S. Michael WilsonRezensionen

From the back cover: "S. Michael Wilson has unearthed lost gems from vintage zines and commissioned reams of new material to brew up a devil’s cauldron of monsteriffic entertainment! Explore, if you dare, a sampling of the demonic delights within: The Black Pope of Satan’s favorite fear films! The mindbending connections between DARK SHADOWS and H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos! The perverse paganism of LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM! The links between mobster Tony Soprano and GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE’s Caleb Croft! Shoot down Peter Jackson’s overstuffed remake of KING KONG! Trip out on the truth about LSD, Commies and THE ANGRY RED PLANET! Survey apeman savagery on film with a genuine Bigfoot expert! They’re all here: Karloff and Lugosi, Freddy, Jason, Argento, Craven, Romero, werewolves, vampires and zombies; Criswell, Santo, psycho-killers, cannibals, Big Bugs and so much more!"

Performed by Lugosi is a unique pairing of literary and cinematic sensibilities. In one volume, S. Michael Wilson has collected the original pieces of fiction that inspired Lugosi’s on-screen performances and his own thorough and sharp-witted responses to how the film studios adapted the texts to their own use, with a special focus on Lugosi’s role in the process. Stories include classics by such renowned authors as Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

I was pleasantly surprised to find, alongside his informative and well-researched account of the films’ histories, a running current of Wilson’s own particular sly wit and his backhanded brand of movie reviewing, a style which is near and dear to my heart, and aptly suited to the callow treatment that film studios of the day often gave to their scripts’ literary roots.

Shining through the historic accounts and casual commentary is Wilson’s genuine regard for Bela Lugosi. Long a fan of Lugosi myself, I found this a very appealing mix of elements, and can only imagine that anyone curious about Bela will be likewise rewarded by their reading of this painstakingly assembled compilation. Drawing from a number of texts about Lugosi’s strange and complex relationship with the Hollywood studios of the day, Wilson discusses others’ ideas as well as his own about how Bela responded to the very particular requirements of the industry he found himself a part of, a sometimes-uncomfortable arrangement for all parties involved.

Each original story is present for the reader to absorb on their own, followed by an account of the movie that resulted. This section introduces the film’s vital statistics, including the studio’s often heavily-distorted, character-driven plot line, and the pre-screen treatment of the material, production notes, Bela’s involvement in the film, and, like a tasty dessert at the end, food for thought in the form of Wilson’s musings, which often provide an insightful and appreciative view of the movie.

As a side note to fellow Early Readers at LibraryThing.com, I would be remiss to not mention that this was a very carefully packaged volume – the author took the time to inscribe and sign the volume himself, which is something I have not seen from any other Early Reader contributor! In addition, the publisher included a very personable letter. Altogether a very positive experience.

I should probably start out by saying that this book was not exactly what I expected after reading a brief synopsis and glimpsing the cover. I assumed the focus would be entirely on Bela Lugosi and his films, probably with a large amount of content about his role as Dracula. Had I thought more about the throwaway line on the cover: "A bold new look at the stellar icon of fantastic cinema and the tales that inspired his greatest roles" I may have noted the emphasis on the "tales that inspired" part of it. Turns out, the interpretation of literature into film is what this book is really all about, perhaps even more so than Lugosi.

Now, if I was a different person, this may have disappointed me. However, I actually LOVE looking at how stories are adapted into various forms of media, particularly film. The first thing I do when I finish a novel is search for movie versions. So this all turned out as a plus for me. If another reader was actively looking for thorough commentary about Lugosi and his work, however, I can see how they would be disappointed.

Another thing I liked about this book that others may hate was the inclusion of source material. The format of the book is as such: the original short story that inspired a film starring Lugosi is presented in full and is followed by discussion of the movie including plot synopsis, commentary, comparison to the story, and a bit about Lugosi's role specifically. What all that ends up meaning is that a good percentage of the book's content is not new material. In fact, it's most-likely public domain and is readily available in other forms. Personally, I enjoyed the inclusion; it meant I didn't have to go hunting for most of the material being discussed. Sure, if you've got a copy of Poe's complete tales and poems you've got half of it right there, but still... I felt like I spent enough time tracking down copies of the films, so not having to dig out various books was a plus.

Aside from all that, Wilson's actual criticism was spot on for the most part. His writing was informal though not uninformed, and he had a good sense of humor (with the exception of a few bad puns). You could tell he has an appreciation for Bela, but that didn't stop him from calling a bad flick when he saw one.

In general, Performed by Lugosi would appeal to big fans of the actor or someone interested in interpretations of literature, but perhaps not to those looking for a bio or criticism of the actor's entire body of work.

Not a bad little book for those who enjoy Bela Lugosi's work.

Each chapter begins with the original story that the movie was based upon (or at least named for), then gives a synopsis of the movie and some essays on the movie itself and Lugosi's performance.

While not a book for one looking for deep narrative on Lugosi's life and career, it approaches eight of his works from a more humorous point of view. Just the stories alone would have made for a decent anthology of horror fiction.

