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JohnMGM |
Latest Filmfax |
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The new issue of Filmfax has shipped and should be available in early May.
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M F Berry |
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Thanks for the update ... have any info regarding content? |
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TomWeaver999 |
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New FILMFAX features William Shatner today on the cover (eek!), Shatner talking about THE INTRUDER, CHFBer Michael Barnum's interview with actor turned
makeup man Frank Griffin (no, not the Invisible Man!), an interview with long-dead director Gerald Mayer, the equally dead Barry Morse on THE FUGITIVE, brief
chats with Amicus director Kevin Connor, Caroline Munro and Michael Callan, William Smith interviewed again and telling the "I was the boy who kicked the
ball in GHOST OF FRANK" whopper again, William Nolan on LOGAN'S RUN, a visit to WEREWOLF OF LONDON's Vasquez Rocks, and more.
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BijouBob8mm |
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brief chats with Amicus director Kevin Connor, Caroline Munro...William Nolan on LOGAN'S RUNGrabbing the latest FilmFax, for me, has always been pretty much automatic but, even if this were a title I flipped through first, those bits would be enough for me to take it home. |
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M F Berry |
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Thanks for the info, Tom!
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brianalbright |
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My interview with Robert Burrill, director/producer of THE MILPITAS MONSTER, is also in there along with gobs of photos that he sent me.
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TomWeaver999 |
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Oops -- sorry, Brian -- I should learn not to post these things by memory!
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Rakshasa |
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Sounds like a great issue.
I haven't been out to a Borders or Barnes & Noble in a while, but I'll have to make sure I do before this issue goes away. |
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TomWeaver999 |
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Washington Post 5/13/08
Horrors! Enough to Wake the Living Dead Filmfax Covers the Ghoulish in a Retro, Cheesy Kind of Way By Peter Carlson Washington Post Staff Writer "Monsters Crash the Pajama Party"? Yes! "Werewolves on Wheels"? Absolutely! How about "Teenagers From Outer Space" and "Evil Brain From Outer Space" and "I Married a Monster From Outer Space"? Yes, yes and yes! You can buy all of these timeless classics of the modern cinema on DVD from those wonderful folks at Filmfax magazine, each for only 15 or 20 bucks! But wait, there's much, much more! You can also buy "Fiend Without a Face" and "Devil Girl From Mars" and " Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" and . . . Oh, sorry about that. I guess I got a little carried away there. I'm supposed to be writing my usual high-tone scholarly textual analysis of the articles in Filmfax magazine and here I am getting all excited about the ads. Filmfax has page after page of ads for DVDs of the kinds of films you just don't see on Turner Classic Movies -- movies like "Monster A-Go-Go" and "Saturn Avenger vs. the Terror Robot" and "They Saved Hitler's Brain." But the thing is: In Filmfax, the articles and the ads are, as they say in the quality lit-crit biz, all part of an organic whole, a veritable Weltanschauung. Filmfax, which bills itself as "The Magazine of Unusual Film, Television & Retro Pop Culture," is the bible of B-movies, Kama Sutra of kitsch, the Bhagavad-Gita of so-bad-it's-good cheesiness. For 23 years, Filmfax has been covering the auteurs who created movies such as "Invasion of the Bee Girls" with the same reverence that Cahiers du Cinema reserves for Jean-Luc Godard. In the current issue, which is the 117th issue of this influential cinematic quarterly, the cover story is an interview with actor William Shatner about his role in the 1962 Roger Corman film "The Intruder." It's an unusual piece for Filmfax because Shatner is actually, you know, famous. Most Filmfax interviewees are utterly obscure, except to the kind of fans who know everything there is to know about the cast and crew of "The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism." The best article in this issue is a six-page homage to William Smith, the actor who appeared in "The Ghost of Frankenstein" and "High School Confidential" and "Grave of the Vampire," but who really built his reputation as a brawling biker in such classic motorcycle movies as "Angels Die Hard" and "Chrome and Hot Leather." The high point of the piece is a description of the legendary fight scene between Smith and actor Rod Taylor in the 1970 noir film "Darker Than Amber," a scene that Filmfax hails as "a benchmark in screen violence." "Taylor used the opportunity to see how tough Smith could be by deviating from the planned action to pummel him with body blows that broke several ribs," writes William Fogg. "He responded by breaking Taylor's nose as the cameras rolled. At the end, both actors were bruised and bloody, and Smith's knee was compromised when Taylor hit him with a board that somehow missed the protective kneepad." Also in this issue is an interview with Caroline Munro, a beautiful British actress who made a career playing terrified and/or dead women who wear extremely low-cut outfits in such movies as "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" and "Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter." Munro has nothing but nice things to say about legendary horrormeister Vincent Price: "He was so gentle and so funny, and what a fantastic cook! He used to come into the make-up room at about seven o'clock in the morning with some of his homemade paté, so the make-up girl, the hair-dresser, Vincent, and myself stuffed ourselves with paté. Then I sort of lay there in the coffin, trying hard not to burp." Apparently, Price wasn't the only gourmet cook in the horror movie community. Filmfax reviews a new book called "It Came From the Kitchen" -- a collection of recipes by scary-movie celebrities that includes Rod Serling's German potato pancakes, Bela Lugosi's stuffed cabbage rolls and Janet Leigh's lamb shanks. Martin Sheen declined to send a recipe, but he did sent a photo of himself with a revealing three-word phrase scrawled beneath his