Johnny Deadline Takes a Look at Books

 by JB

Time for this former English teacher to pull you bodily from your multiplex seat, compel you to ride home with me in stony silence, sit you down in my classroom, and force you to READ.

Before October and Scary Movie Month pulls us all away from hearth and home, sense and sensibility, let us remind ourselves that, as President John Adams once said, a book can be your best friend. So let me introduce you to my new friends!

Phantom Limbs: Dissecting Horror’s Lost Sequels and Remakes, Jason Jenkins

I found this delightful new book on a recent trip to Dark Delicacies bookstore in Burbank, where it became my latest impulse buy. It is a compendium of essays originally published on the Bloody Disgusting website about films that never got made (or were eventually made in very different forms). The book runs the gamut, from covering the original conceptions of Psycho II, Halloween 6, and The Hitcher to proposed-but-never-made films like Love at Second Bite, Predators: Clan War, and Halloran. That last film, by the way, was intended as a sort-of sequel to The Shining; it made it to the outline stage, but was never made because Doctor Sleep underperformed at the box office. Oh, the things that might have been!

Star Struck: My Unlikely Road to Hollywood, Leonard Maltin

“Old Chipmunk Cheeks” and I go way back. I bought my first copy of Maltin's TV Movies when I was about eleven years old. Because I did not know anything back then, I was convinced that I was the ONLY person on Earth who knew about a film called Dr. Strangelove, which I had snuck out of bed and watched at three in the morning when I was ten. Of course, that early edition of Maltin’s indispensable book contained a listing for Dr. Strangelove, which convinced me that this was the reference book for me. For decades, I would to buy each year's volume of the book, sit down and read it like a novel, and highlight the films I had actually seen. Fun for those with OCD. PLEASE only EVER use the YELLOW highlighter!

This new book is an anecdotal compendium of Maltin's numerous celebrity encounters. It’s a brisk, fun read. No highlighter necessary.

BY THE BY: Fathom Events, having severed ties with TCM (or is it the other way around?) now features Leonard Maltin introducing its monthly “Big Screen Classics” series. I recently attended the September screening, Blazing Saddles, and it was nice to see my old friend back on the big screen. October’s entry is Mean Girls, playing October 3 and 6; November’s is The Fifth Element, playing November 17 and 20; and December’s, predictably, is White Christmas, playing December 15 and 16. If crippling social anxiety keeps you from leaving your home, White Christmas is also being released on 4K Blu-ray on November 5. White Christmas looks stunning on screens both large and small because it was originally filmed in VistaVision, which no less an expert than Martin Scorsese has called the single greatest film format ever invented.

Rankin Bass' Mad Monster Party, Rick Goldschmidt

Every October, I break out my disc of this Rankin-Bass stalwart, spin it for fun... and wish it were better. Originally conceived as a Rudolph-like television special, it received unnecessary padding when inflated to feature length for the big screen. Why does the film spend so much time in the kitchen with that outrageous Italian stereotype Chef? Why does the film spend so much time with those @#%$&%$ Zombie Birdmen aviators? Padding, my dear Watson, padding.

Goldschmidt is the ranking expert on Rankin Bass, having penned two previous books on the subject. Here, he turns his attention to the misbegotten little curiosity that is Mad Monster Party—including an exhaustive production history; the entire original shooting script; the complete Dell comic book adaptation; and oodles of production photographs, drawings, and sketches.

HINT: Treat yourself to the re-issued Waxworks Records vinyl soundtrack album and the Umbrella Entertainment special edition Blu-ray, which included stickers, enamel pins, and a reproduction of the Dell comic book. Then sit there with all of your stop-motion swag... and wish the film were better.

Noir Bar: Cocktails Inspired by the World of Film Noir, Eddie Muller

Film noir, craft cocktails, and TCM’s Eddie Muller. A match made in heaven! Delicious...and informative. This book makes me wish that my capacity for alcohol was as prodigious as my capacity for dark city streets, crooked cops, and dames that are...pure poison.

Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween, David J. Skal

Though this was published way back in 2002, I include it here because 1) it is a terrific and well-researched book on a subject we all love, 2) it will get you in the mood for Scary Movie Month quicker than a visit to your local Spirit Halloween Superstore, and 3) we lost author David Skal last January. Sadly, he was hit by a drunk driver on New Year’s Eve. Skal was a national treasure, his books are cornucopias of insight and delight, and he was taken from us much too soon.

ANNOYING AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL PAUSE: I can still remember attending a lecture given by Skal at our local community college on Halloween Night in 1995, following the publication of his Monster Show book. It blew my mind, as did the book. The book he signed to me that night is one of my cherished possessions. In the inscription, he gives me explicit permission to MASH. So... I got that going for me, which is nice.

FOR LONG-TIME READERS OF THIS COLUMN: BFI continues to publish entries in their long-running “Film Classics” monograph series. I am on record as being an unapologetic fanboy of these slim, tasty volumes. The next three books in the series are Close Encounters of the Third Kind by Dana Polan and Midnight Cowboy by James Kendrick, both available on October 3; and Chinatown by Michael Eaton, available on November 14.

ONE MORE THING: Whenever I pen one of these “Looks at Books” columns, I sit at my laptop, staring at the blank page, waiting for inspiration, and ONE special song invariably creeps into my addled brain. Back when Jimmy Fallon really leaned into his talent for mimicry, he once performed the “Reading Rainbow” theme as Jim Morrison. Inspired! If you'd like to approximate what it feels like to be me, READ THIS COLUMN WHILE LISTENING TO THIS SONG.