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..

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.

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

With the success of Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, Universal Pictures was quick to capitalize on creating a new Lon Chaney in Bela Lugosi. Chaney had been the original choice to portray a duel role as both Dracula and Professor van Helsing, Dracula's adversary. Before production could begin Chaney died suddenly leaving Carl Laemmle Jr. without a star. Laemmle Jr. had seen Dracula on the stage in New York City, although he could not recall if he had seen Lugosi or Raymond Huntley in the role of Count Dracula. However Lugosi was performing in the touring company which happened to be in Los Angeles at that time. Was he the new Lon Chaney? Lugosi was not Carl Jr's first choice for the role. However he eventually won the part and now they needed more ideas for him. "Murders in the Rue Morgue," "Cagliostro," "The Invisible Man" and "Frankenstein" were top on the list. One day in March 1931 Robert Florey, recently returned to Hollywood from Europe, was having lunch at the Musso and Frank Restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard. He was approached by an old acquaintance, Richard Schayer, head of Universal's story department. Schayer told him that his studio was looking for ideas for a new horror film to star Bela Lugosi and he knew Florey was involved with The Theatre du Grand-Guignol de Paris, (a small theater, in an obscure alley in Paris which specialized in sadistic, shocking, explicit, violent melodramas and became known as the "Theater of Horrors." It opened in 1897 and closed in 1962.) They both agreed on "Frankenstein" being the best choice. Schayer suggested that Florey would stand a better chance at being asigned writer and director if he were to present the idea to Carl Laemmle Jr. We present now the script for"Frankenstein" as it would have been had Bela Lugosi starred; and Rober Florey directed.

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.

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.