Michael Mallory

A must for any fan of the Universal Monster movies. Beautifully illustrated with film stills, promotional photos, posters, lobby cards and behind-the-scenes photos (my favourite being Boris Karloff in full Frankenstein's Monster make-up genteely sipping his four o'clock tea from a china cup and saucer).

There's a short history of the studio and an overview of the macabre silent movies that were the precursors of the later Monster horrors. Each of the classic films Monster are described in show more brief, with some production details and information about the actors, directors, writers and some of the crew. Then there are spotlight sections on individuals who were important to the series.

This isn't an encyclopedic, in-depth history of the studio and films: it's not for scholars. It is a fun overview or introduction; delightful and entertaining and has sent me back, with a renewed interest and appreciation, for the films I used to stay up late as a kid to watch on the TV, lights out, tucked under a blanket om the coach and worrying about whether I, though pure of heart, might turn into a wolf when the wolfbane bloomed when the autumn moon was bright! show less

Absolutely gorgeous coffee table book about the heyday of Universal Monsters movies—and their often slapdash, inconsistent, yet somehow still loveable sequels.

Mallory does a great job of walking you through the initial movie and all its follow-ups, the key players, and the things and actors that changed along the way.

I'm going to have to go back and revisit my collection of Universal Monsters movies. It's been too long since I was sitting in my parents' rec room, staring wide-eyed in show more horror, awe, or humour at the events unfolding on our old television screen. show less

I bought this book for my X-Men loving fiance and he was not disappointed. Though the text could be better at times, the pictures and the sheer amount of X-Men history packed into this book is worth the price. My only negatives were that there was no character spotlight for Rogue, but that is a personal nitpick as she is my favorite X-Man, and that Mallory frequently tried to pull parallels between X-Men and Harry Potter. We get it. You think that J.K. Rowling took her idea of Hogwarts from show more Xavier's boarding school, and that the struggle between mutants and normal humans is the same one that Rowling used in her wizard vs. muggle mentality. I would just have rather that those opinions been left out to solely focus on the amazing creation that is the X-Universe. Still, it is a gorgeous volume and makes a nice coffee table book for comic fans. I give it three stars. show less

Good overview of Universal's history and its most famous film series. Nice coffee table book with many photographs and a great reminder (if not a great intro) to why many of us love these 70 year old movies.