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..

THE SEQUEL OF THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS SHOCKER Vaunting ambition led FRANKENSTEIN to try and outdo Nature. He created a MONSTER. In this sequel FRANKENSTEIN is compelled to repeat his experiment and create a bride for the monster. He hesitates-but his task-master, by most dastardly threats, forces him to complete the work with the result that - - A terrifying story which contains an underlying idea that is particularly applicable at the present time when machinery, has become a MONSTER-a dominating and revolutionizing power in the economics of the MODERN WORLD HORROR - FASCINATION - ROMANCE

Late 1929. The Stock market crash. At MGM Studios Irving Thalberg was involved in a power struggle. Lon Chaney's contract was coming up for renewal. Tod Browning, MGM's famed director of the macbre genre for the studio, had left and signed a contract back at his home studio, Universal. Carl Laemmle Jr was made production head of Universal for his father and he wanted to do a film version of Dracula. Carl Sr. agreed, as long as they had Lon Chaney as the star. Early in August of 1930, Carl Junior, still attempting to sign Chaney for the role, ordered a treatment to be authored by Louis Bromfield. By Mid August he was teamed with screenwriter Dudley Murphy and they began work on the script. Then in the middle of the negotiations, Lon Chaney unexpected by everyone in the film industry, died on August 26th. This volume of the Atlernate History of Classic Monster Films we present the full first Bromfield treatment, the incomplete first draft screenplay by Bromfield and Murphy. In addition, when Dracula was finally produced, more in the fashion of the popular 1927 play than the Bram Stoker novel, as was intended by Laemmle for Chaney - A silent version of the Lugosi Dracula was prepared for theaters who had not yet converted to sound. We have also included a complete Title list from this version. Also included in this volume is a translated version of F.W. Murnau's shooting script for the first screen version of Dracula - filmed in Germany in 1922 and called NOSFERATU, a symphony of horror. Murnau's hand annotations are included in bold print throughout the script.

Following Phantom of the Opera (1943), in the middle of the Silver age of Universal Studio's monster movies, a new sequel to Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman was considered for a Technicolor production: Wolfman vs Dracula Lon Chaney Jr., who was the only actor to portray Universal's four classic monster roles; Dracula, frankenstein's monster, the mummy and the wolfman. At first Chaney was to play both roles, as his father Lon Chaney Sr. had done in several of his famous silent films. But Larry Talbot in his human phase would look exactly like Count Dracula so the role of Dracula was given to it's originator Bela Lugosi. A script was prepared by Bernard Shubert, who had written the screenplay for Tod Browning's London After Midnight(MGM 1927) remake Mark of the Vampire (MGM 1935). Shubert kept the settings very tight in its scenes, to keep the cost down to balance out for the extra expense of technicolor. But by 1944 Bela Lugosi was in his 60s and would have had to play part of his role as a giant bat much like in the Copolla Bram Stoker's Dracula in the 90s - and that would have been too much for him. And they couldn't have the Wolfman fighting an animated bat much like John Carradine's depiction of the Count or even Lugosi's portrayal in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. So they decided to make one of their Arabian Nights film on the Technicolor contract and all that remained of Wolfman vs Dracula are some color 8x10s of Chaney in both parts. This volume has a short biography of screenwriter/TV producer Bernard Shubert and comments from Shubert and special effects cinematographer David Stanley Horsley.

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

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

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.

Over 200 Reproductions in Color Vintage Spanish Heralds, Posters, Lobby cards, Window cards and Memorabilia from the Classic Horror, Mystery and Science Fiction Films Mas de 200 imagenes en color entre programas de mano, posters y fotocromos espanoles y sudamericanos de epoca pertenecientes a los grandes clasicos del cine de terror, misterio y ciencia ficcion

In 1958 Hammer Films of England began their 'now classic' remakes of the Classic Universal Monster Films. Today the remakes themselves are considered Classics, revived in full Technicolor and wide screen. With full canine fangs and Technicolor blood Christopher Lee gave us a more horrific and brutal version of Count Dracula which delighted the audiences and continues to do so today. The shooting script, Pressbook and many photographs Production background by Ronald V. Borst. Also contains: THE VAMPYRE by John Polidori, 1819 the complete text to the original Gothic Vampire Story With an introduction by Michael Hartley

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.

