We're attempting to again increase book coverage in the community. Marcia's "Vincent Price and Universal" covers John L. Flynn's 75 YEARS OF UNIVERSAL MONSTERS and Vincent Price's I LIKE WHAT I KNOW: A VISUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY. You like horror movies?
Marcia: I do. I used to watch them growing up and that was a big deal. This was pre-streaming, pre-DVD, pre-VCR. You had to catch them then while they were airing or you might not see them for another year or maybe never. It was a big deal. These days, not so much. In fact, Friday night, my girlfriend and I were rewatching WILL & GRACE on AMAZON -- the revival. We were on the second season and it was when Grace's sister starts sleeping with Chelsea Handler. We watched about four or five episodes. We had watched them when NBC was airing them. But my point is that when we rewatched, the subplot was often new to us. I said, "We must have been doing other things." Meaning we had the episode on and paid attention to the main storyline but not so much to the other one. Anyway, season two -- of the revival -- was something I found funny in real time but it was so much funnier than I remembered. And when I was a kid, something like THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK might be on my local station on Saturday afternoon and I needed to catch it then because I might not be able to catch it later, it might not ever air again. It was a different time. Now you cn grab whatever whenever.
What were your favorite horror films as a kid?
Marcia: Largely the UNIVERSAL films of the 30s and 40s and the HAMMER films of the 50s, 60s and 70s. Specific horror films? Anything with Vincent Price, Christopher Lee or any Dracula movie or MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE or anything -- high brow, low brow.
You liked Vincent Price's book.
Marcia: I really did. I recommend it strongly. He writes in a conversational manner and you can just feel his devotion to art and his appreciation for it.
But you didn't care for the book about UNIVERSAL.
Marcia: No, I found it sloppy. I really didn't care for it at all. For example? In the section on Frankenstein, they work up to the comedy film YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. Teri Garr's in that film. But when they list the cast, they ignore her. I ran my copy and she's the fifth billed in the credits. So how can they mention the actors billed before her and after her? And then later, when summarizing the plot, they provide her name but misspell it -- "Terri" not Teri. It's Teri Garr. These mistakes were fairly common.
You really don't like the book.
Marcia: No, I really don't. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. The book's focus should have made me love it but it's so poorly written and not being able to see the pictures just made me hate it.
Before we wrap, talk about the pictures in case someone hasn't read your review.
Marcia: Sure. There are a lot of photos in the book. Probably stills from the films mentioned. But I don't know that and you don't know that if you're using a digital copy like I did. All the photos have a series of white bars over them -- horizontal bars. You can't see the photos. Real sloppy work.
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