Review: An education in forgotten horrors

THE FORGOTTEN HORRORS READER, by Michael H. Price, with George E. Turner and Christina Renteria Price. Lower Klopstokia: Cremo Studios, 2017. 364 pages. $30.

The FORGOTTEN HORRORS franchise started by Michael H. Price and George E. Turner with the publication of the original FH study in 1979 continues today as it marches through the 1960s with honest, informed and fascinating criticism of low-budget chillers and their appeal to moviegoers. A recent offshoot from the work of Price and Turner have been collections of essays, criticism and history of movies that may not have fallen into the FH category but have enough similarity to be considered part of the family.


Among these are FORGOTTEN HORRORS TO THE Nth DEGREE: DISPATCHES FROM A COLLAPSING GENRE (with John Wooley, 2013) which took a fun and absorbing look at product that used to haunt drive-ins from the '60s until the '80s, then found a later life on local TV, videotape and digital forms of home entertainment. Such studies have taken these films made by unknowns enacted by even more obscure actors and imbued them with a sense of familiarity and backstory about their creation. This, in turn, enhances appreciation of what the filmmakers were attempting to accomplish.

The newest entry in this vein is THE FORGOTTEN HORRORS READER, which begins with a number of probing essays and newspaper columns on horror classics like the two versions of DOCTOR JEKYLL AND MISTER HYDE from 1920, the first and more celebrated adaptation starring John Barrymore, the second a lesser-known production featuring Sheldon Lewis in the dual role he had performed on stage. A more detailed look at the career of Lewis, a silent movie serial star, featured player in D.W. Griffith's ORPHANS OF THE STORM (1921) and theatrical actor who made the transition to talkies (notably in THE MONSTER WALKS, 1932), represents the spotlight the FH series focuses on the shadowy corners of screen history.

Essays on topics ranging from Griffith to Val Lewton come from Mrs. Price, who lends an equally astute understanding of her subjects and offers informative and thought-provoking analysis. Such views from a collaborator as in touch with cinema offers the same diversity of ideas provided in previous FH volumes by Wooley and Jan Michael Henderson.

But the bulk of the current volume is taken up by a rethinking of what Michael Price calls "The Human Monsters Project," a revision of the 1995 work on which he and Turner collaborated, HUMAN MONSTERS: THE BIZARRE PSYCHOLOGY OF MOVIE VILLAINS. Never fully satisfied with the book's outcome, Price offers a real treat for fans unfamiliar with the long out-of-print original publication. For not only do the authors offer erudite study and commentary on their specialty, the B movie and exploitation feature of the past, but also more top-of-the-line movies ranging from the 1920s until the '50s. In fact, the last two entries deal with the despicables that dominate such big-budgeted films of 1958, Orson Welles' TOUCH OF EVIL and William Wyler's THE BIG COUNTRY, the latter costing in the $4 million range when that amount was serious money.

Along the way, the reader is led on a journey of discovery with such productions as THE ANCIENT MARINER (1925), now thought to be a lost treasure of the silent era that the authors had the pleasure of viewing back in the late '60s before it disappeared from view. Their memories of this epic produced by William Fox, coupled with haunting stills of its action, give it an almost mystical air and a desire to be seen in some format on the part of cineastes. Ditto their discussion of the well-regarded 1936 Australian-made jungle adventure UNCIVILIZED, which is more readily available now through home video and streaming services and as a result, more accessible to anyone who hasn't seen this film. UNCIVILIZED was made by Charles Chauvel, whom Paul Hogan, a later star of Down Under and international fame with his CROCODILE DUNDEE movies, referred to as "the Australian Griffith."

All of this and much more awaits the peruser of THE FORGOTTEN HORRORS READER, which even serves as a great start to the entire FH canon. For lovers of little-known and unheralded movies, it's a joy from beginning to end. -- Kevin Kelly