The St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia
Edited by Andrew Sarris
Visible Ink Press, 892 pps.
hardback, $29.95
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Since Andrew Sarris is the man who popularized the auteur theory, an idea which didn't set well with those of us who cherish the concept of cinema as a collaborative art, I approached this hefty tome with some trepidation. After reading Sarris's introduction, however, I modified my attitude considerably. "No, I am not now and have never been an unmodulated and uninflected auteurist," he comments. "I insisted from the beginning of my discourses that directorial auteurism was the first step rather than last stop of film scholarship." The critic goes on to explain that his writings were "maliciously misinterpreted and distorted." So it goes for those who dare to put their thoughts in print.
For this encyclopedia, Sarris selected more than 200 directors to scrutinize, bringing together more than 100 writers to provide essays about them. The chosen subjects stem from the ranks of the legendary, the contemporary and the up-and-coming. The variety of writers is nearly as diverse, consisting of the down-to-earth, the up-in-the-air and those with personal agendas to pursue; some of the latter find hidden meanings that might be news to the ladies and gents being written about. In most cases, however, the focus is upon filmmaking themes, influences and techniques.
The excellent filmographies found here list of all directorial credits, as well as each artist's work in other disciplines such as cinematography, writing, editing and acting. Select photos accompany each entry.
Getting back to Sarris's introduction, here's another line that struck a poignant chord: "Undeniably, many people will at least be partially unhappy with our choices, and why shouldn't they be when we are not entirely happy ourselves?"
Of Gods and Monsters:
A Critical Guide to Universal Studios' Science Fiction, Horror and Mystery Films, 1929-1939
by John T. Soister
McFarland, 405 pps.
casebound, $65
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John Soister will no doubt trample the toes of some fellow horror-movie fans in this ambitious look at Universal Studio's much-loved classic genre films. The author offers quite a number of well-aimed kicks at some sacred cows: "Tod (rhymes with clod) Browning"; "[Dwight] Frye's inadequacy"; and the "simple-minded absurdities" of Murders in the Rue Morgue. Soister has every right to his opinion, which he expresses while presenting a lot of interesting material. However, his rollicking prose style is sometimes ill-suited to the material, and he makes a few factual errors as well, such as the statement that Mystery of Life was never even made. The picture was released at 73 minutes on August 3, 1931, although many theaters refused to book the film because it espoused Darwin's theory of evolution — oh, horror of horrors!
But enough grousing; here's the good news. While almost every film historian in captivity has written ad nauseam about most of Universal's all-out horror pictures, Soister ventures into less familiar territory. He covers such pre-Dracula gems as The Last Warning, The Charlatan, The Last Performance, The Cat Creeps and La voluntad del muerto in an expansive style that these pictures richly deserve. Along the way, he also devotes attention to some neglected shows of the Carl Laemmle era, including Secret of the Blue Room, The Love Captive, Remember Last Night? and Mystery of Edwin Drood. Also, welcome material abounds on a dozen not-quite-horror pictures made during the 1936-38 European ban on fright flicks, including the half-dozen Crime Club mysteries. The main text winds up with the two epic chillers responsible for the genre's 1939 rebirth: Son of Frankenstein and Tower of London.
A savory bit of icing is offered up in the appendices: a report on the six Shadow Detective two-reelers of 1931-32 and the New York-made The Radio Murder Mystery shorts of 1933.
The Poe Cinema:
A Critical Filmography of Theatrical Releases Based on the Works of Edgar Allan Poe
by Don G. Smith
McFarland, 352 pps.
casebound, $55
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Many movies have been based upon the macabre tales of 19th-century American author/poet Edgar Allan Poe, and the attribute most common to these adaptations is the slight resemblance they bear to the original texts. But some notable exceptions do figure in this critical filmography. Smith records 81 pictures from 13 countries that were adapted from Poe's works between 1908 (Sherlock Holmes in the Great Murder Mystery) and 1992 (Tale of a Vampire). In each case, he lists vital statistics along with a synopsis and critique; in most instances, both essays are impressively detailed, but some that are understandably brief when dealing with films no longer available for study. (The author is refreshingly frank in noting those pictures he has been unable to see.)
Although Smith is good at acknowledging his sources of information, those which he has utilized are not always reliable. Thus, the 1932 version of Unhelmliche Geschichten "sees Richard Oswald remake his 1913 version of the same title as a comedy." The seed of that idea is based on the Overlook Film Encyclopedia's statement that the picture "pokes fun at the classic motives of the genre." Having personally seen the film, however, I can attest that it is unremittingly grim. Also for the record: The Ghost Breakers is not "a remake of The Cat and the Canary," and the 1953 TV drama Heartbeat is not the version of The Telltale Heart that William Cameron Menzies directed, which was actually made under Poe's title in 1949.
Most of the pictures examined in this tome are admirable in their detail, especially the Epstein version of La Chute de la Maison Usher, several Universal adaptations of the early Thirties, Dwain Esper's notorious Maniac, MGM's fine two-reel version of The Telltale Heart, the Roger Corman productions of several Poe titles, and some of the lesser-known independent and foreign films.
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© 1999 ASC