Once again, I've been needing something for a quick post today. I decided it was time to try something that might or might not work out, but which I've definitely been wanting to do. In the course of my movie reviews, I have been reminded that a lot of what I know started with old-fashioned books. Before the internet, the best way to learn about what was out there, or identify what the Hell you had watched, was trying to find it in the books at the library. I personally stuck with it well into college. In the process, I read a lot of books at one time or another that are now even more elusive than the movies I was reading about. However, there were two that influenced me more than any others, and I now have both of them in my personal collections. Here are my guidebooks to weird movies.
The first under consideration is one I've mentioned before, Science Fiction Movies by Philip Strick. It will be clear from the title that it comes from a time when the genre wasn't as lively as it is now, though you wouldn't know that from the book itself. It was published in 1976, a year before Star Wars. I have always cherished it as the one where I first heard of Dark Star and Westworld (and probably Duel also). Naturally, I forgot the book itself long before I thought to look for it. What finally drove me to seek it out was that I remembered it had a summary of a very bizarre animated short I had searched for on and off. I can't quite piece together exactly how, but after some online sleuthing, I identified the book, based in part on a shot of a two-page spread from inside, and ordered it a year or so ago. Here's a pic of the inside of the book.
The second book was a film reference book I read from heavily in the college library. Its mark in my memory was that it was where I finally identified Krull. It was also one of the first places I found out about quite a few horror movies, including Dawn of the Dead. It was more elusive, except that I had a clear enough memory to narrow down when it was written. It turned out to be a book called The World of Fantastic Films by Peter Nicholls (sometimes just Fantastic Films), published in 1984. I finally tracked it down in the last month or so. Here's a closeup of the cover and a bit of the interior.
Having had the chance to look through these books as an adult and now a seasoned film hound, they both feel odd in hindsight. Strick's profusely illustrated book is clearly more "popular" and potentially kid-friendly, though it covers plenty of very adult movies. It tries to organize movies based on themes, but in practice it just feels random. I personally still haven't made much headway re-reading it. Nicholls' book is more scholarly, covering science fiction, fantasy and horror both by era and individual film makers. It's been much easier to get back into, but it does suffer from a tendency to be self-datingly topical, especially in its treatments of then up-and-coming filmmakers. It does at least absolve itself of being hard on anything "new", providing favorable comments on originally controversial films like The Thing and Evil Dead.
In writing this up, I looked into the history of the writers. Nicholls was an academic who did a number of works on the science fiction genre, including The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction in 1979. Strick was a bit more colorful. Per a bio at SF Encyclopedia, he was a teacher and lecturer who branched out into criticism and writing. His body of work including both works on science fiction and films in general. Intriguingly, he also edited an anthology of humorous science fiction stories titled Antigrav. By the way, I found out the short film I was looking for is called Scarabus... and it's not great.
I must admit, these are two acquisitions I still have yet to fully assess. Nicholls' book has been interesting as a reminder how I first heard about many films. If I had to choose, however, I still would probably still take Strick's book, if only because it has a much higher density of genuinely obscure films, possibly even more so for the time it was originally published. I still would genuinely recommend both books. Each offers a snapshot of the genre at a pivotal time, especially Strick's. They are also genuinely impressive compilations of information on a wide range of movies. Even a well-versed film fan will probably run across at least a few movies you haven't heard of. The books should serve as a further reminder that reading about movies can be at least as fun as watching them. With that, I wrap this up. More to come!
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