THIS IS THE HARDBACK EDITION. Thunder was the last silent film for Lon Chaney. His health was not good during the shoot and for the first time in his career he held up production while he recuperated. He plays Grumpy Anderson, a near retirement, old workhorse of a train engineer. It is said that a piece of artificial snow, used in the production, lodged in his throat causing an infection that led to his untimely death at age 47 on August 26, 1930. Only a few fragments exist. The novel was published in 1930 in France and has been translated by Eric McNaughton. "The 1929 audiences were up on their feet and cheering Chaney at the exciting climax of Thunder." - Chauncey Haines - Silent Film Organist

This latest addition to Philip J Riley's Alternate History of Classic Filmonsters series is a collaborative effort with fellow film historian David Conover that delves into one of the most famous unproduced motion pictures of all time, Merian C. Cooper's legendary WAR EAGLES Planned as a full Technicolor production at MGM in the late 1930s, WAR EAGLES would have eclipsed Cooper and long-time SFX partner Willis O'Brien's KING KONG as the greatest fantasy epic of the period had it not fallen victim to pre-war studio politics and the rise of Hitler's Third Reich on the eve of World War II. Long considered a lost film effort, Conover's research has actually uncovered a richly detailed pre-production history, complete with never-before -published artwork, storyboards, test footage frames and more, direct from studio archives and the estates of technicians and artists who actually worked on the film. Also included is the full, never-published final draft of WAR EAGLES by Cyril Hume (screenwriter of MGM's Tarzan series and the sci-fi masterpiece FORBIDDEN PLANET) along with Merian C. Cooper's original treatment and production designer Howard Campbell's notes and budgets for the ill-fated production. For decades, stop-motion fans and film researchers considered an early, coverless draft attributed to Willis O'Brien-- but actually written by Harold Lamb and James Ashmore Creelman-- to be the only existing script for WAR EAGLES, but Conover's discovery of the original typescripts at the USC film library in 2003 turned up 7 more drafts and multiple revisions that eventually led to the final Hume draft. Pre-production artist Duncan Gleason began detailed storyboarding and illustration based on this draft and it is very likely that it would have become the actual shooting script. Detailed models and sets were built and Technicolor test footage featuring stop-motion animation by Willis O'Brien and his crew (including Kong/Mighty Joe Young creators Marcel Delgado and George Lofgren) was shot, and the exciting tale of a lost race of Viking warriors astride giant prehistoric eagles doing battle with Nazis over the skies of modern day Manhattan almost reached the screen until the reality of impending war halted production in 1940... David Conover is a film writer and historian who began his quest to uncover the history of WAR EAGLES as a 13-year-old reader of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. He was a columnist and reviewer for the Louisville Eccentric Observer for 9 years and his work was syndicated widely during that period as well. He is also the Vice President and Programming Director for WonderFest, an international modeling, toy, film and FX expo that takes place annually in Louisville, Ky, where he lives with his wife, daughter, and a tiny piece of the stegosaurus model from the original KING KONG. If you ask him, he'll show it to you, along with the final page of Cyril Hume's WAR EAGLES script. He's not crazy, just enthusiastic..

Thunder was the last silent film for Lon Chaney. His health was not good during the shoot and for the first time in his career he held up production while he recuperated. He plays Grumpy Anderson, a near retirement, old workhorse of a train engineer. It is said that a piece of artificial snow, used in the production, lodged in his throat causing an infection that led to his untimely death at age 47 on August 26, 1930. Only a few fragments exist. The novel was published in 1930 in France and has been translated by Eric McNaughton. "The 1929 audiences were up on their feet and cheering Chaney at the exciting climax of Thunder." - Chauncey Haines - Silent Film Organist

Over 200 Reproductions in Full Color Within are Vintage Poster Art images from all the titles of the Ackerman Archives, Universal Filmscript and Filmonster Series' Billboards, 6-sheets, 3-sheets, One-sheets, inserts and lobby cards. From the most Famous of the Classic Monster Films

The story of the 1940 film by Will Garth The strange adventures of Dr. Cyclops, the superscientist, makes a thrilling and amazing horror story. Dr. Bulfinch, noted biologist and his young and pretty assistant, Mary Phillips had travelled thousands of miles to the Peruvian jungle to answer the call of the scientist, Alexander Thorkel. Near the place where Thorkel carried on his experiments, natives talked fearfully of black magic. But even their weird stories were less strange than the truth. For the hermit scientist had discovered how to reduce people to one sixth their natural size. And he turned Dr. Bulfinch, Phillips and theit team into midgets at grips with world grown suddenly large and frightening.

Sam Slade didn't believe in Gorgo until he saw the monster's hideous scaly face, its slimy green talons and the massive mouth that could swallow a killer whale. If this was not enough he was to have even bigger problems in his future. The story mixes familiarity with a couple of neat plot twists; the special effects are ambitious and oftentimes stunning; and the use of a man in a rubber dinosaur suit, a technique usually met with derision, is undoubtedly one of the best on record. But perhaps the reason that supersedes them all is that Gorgo is the rare city-stomping monster spectacle with heart. Released by MGM in 1961, Gorgo is that oft-told cinematic fable of the giant beast that threatens humanity This volume contains the shooting script and the original tie-in novel by Carson Bingham and a production background by Bill Cooke.

When "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" became box office hits for Universal, Carl Laemmle Junior immediately ordered that sequels be written for both films. Scripts were prepared but Junior's choice of director - James Whale - had had enough of monster films and was doing everything he could to avoid them. Finally in 1935, after getting out of shooting "Dracula's Daughter" Whale agreed to direct "The Return of Frankenstein." In this volume is the final shooting script by John L. Balderston. Balderston added more scenes from the novel, such as the monster hiding in a peasant's hut and learning to read and speak. But Whale thought his version of the Monster's personality too brutish and evil. He wrote a new script with screenwriter William Hurlbut, added new characters such as Mini and Dr. Pretorius, keeping Balderston's script as just an outline. Most historians and fans feel that when Return of Frankenstein was renamed "Bride of Frankenstein" it became the most beloved film in Universal's Classic Monster films.

A Philip J. Riley's NightMare Series volume. Commentary and "About the Author" Henry Slesar by Randall D. Larson - edited by Philip J. Riley The clouds of yellow dust rolled and swirled and whistled in agonized motion, and their sound obscured the needle-thin cries of men in anguish. The pain had come upon them suddenly, pain that gripped their chests like the giant talons of some rapacious bird, pain that sent them scurrying, reeling, stumbling towards the silvery object that stood half-buried in the volatile sands. Some were to make the ship in time; others were to die later. One was to live to see the horror of the dust-shrouded planet transplanted to the world of his birth, twenty million miles away. The Ymir, as the creature was named by Forrest J Ackerman is one of Ray Harryhausen's best remembered stop motion creations. Originally published as an Amazing Stories special edition.