movie Business, 1953–1968

Kevin Heffernan

Published by Duke University Press 2004

Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold

Horror Films and the American Movie Business, 1953–1968

Kevin Heffernan

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822385554

Overview
Contents

About this book

The history of horror films and the horror film industry in the 1950s and 1960s.

Author / Editor information

Kevin Heffernan is Assistant Professor in the Division of Cinema-Television at Southern Methodist University. He is the coauthor of My Son Divine and co-screenwriter and associate producer of the documentary Divine Trash, winner of the Filmmakers Trophy at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival.

Reviews

“As someone who grew up watching late-night chiller feature series on television, reading Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, listening to haunted house sound effects records, and making my own super-8 monster movies, I read Kevin Heffernan’s book with nostalgia and delight. He provides the historical, cultural, and economic context for many of the texts and artifacts of my own misbegotten youth.”—Henry Jenkins, coeditor of Hop on Pop: The Politics and Pleasures of Popular Culture

“This is the kind of book on horror films that I’ve been waiting years to read. Combining a historian’s rigor and a fan’s enthusiasm, Kevin Heffernan shows us how industrial considerations shaped the genre and how the marginalized horror film has in fact been at the center of changes in the American movie business for the past fifty years.”—Eric Schaefer, author of “Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!”: A History of Exploitation Films, 1919–1959

“Thoroughly researched and well-written. . . . This is an important study that deserves the attention of film scholars.”

-- Gregory D. Black American Historical Review

"Brimming with plot synopses and including an appendix, this text serves as reference guide as well as a critical work. . . . This text achieves its goals in giving a detailed account of major changes, and reasons for them, in horror films and the American film industry during the 1950s and 1960s."

-- Rebecca Janicker Scope

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Horror in Three Dimensions: House of Wax and Creature from the Black Lagoon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	16
2. The Color of Blood: Hammer Films and Curse of Frankenstein Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
3. ‘‘Look into the Hypnotic Eye!’’: Exhibitor Financing and Distributor Hype in Fifties Horror Cinema Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
4. ‘‘A Sissified Bela Lugosi’’: Vincent Price,William Castle, and AIP’s Poe Adaptations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	90
5. Grind House or Art House?: Astor Pictures and Peeping Tom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
6. American International Goes International: New Markets, Runaway Productions, and Black Sabbath Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	134
7. Television Syndication and the Birth of the ‘‘Orphans’’: Horror Films in the Local TV Market Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	154
8. Demon Children and the Birth of Adult Horror: William Castle, Roman Polanski, and Rosemary’s Baby Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	180
9. Family Monsters and Urban Matinees: Continental Distributing and Night of the Living Dead Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	202
Conclusion: The Horror Film in the New Hollywood Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
Appendix: Feature Film Packages in Television Syndication, 1955–1968 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	295
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	305

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Pages
- Main content: 332
Illustrations
- Other: 61 b&w photos

eBook

Published: March 25, 2004
ISBN: 9780822385554