The Very Witching Time of Night

<p> The book covers unusual and often surprising areas of horror film history: (1) The harrowingly tragic life of <I>Dracula</I>'s leading lady Helen Chandler as intimately remembered by her sister-in-law. (2) John Barrymore's 1931 horror vehicles <I>Svengali</I> and <I>The Mad Genius</I> and their rejection by the public. (3) The disastrous shooting of 1933's <I>Murders in the Zoo</I> perhaps the most racy of all Pre-Code horror films. (4) A candid interview with the son of legendary horror star Lionel Atwill. (5) The censorship battles of <I>One More River</I> as waged by <I>Frankenstein</I> director James Whale. (6) The adventures (and misadventures) of Boris Karloff as a star at Warner Bros. (7) The stage and screen versions of the horror/comedy <I>Arsenic and Old Lace</I>. (8) Production diaries of the horror noirs <I>Cat People</I> and <I>The Curse of the Cat People</I>. (9) <I>Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man</I> revisited. (10) Horror propaganda: The production of <I>Hitler's Madman</I>. (11) Horror star John Carradine and the rise and fall of his Shakespearean Repertory Company. (12) The <I>Shock! Theatre</I> television phenomenon. And (13) A Tribute to Carl Laemmle Jr. producer of the original Universal horror classics including an interview with his lady friend of almost 40 years.</p>