Recovering 1940s Horror Cinema: Traces of a Lost Decade

378 Pages·2014·2.201 MB·English

by  Mario DeGiglio-Bellemare, Charlie Ellbé, Kristopher Woofter, Paul Corupe, Blair Davis, Louise Fenton, Anne Golden, David Hanley, Karen Herland, Mark Jancovich, Kier-La Janisse, Cory Legassic, Peter Marra, Ian Olney, Dennis R. Perry, Selma Purac, Gary D. Rhodes, Rick Trembles

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Recovering 1940s
Horror Cinema

Recovering 1940s
Horror Cinema
Traces of a Lost Decade
Edited by
Mario DeGiglio-Bellemare,
Charlie Ellbé, and Kristopher Woofter
LEXINGTON BOOKS
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Published by Lexington Books
An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
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Copyright © 2015 by Lexington Books
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Recovering 1940s horror cinema : traces of a lost decade / edited by Mario
DeGiglio-Bellemare, Charlie Ellb?, and Kristopher Woofter.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4985-0379-2 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-1-4985-0380-8 (electronic)
1. Horror films—United States—History and criticism. 2. Motion pictures—United
States—History—20th century. I. DeGiglio-Bellemare, Mario, 1965– editor. II. Ellb?,
Charlie, 1986– editor. III. Woofter, Kristopher, 1971– editor.
PN1995.9.H6R43 2014
791.43’616409044—dc23 2014037628
™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
For Rondo Hatton

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Fragments of the Monster: Recovering a Lost Decade xi
Mario DeGiglio-Bellemare and Kristopher Woofter
Image: “Motion Picture Purgatory: The Devil Bat (1940)” xxiii
Rick Trembles
Part I: InterventIons 1
1 A “Darkly Hypothetical Reality”: “Gothic Realism” in 1940s
Hollywood Horror 3
Kristopher Woofter
2 “Strange Pleasure”: 1940s Proto-Slasher Cinema 27
Peter Marra
3 Dead Zone: Genre, Gender, and the “Lost Decade”
of Horror Cinema, 1946–1956 47
Ian Olney
4 Val Lewton, Mr. Gross, and the Grand-Guignol: Re-Staging
the Corpse in The Body Snatcher 67
Mario DeGiglio-Bellemare
Part II: HybrIDIty 87
5 Robert Siodmak’s The Spiral Staircase: Horror Genre Hybridity,
Vertical Alterity, and the Avant-Garde 89
Anne Golden
6 The Child Witness: Peril and Empowerment in 1940s Horror,
from The East Side Kids to The Window 109
Kier-La Janisse
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viii Contents
7 Making Visible the Sonic Threat: The Inner Sanctum Mysteries
Radio Series and Its Universal Studios Film Adaptations 129
Charlie Ellbé
8 Poe, Horror, and the Cinematic Mystery Hybrids of the 1940s 147
Dennis R. Perry
9 “The Murderer’s Mind”: Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart,
and the Monstrous Psychologies of 1940s Horror Film 161
Mark Jancovich
Part III: HIstory 179
10 Serial Killers, Deals with the Devil, and the Madness of Crowds:
The Horror Film in Nazi-Occupied France 181
David Hanley
11 “Always Hearing Voices, Never Hearing Mine”: Sound and Fury
in The Snake Pit 203
Karen Herland
12 The Demise of the Cinematic Zombie: From the Golden Age
of Hollywood to the 1940s 225
Louise Fenton
13 Fears New and Old: The Post-War American Horror Film 239
Gary D. Rhodes
Part Iv: Poverty row 259
14 Hypodermic Needles and Evil Twins: The Poverty Row Wartime
Horrors of Sam Newfield 261
Paul Corupe
15 Of Apes and Men (and Monsters and Girls): The Ape Film
and 1940s Horror Cinema 275
Blair Davis
16 “The Perfect Neanderthal Man”: Rondo Hatton as The Creeper
and the Cultural Economy of 1940s B-Films 295
Cory Legassic
17 The Vampire’s Ghost: The Case for a Poverty Row Classic 319
Selma A. Purac
Index 339
About the Editors and Contributors 349
Acknowledgments
Several essays in this collection grew out of presentations given in the Hor-
ror Area of the Popular Culture/American Culture Associations (PCA/ACA)
National Conference between 2010 and 2014. The editors also would like to
thank the students and faculty of the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies
in Montréal, Québec (http://www.miskatonicinstitute.com/) who participated
in the course, Fragments of the Monster: Recovering Forties Horror (from
October 29 to December 3, 2012), especially Esinam Beckley, Ariel Esteban
Cayer, Brad Colbourne, Anne Golden, Karen Herland, Kier-La Janisse, Cory
Legassic, and Tamara Vukov. Special thanks go to the contributors to the col-
lection for their excellent research into a neglected era of horror cinema, and
to the following for their support and/or assistance in the preparation of this
collection: Laura Beauchamp, Catherine Bernier, Tanya Cochran, Oksana
Dykyj, Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, Eric Franchi, Jim Iaccino, Sophie Lessard,
Ursula Misztal, Matthew Ogonoski, Pradeep Pillai, Lindsey Porambo, Carl
Sederholm, Rick Trembles, Annaëlle Winand, and Rick Worland.
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