Surfers loathed them, teenagers flocked to them, critics dismissed them, producers banked on them--surf and beach movies. For a short time in the 1960s they were extremely popular with younger audiences--mainly because of the shirtless surfer boys and bikini-clad beach girls, the musical performers, and the wild surfing footage. This lavishly illustrated filmography details 32 sizzling fun-in-the-sun teenage epics from Gidget to the Beach Party movies with Frankie and Annette to The Sweet Ride plus a few offshoots in the snow!) Entries include credits, plot synopses, memorable lines, reviews and awards, and commentary from such as Aron Kincaid of The Girls on the Beach, Susan Hart of The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini, Peter Brown of Ride the Wild Surf, Chris Noel of Beach Ball, and Ed Garner of Beach Blanket Bingo. Biographies of actors and leading actresses who made their marks in the genre are included.

Includes Part 1, Number 2: Books and Pamphlets, Including Serials and Contributions to Periodicals July - December)

Several decades after his last motion picture was produced, Alfred Hitchcock is still regarded by critics and fans alike as one of the masters of cinema. From silents of the 1920s to his final feature in 1976, the director’s many films continue to entertain audiences and inspire filmmakers. In The Alfred Hitchcock Encyclopedia, film critic Stephen Whitty provides a detailed overview of the director's work. This reference volume features in-depth critical entries on each of his major films as well as biographical essays on his most frequent collaborators and discussions of significant themes in his work. For this book, Whitty draws on primary-source materials such as interviews he conducted with associates of the director—including screenwriter Jay Presson Allen (Marnie), actresses Eva Marie Saint (North by Northwest) and Kim Novak (Vertigo), actor Farley Granger (Strangers on a Train), actor and producer Norman Lloyd (Saboteur), and Hitchcock’s daughter Patricia (Stage Fright; Psycho)—among others. Encompassing the entire range of the director’s career—from early influences and silent films to his decade-long television show and cameos in nearly every feature—this is a comprehensive overview of cinema’s ultimate showman. A detailed and lively look at the master of suspense, The Alfred Hitchcock Encyclopedia will be of interest to professors, students, and the many fans of the director’s work.

In Magnificent Obsession: The Outrageous History of Film Buffs, Collectors, Scholars, and Fanatics, author Anthony Slide looks at the way film has dominated the minds and lives of film buffs, film collectors, film academics, and just plain fans of past movies. Based on the author's more than fifty years in the field and his personal, up-front knowledge of the subject, chapters provide unique documentation on film buffs who once created a livelihood from their hobby, including long-forgotten Chaw Mank and the vast array of film clubs that he headed and New York radio and television sensation Joe Franklin. The history of fans and their fan clubs are discussed, as well as the first and only periodical, Films in Review, which catered both to film scholars and film buffs. The histories of several legendary film collectors such as David Bradley and Herb Graff are featured, as is Hollywood's Silent Movie Theatre, where film buffs found a home from the 1940s onwards, sharing it with drug dealers, male prostitutes, fantasists, and hit men. Magnificent Obsession is vast in its approach, discussing the entire history of the phenomenon of the film buff from the early 1910s through the present and documenting the manner in which film buffs have changed--thanks to the internet--from relatively gentle and kind individuals to the obsessive, sometimes overbearing, and often self-important film buffs of today.

Bill Warren's Keep Watching the Skies! was originally published in two volumes, in 1982 and 1986. It was then greatly expanded in what we called the 21st Century Edition, with new entries on several films and revisions and expansions of the commentary on every film. In addition to a detailed plot synopsis, full cast and credit listings, and an overview of the critical reception of each film, Warren delivers richly informative assessments of the films and a wealth of insights and anecdotes about their making. The book contains 273 photographs (many rare, 35 in color), has seven useful appendices, and concludes with an enormous index. This book is also available in hardcover format (ISBN 978-0-7864-4230-0).