I Was a Monster Movie Maker

Phil Brown, who played Luke Skywalker’s uncle in Star Wars, said, “In my long life in films, there are ones I’m proud of and those I’m not proud of. The Jungle Captive and Weird Woman fall into the latter category.” House of Wax co-star Paul Picerni was fired by the film’s director when he refused to put his head in a working guillotine during a climactic fight scene.
Packed with wonderful tidbits, this volume collects 22 interviews with the moviemakers responsible for bringing such films as This Island Earth, The Haunting, Carnival of Souls, Pit and the Pendulum, House of Wax, Tarzan the Ape Man, The Black Cat, Them! and Invasion of the Body Snatchers to the movie screen. Faith Domergue, Michael Forest, Anne Helm, Candace Hilligoss, Suzanna Leigh, Norman Lloyd, Maureen O’Sullivan, Shirley Ulmer, Dana Wynter and many more are interviewed.

Tom Weaver lives in Sleepy Hollow, New York, and has been interviewing moviemakers since the early 1980s. The New York Times called him one of the leading scholars in the horror field and USA Today has described him as the king of the monster hunters. Classic Images called him “the best interviewer we have today.” He is a frequent contributor to numerous film magazines and has been featured in the prestigious Best American Movie Writing. A frequent DVD audio commentator, he is the author of numerous reference and other nonfiction books about American popular culture.

Tom Weaver

Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 320
Bibliographic Info: 97 photos, filmographies, index
Copyright Date: 2011 [2001]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6444-9
eISBN: 978-0-7864-6265-0
Imprint: McFarland

• “one of the leading scholars in the horror field”—New York Times
• “the king of the monster hunters”—USA Today
• “one of our foremost fantasy film historians”— Sight & Sound
• “refreshingly candid interviewees”—VideoScope
• “Weaver’s interviewing style is spontaneous and very impressive…interesting people…valuable…recommend[ed]”—Classic Images
• “Tom Weaver is the king of film historians”—Starlog
• “a perpetual…fascinating oral history of horror/science fiction cinema…Weaver’s encyclopedic knowledge of genre films makes him our premier oral historian. He never fails to unearth fascinating, behind-the-scenes tidbits from each of his subjects. [His] ability bring[s] out the candid and humane side of his interviewees that makes his books indispensable…excellent”—Monsters From the Vault
• “depth, interest, and even excitement out of the subjects…[a] wealth of memories and anecdotes—that one seldom finds elsewhere…first-rate…high quality”—Horror-Wood