No delicate ingenues, these. In the middle of the twentieth century, the Mary Pickfords of the movie world were replaced by a different sort of woman--drop-dead gorgeous, witty, not afraid to speak their minds, they could slay you with a look--and if that didn't work, look out for the pistol in the garter. These ground-breaking actresses helped change the course of movie history, charting a path for generations to come. These profiles of fifteen leading ladies--Lucille Ball, Lynn Bari, Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak, Gloria Grahame, Jean Hagen, Adele Jergens, Ida Lupino, Marilyn Maxwell, Mercedes McCambridge, Jane Russell, Ann Sheridan, Barbara Stanwyck, Claire Trevor and Marie Windsor--include overviews of their lives and careers, and excerpts from interviews. Five photos supplement each profile. Jane Russell (one of the actresses profiled) provides a foreword.

Straight from the vine to the cookpot and to terrific trivia: everyone will enjoy this juicy tribute to the tangy, tasty tomato. Begin with a horticultural look at resurgent vintage varieties: a comprehensive chart gives specific growing and eating details on more than 50 delicious types, both heirloom and hybrid. Find out how to create and cultivate the "essential tomato garden,” even on a windowsill. Then, head straight to the kitchen with information on how to store, peel, freeze, dry, can, and cook up the harvest. Recipes include such luscious dishes as tomato soup, jam, bread, and green tomato pie. Round out the enlightening feast with fun facts on the tomato’s history and tomato festivals.

The engaging story of Intellivision, an overlooked videogame system from the late 1970s and early 1980s whose fate was shaped by Mattel, Atari, and countless others who invented the gaming industry. Astrosmash, Snafu, Star Strike, Utopia—do these names sound familiar to you? No? Maybe? They were all videogames created for the Intellivision videogame system, sold by Mattel Electronics between 1979 and 1984. This system was Atari’s main rival during a key period when videogames were moving from the arcades into the home. In Intellivision, Tom Boellstorff and Braxton Soderman tell the fascinating inside story of this overlooked gaming system. Along the way, they also analyze Intellivision’s chips and code, games, marketing and business strategies, organizational and social history, and the cultural and economic context of the early US games industry from the mid-1970s to the great videogame industry crash of 1983. While many remember Atari, Intellivision has largely been forgotten. As such, Intellivision fills a crucial gap in videogame scholarship, telling the story of a console that sold millions and competed aggressively against Atari. Drawing on a wealth of data from both institutional and personal archives and over 150 interviews with programmers, engineers, executives, marketers, and designers, Boellstorff and Soderman examine the relationship between videogames and toys—an under-analyzed aspect of videogame history—and discuss the impact of home computing on the rise of videogames, the gendered implications of play and videogame design at Mattel, and the blurring of work and play in the early games industry.

The women who starred in low-budget cult movies created many memorable experiences for those fans of late night flicks such as Saturday Night Frights, Movie Macabre and Up All Night. Brinke Stevens, who played Linda in The Slumber Party Massacre, recalls, "Suddenly I was riding in limos, flying to foreign countries for film festivals, appearing on dozens of popular talk and entertainment TV shows, and truly feeling like a glamorous movie star." This collection of revealing interviews provides insights into the lives of 20 cult film actresses. They discuss the pros and cons of making these movies and the directions their careers have taken since. Among the films they starred in are Night of the Living Dead, The Slumber Party Massacre, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Sleepaway Camp and Elvira's Haunted Hills.

This harvest season horror-themed adventure places the characters in a haunted farm besotted with a myriad of spooky creatures. They have but 'til dawn to solve the mystery of the malevolent power at the dark heart of this chilling tale... 6th to 7th level characters are most appropriate for this scenario. It's more fright than fight so a commando squad will likely be no more successful than a well-balanced group of players able to think on their feet. The adventure features five entirely new creatures done up in Hacklopedia style so you can expect some surprises.

Fun and fright have long been partners in the cinema, dating back to the silent film era and progressing to the Scary Movie franchise and other recent releases. This guide takes a comprehensive look at the comedy-horror movie genre, from the earliest stabs at melding horror and hilarity during the nascent days of silent film, to its full-fledged development with The Bat in 1926, to the Abbott and Costello films pitting the comedy duo against Frankenstein's Monster, the Mummy and other Universal Studio monsters, continuing to such recent cult hits as Shaun of the Dead and Black Sheep. Selected short films such as Tim Burton's Frankenweenie are also covered. Photos and promotional posters, interviews with actors and a filmography are included.

Included in this book are 50 reviews of horror and horror-adjacent Gothic films. Gothic films are medieval romance or films of Victorian inspiration. Each book in the Subgenres of Terror 2020 collection contains a ranked thematic watchlist.

The fascinating memoir of a Hollywood life and an inside look at a life-changing role and the groundbreaking Lord of the Rings films that captured the imagination of movie fans everywhere. The Lord of the Rings is one of the most successful film franchises in cinematic history. Winner of a record eleven Academy Awards--a clean sweep--and breaking box office records worldwide, the trilogy is a breathtaking cinematic achievement and beloved by fans everywhere. For Sean Astin, a Hollywood child (his mother is Patty Duke and stepfather is John Astin) who made his feature film debut at 13 in the 1980s classic The Goonies and played the title role in Rudy, the call from his agent about the role of Samwise Gamgee couldn't have come at a better time. His career was at a low point and choice roles were hard to come by. But his 18-month experience in New Zealand with director Peter Jackson and the cast and crew od The Lord of the Rings films would be more than simply a dream-come-true--it would prove to be the challenge of a lifetime. There and Back Again: An Actor's Tale is the complete memoir of Sean Astin, from his early days in Hollywood to the role that changed his life. Though much has been written about the making of the films, including the techniques and artistry employed to bring Tolkien's vision of life and the various relationships between castmembers, the real story of what took place on the set, the harrowing ordeals of the actors and the unspoken controversy and backstage dealings have never been told. Sean's experience and candid account of his time filming in New Zealand is unparalleled. More than a companion guide to the Ring films, There and Back Again filled with stories from the set and of the actors involved that have never been revealed before and is an eye-opening look from a Hollywood veteran at the blood, sweat and tears that went into the making of one of the most ambitious films of all time.

Previously published as Leonard Maltin’s 2015 Movie Guide, this capstone edition includes a new Introduction by the author. (Note: No new reviews have been added to this edition) Now that streaming services like Netflix and Hulu can deliver thousands of movies at the touch of a button, the only question is: What should I watch? Summer blockbusters and independent sleepers; the masterworks of Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, and Martin Scorsese; the timeless comedy of the Marx Brothers and Woody Allen; animated classics from Walt Disney and Pixar; the finest foreign films ever made. This capstone edition covers the modern era while including all the great older films you can’t afford to miss—and those you can—from box-office smashes to cult classics to forgotten gems to forgettable bombs, listed alphabetically, and complete with all the essential information you could ask for. With nearly 16,000 entries and more than 13,000 DVD listings, Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide remains “head and shoulders above the rest.” (The New York Times) Also included are a list of mail-order and online sources for buying and renting DVDs and videos, official motion picture code ratings from G to NC-17, and Leonard's list of recommended films.

This book tells you what kinds of movies have rarely or never been made and warns you about saturated niches. Authors and screenwriters might want to avoid those. The lower the frequency meter, the more unique the concept. These statistics are based on about 3000 horror and horror-adjacent movies I’ve reviewed and rated. 21 subgenres and 27 character types were combined, resulting in 621 permutations. The best movies for each subgenre/character combination are listed for inspiration’s sake.