Lon Chaney became a top star with his portrayal in The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1923. Carl Laemmle announced to his exhibitor's, in 1924, that Chaney would sign to do one more pictures before he started his contract with the newly formed Metro-Goldwyn company. To capitalize on the Hunchback's huge success he wanted to combine the names Victor Hugo and Lon Chaney and proudly stated that the project was Victor Hugo's "The Man Who Laughs." Meanwhile at Universal City, treatments and scripts were being prepared and contracts between Chaney and Universal were being drawn up by Universal's lawyers Loeb and Loeb. All was going smoothly until Laemmle returned to California and found out that no one had secured the rights to The Man Who Laughs. The production came to a dead stop. Chaney suggested The Phantom of the Opera and Laemmle happily agreed, since he could still use the standing sets from the Hunchback and having met with Gaston Leroux, the author of the Phantom he was familiar with the story. It wasn't until 1928 that The Man Who Laughs rights were secured and production started but with a complete new cast and crew. The role previously meant for Chaney was taken over by Conrad Veidt and Mary Philbin, who was scheduled to play the part in the Chaney version, resumed her starring role as Dea, the blind girl in love with Gwynplaine, who as a child had his face disfigured into a permanent grin by a sadistic band of gypsies. Gwynplaine grows up and is a great success as a carnival attraction. Unknown to everyone, Gywnplaine is actually the son of a Peer of England, whose father had to go into exile to escape the wrath of the King of England. Also included in this volume is a facsimile of the complete 5 chapter story from Liberty Magazine, by Adela Rogers St. John, "Lon Chaney, Portrait of the Man of a Thousand Faces" published in 1931, 9 months after his untimely death at age 47.

"Lon Chaney is one of America's most important actors and Philip J. Riley's books on Chaney become instant classics in cinema literature" - John Landis "Philip J. Riley is setting the Industry standard for preserving the great silent film history in book form" - Kevin Brownlow Foreword by Patsy Ruth Miller (Co-star) Introduction by George Turner

THE RAVEN - By Eunice Sudak- Volume 3 in Philip J. Riley's Nightmare Series THE MASTER - EDGAR ALLAN POE Who was the raven? What was his diabolical errand? Could anyone ignore the warning from beyond the grave? Do you dare to spend one night in Dr. Scarabus' sinister castle Will your heart stand the suspense? Is your stomach strong enough to bear the brutal torture of an innocent girl? And what of the wanton, lustful, beauty whose name was Lenore? Introduction by Richard A Ekstedt Featuring THE MAKING OF THE RAVEN Interviews with Roger Corman, Vincent Price, Richard Matheson by Lawrence French "The Raven" was released by American International Pictures, 1963 and starred Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and a young Jack Nicholson

First U.S. Printing ." . . and as the Baron Frankenstein has been adjudged responsible for the actions of the monster which he created . . . you are charged to carry out sentence of death by beheading. . " So read the instructions on the warrant- but Frankenstein did not die This is the gruesome, horrific story of Frankenstein's revenge which took the form of an operation to remove the brain from one man, and transplant it in another. Karl, the unfortunate victim of the Baron's machinations, comes to a tragic end, tormented by his new-found freedom and, finally, destroyed by it. Karl, the unfortunate victim of Baron Frankenstein's experiments, is tormented by his new-found freedom. But his tortured brain cannot grasp the fact that he is merely the tool of the Baron and his assistant. And finally, Frankenstein's gruesome work destroys the brain he has transplanted. . . A Hammer Film Production, Ltd. horror-drama "The Revenge of Frankenstein" was distributed by Columbia Pictures. Starring Peter Cushing, Eunice Gayson, Francis Matthews and Michael Gwynn, it is produced by Anthony Hinds and Directed by Terence Fisher, Screenplay by Jimmy Sangster

This volume is more of a portfolio in the development of Universal's The Invisible Man. It is different from the other volumes in the series in that, after attempts by many writers, Carl Laemmle Jr. was not satisfied with any of the treatments until James Whale got R.C. Sheriff to write the final shooting script. As you will see even Whale himself wrote a treatment. Many projects were announced for Boris Karloff, now Universal's top monster film star; they ranged from the supernatural Cagliostro, the classic monster film The Wolf Man to the science fiction projects A Trip to Mars and The Invisible Man. This volume is more of a portfolio in the development of Universal's The Invisible Man. It is different from the other volumes in the series in that, after attempts by many writers, Carl Laemmle Jr. was not satisfied with any of the treatments until James Whale got R.C. Sheriff to write the final shooting script. As you will see even Whale himself wrote a treatment. In 1932 many projects were announced for Boris Karloff, now Universal's top monster film star; they ranged from the supernatural Cagliostro, the classic monster film The Wolf Man to the science fiction projects A Trip to Mars and The Invisible Man. Cagliostro was transformed into The Mummy, The Wolf Man put on the shelf for 9 years Director James Whale was stalling because Universal wanted him to make a sequel to Frankenstein - but after countless rewrites by Preston Sturges, Gouveneur Morris, John Huston and a dozen other writers, R.C. Sherriff managed to capture H.G. Wells' original concept and The Invisible Man was put into production, however without Karloff who turned down the part in a salary dispute with Carl Laemmle Junior. With Claude Rains in the starring role (even though he does not appear on screen except for a few minutes at the end of the film, The Invisible Man became a huge success and one that most historians and fans think is Whale's best picture, after The Bride of Frankenstein, made two years later.