Bøger af Thomas Reeder

"THIS IS BEACH HAVEN, NOT THE BIG CITY; WE HAVE OUR OWN WAY OF DOING THINGS. WE DON'T NEED OUTSIDERS BUTTING IN, TRYING TO CHANGE THINGS." Lewis Porter was an outsider - asked by the local police to examine a murder scene because of his past...work experience. It was experience that he was more than happy to keep right where he left it: in the past. But people's pasts have a funny way of catching up with them. A string of mysterious disappearances of amateur poetesses in the sleepy New Jersey shore town of 1930s Beach Haven bring Porter out of self-imposed retirement and lead him from the beaches to the Pinelands in search of an answer and a killer - a killer who makes it personal. Porter finds more than death: beneath the sand and the trees runs a foul, hidden sewer of sin in which society's highest and lowest swim - all of whom have a stake in keeping their dirty truths from seeing light. And Porter is holding open the manhole cover. It's a case that not everyone wants solved - except Porter. The question is, will he finish the case before it finishes him? "Ever seen a dead man?" I was looking at one.

It was every immigrant's dream. Within ten years of his 1906 arrival in the U.S., Henry Lehrman had achieved both fame and fortune in the fledgling film industry. Widely acknowledged as the creator of frenetic comedies of unusual artistry and unparalleled mayhem, Lehrman's guidance and creativity ushered newcomer Charles Chaplin to international popularity at Mack Sennett's Keystone. Roscoe Arbuckle, Ford Sterling, and numerous others benefited immeasurably from his direction as well, at Keystone and later at Lehrman's own Sterling, L-Ko, and Fox Sunshine companies. By 1919, Lehrman's meteoric rise led to the realization of his dreams: full independence and artistic control with his Henry Lehrman Comedies. And then it all collapsed. Lehrman's career hit the skids with the studio's failure, followed by his involvement in the era's most notorious scandal: the alleged rape and subsequent death of Lehrman's fiancé, Virginia Rappe, at the hands of his friend Arbuckle. MR. SUICIDE: HENRY "PATHE" LEHRMAN AND THE BIRTH OF SILENT COMEDY is a riveting cautionary tale for all aspiring artists whose dreams exceed their grasp.

"Our comedies are not to be laughed at!" A funny line, admittedly, but dead wrong. This quip, supposedly uttered by one of the Stern Brothers, is another example of the legend becoming "fact," and has defined - and tarnished - the lasting reputation of the brothers and their films. In spite of budgetary constraints and a lack of star power, Julius and Abe Stern were responsible for nearly 900 silent comedy shorts over the fifteen year period 1914-29; films often just as good - if not better - than those of their primary competitors, Mack Sennett and Hal Roach. They were financially successful as well, the brothers retiring from filmmaking at the end of the silent era as millionaires. But there is more to the story. Little known is the breadth and depth of the Sterns' relationship with their brother-in-law, Universal head Carl Laemmle, and the relationship's eventual downturn. Or Julius's humanitarian endeavors in the 1930s, sponsoring the emigration of numerous Jews from Hitler's Germany. TIME IS MONEY! THE CENTURY, RAINBOW, AND STERN BROTHERS COMEDIES OF JULIUS AND ABE STERN finally reveals the intriguing - and true - story of the lives and careers of Julius and Abe Stern. Lavishly illustrated with more than 300 rare photos, TIME IS MONEY! details the making of the brothers' films, and delves into their previously undocumented, behind the scenes importance to Laemmle and the growth of Universal. 

Never heard of him? Not surprising, as Ben Pivar was one of the faceless craftsmen who inhabited the sizable world of Hollywood's cinematic underbelly, the B film. But while often disparaged and mocked for their low-budget look, breakneck storytelling, and low wattage casts, B films occupied the second half of most theaters' bill during the thirties and forties-something most patrons expected to fill out their evening's entertainment. And Ben Pivar was responsible for a staggering number of them.Stop Yellin' chronicles Pivar's life, both the highs and lows, concentrating on his most productive years while at Universal Studios. From his late-1920s start as a film cutter at Universal, Pivar advanced into film production in the 1930s at Columbia, Grand National, and Republic, before settling in at Universal as associate producer in 1938. For the next eight years, Pivar would master his craft and churn out a lot of slick, thoroughly enjoyable films; his eventual promotion to one of the studio's coveted executive producer positions placed him at the top of the B unit hierarchy. It's his horror films that have stood the test of time, the films that Pivar is remembered for today: The Mummy's Hand and its three sequels; the Inner Sanctum series featuring Lon Chaney, Jr.; The Mad Ghoul; Horror Island; and She-Wolf of London. There were Pivar's own personal creations as well: Captive Wild Woman and its two sequels; and the Rondo Hatton "Creeper" series, House of Horrors (the source of the oft-quoted "Stop Yellin'" line) and The Brute Man.