American Gothic: Six Decades of Classic Horror Cinema

(Hardback)

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In the long-awaited American Gothic Jonathan Rigby tells the story of the Hollywood horror film from its 19th-century beginnings through to the arrival of Vincent Price as a genre star in films like House of Wax and The Fly. This 60-year period encompasses the shadowy nightmares of the silent era, the breakthrough hits produced by Universal, Warner Bros and M-G-M in the early days of talkies, the thoughtful RKO chillers of the 1940s and the post-war boom in lurid science-fiction shockers. Out of print for more than ten years, American Gothic has been extensively revised and expanded, and is now available in hardback for the first time.

Author Bio

Jonathan Rigby is one of the world's pre-eminent authorities on the history of horror cinema. His other books include Christopher Lee: The Authorised Screen History and Roxy Music: Both Ends Burning, and in addition he has contributed to such magazines as Sight and Sound, Shivers, Starburst and Total Film. He's also an actor, best known for playing the legendary broadcaster Kenneth Horne in various stage, television and radio revivals of the classic comedy series Round the Horne. In recent years he was programme consultant on the BBC Four documentaries A History of Horror and Horror Europa.