autograph: "Cream of Wheat." Filmfax doesn't just focus on the actors and directors of schlock movies. It also covers makeup artists and special-effects wizards and the composers of the ominous music that lets viewers know that the girl is about to get eaten by the monster. Here, for instance, is how Filmfax's reviewer summed up the career of Herman Stein, who composed music for "Creature From the Black Lagoon" and "The Incredible Shrinking Man" and "Abbott and Costello Go to Mars": "Stein was a bit of a chameleon, capable of turning his hand to various musical genres, even turning out drivel when the occasion demanded." Turning out drivel when the occasion demands is a big part of success in any field, so I think we should pause right here for a heartfelt salute to Herman Stein. Every once in a while, Filmfax writers remind you that Filmfax readers are not your average Americans. Such a moment comes in David J. Hogan's review of a DVD containing four movies by schlockmeister Sam Katzman -- "Zombies of Mara Tau," "The Werewolf," "The Giant Claw" and "Creature With the Atomic Brain." "Filmfax readers are well familiar with the four features," Hogan writes, "so the pictures need not be detailed here." What kind of man reads Filmfax? "I am a steady reader of your great mag," writes Jim Monaco of Cliffwood Beach, N.J., in a letter to the editor. "I have one of the largest (if not the largest) collections of Dean Martin memorabilia in the world . . . including Martin and Lewis puppets, comics, cigarette lighters, money clips, tape dispensers." Of course, you don't have to be an obsessive pop-culture collector to love Filmfax. No red-blooded American could fail to be moved by the pure poetry contained in the titles of the movies advertised in Filmfax for the low, low price of only $8 or $15 or $20. |
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Wich2 |
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I sure respect the work that you guys put into the writing, & I used to love the mag.
But since it's been a Catalog, I feel rooked paying for it. -Craig W. |
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TomWeaver999 |
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I wouldn't mind paying for a mag that was half ads ..... as long as the cover price is that of a mag about half as thick.
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JimPV |
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TomWeaver999 wrote: He may know big words like "Weltanschauung", but at least I know it's Creature with the
Atom Brain and Zombies of Mora Tau.
Last Edited By: JimPV
05/17/08 4:34 PM.
Edited 1 times.
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lsohgirl |
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I picked up this issue yesterday, and was surprised to see color photos for the cover. FILMFAX has had such a wonderful history of great cover art by the likes
of Harley Brown and Vincent DiFate. I hope this is a one-time deal, although in this day and age, when you are trying to sell a mag, I suppose this could be a
good selling issue. Shatner is a "name" again.
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BijouBob8mm |
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I picked up this issue yesterday, and was surprised to see color photos for the cover. FILMFAX has had such a wonderful history of great cover art by the likes of Harley Brown and Vincent DiFate.The cover was a surprise. Isn't that Brown's work on the little color sketch of Caroline Munro in the upper left-hand corner? (Just one man's opinion, but I wish they would have given Caroline the entire cover.) |
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HammerFilmFan |
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They just did that a couple years ago though.
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BijouBob8mm |
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You're right--they did! (Guess I'd better get that second cup of coffee this morning, and get the memory going again!)
Janet Leigh's lamb shanksCan you talk about stuff like that on a family-oriented board?
Last Edited By: BijouBob8mm
06/04/08 1:39 PM.
Edited 1 times.
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brianalbright |
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Not sure when it's mailing, but FilmFAX 118 will feature my very first cover story ever (as far as I can remember): An in-depth piece on the convoluted
history of MADMEN OF MANDORAS/THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN. The story is illustrated with a handful of behind-the-scenes photos I obtained (with permission)
from the David Bradley collection at the University of Indiana in Bloomington. They also sent me copies of the original audience survey forms from the
film's initial screening, which weren't nearly as enlightening as I had hoped (although a few of them were kind of a hoot). Much of Bradley's
famous film collection now resides at the university library, including the last few of his New Year's party home movies (from the 1990s).
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G Vallejo |
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My article should be in there, too. I don't want to pester them, so I've been looking around online for a release date of some sort. I found a comic
store selling magazines that states the new issue will ship in October, but that can't be right, can it? Maybe it was for 119... I didn't know what the
next issue number would be.
I'm on vacation in Ohio, visiting the folks, and I've been telling everyone to keep an eye out for it... I had hoped it would be out by now so I could be here when it's on the stands.
Consider the true cost of living with Clown Phobia.
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SanzarQ |
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I'm losing interest quickly in this title, sad to say. I used to really like it, but my fondness is rapidly waning.
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M F Berry |
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SanzarQ, I'm curious ... for what reason(s)? |
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BijouBob8mm |
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the Kama Sutra of kitschOnly at CHFB can you find this kind of writing! I found a comic store selling magazines that states the new issue will ship in October, but that can't be right, can it? Maybe it was for 119Given their current publishing schedule trends, and that #117 (with William's Shatner & Smith, and Caroline Munro) came out around May, that may very well be for issue 118. |
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