This promises "A bold new look at the stellar icon of fantastic cinema and the tales that inspired his roles." The shtick is that Wilson has reprinted the original tales some Lugosi performances were based on. He also gives the plot synopses of the movies.

There is no analysis of Lugosi's perfomances, apart from such comments that he "chewed the scenery" or beyond gossip about whether Lugosi really gave up the chance to play Frankenstein. The "bold new look" seems to be the author's comments on how the screenplay deviated--for the worst--from the original sources.

There are no insights into Lugosi as an actor or as a person, no biographical goodies, no analyses of horror films as a genre and no reason to read this book.

Performed by Lugosi is as much a literary anthology as a work of film criticism, as it prefaces the commentary upon which the eight films discussed are based with the text of all of the original works. The literary works, like the films, vary in quality. In addition, the films rarely adhere closely to the original stories, and sometimes bear no resemblance apart from their title. Fully half of them are based on the commonly reprinted and readily available work of Edgar Allan Poe, which anyone interested in Lugosi's career is probably acquainted with. The result is a book which pads rather brief if occasionally engaging commentary on the films discussed with a hefty dose of public domain literature, producing a larger volume from personal writing which would, if the stories were excluded, otherwise be much, much shorter.

The first story/film presented is The Murders in the Rue Morgue. I have to confess that although the story may have some historical merit as an early work of detective fiction, I find the narrative absurd and consider it one of Poe's weaker efforts. This makes it a tedious opening for Mr. Wilson's book, and his commentary on the film indicates that it's not a particularly impressive work either.

Third in line is Chandu the Magician, and here we depart from Poe momentarily for the more obscure writing skills of Harry Earnshaw and Vera Oldham, which positively ooze with the mystical and Egyptological fascinations of the early 20th century. The story was apparently written to serve as a script, and the film itself sounds impressive despite the fact that popular supernatural beliefs of that era easily seem ridiculous to the modern reader/viewer. It is clearly a product very much in keeping with its time.

Fifth is J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement/The Mystery of the Marie Celeste, one of the less familiar works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The story is for the most part well written, though one can see why it's seldom reprinted, and the commentary provides interesting details, one of which... that the British and U.S. governments had to deny that the story was factual... is surprising given that Conan Doyle's text contains the obvious error that the narrator claims to have served in the U.S. Civil War at 2nd Bull Run and Gettysburg before ending his military career at the battle of Antietam. Gettysburg, of course, occurred after Antietam, rendering the narrator's account obviously flawed. As for the film, the commentary indicates another strong Lugosi performance in a film with a strong cast and interesting plot. Mr. Wilson seems to have an enthusiasm for this one, though he seems to reach a bit with his analysis of it.

Sixth comes Dracula's Guest/Dracula's Daughter, and while the short story is an excellent work by Bram Stoker, Lugosi wasn't in the film at all, making it a bit of an odd choice for this volume. The commentary largely involves speculation as to why Lugosi wasn't in it despite being paid for it, and the film is unrelated to the story. Interesting stuff perhaps, but a strange choice when selecting a handful of Lugosi films for inclusion in such a work as this.

An overall review of this book requires judging it as a literary anthology, a work of film criticism, a comparison of films to the stories they claim to be based upon, and of course a commentary on the career of Bela Lugosi. In the first it has serious flaws, being half reprints of common works by Poe, and with only one story by really obscure authors. In the second, third and fourth categories, it is brief but otherwise fairly well written, providing interesting tidbits but little in-depth information. Nevertheless, the stories it contains are generally worth reading, and frequently worth rereading even for those familiar with the works, and Mr. Wilson's commentaries and the juxtaposition of the stories with the films which bear their names provide additional entertainment and insight, and promote interest some of Lugosi's less well-known works. An interesting read, but not a must-read by any means, and more likely to appeal to casual Lugosi fans or those unfamiliar with Poe... if anyone who would consider this book is unfamiliar with Poe.

Performed by Lugosi will do, in a pinch, as a small collection of old horror stories. In a tighter pinch, as a collection of classic horror stories. When you have the benefit of choice and even a little time, it is, I'm sorry to say even in a guarded euphemism, quite inessential.

The pitch here is a series of stories that provided basis of inspiration for films that starred Bela Lugosi. The premise is sound, but it falls apart in the execution. The stories and the films that follow often have little to do with each other beyond a title and a character name or two. One (wickedly awful) story here, "Chandu the Magician", is in fact an adaptation of the film, which makes its inclusion here a confusing waste of ink and paper.

What shakes out is the author/editor's brief summary of each film, a rundown of the source material vs. the film, and his "Musings" on the Lugosi performance in each film. (Oh, that is, except for the film, Dracula's Daughter, in which Lugosi does not even make an appearance. You're right to scratch your head.) This original material accounts for about 10 to 15 pages per story, which accounts for much less than half the book's pagecount.

The author brings knowledge and appreciation to his commentary, but with the proliferation of amusing and rabid film opinioning on the internet he'd have to offer something extraordinary that justifies and covers and the pages between. And that just doesn't happen. The heart of original material here begins with apologies and coulda/shoulda/woulda about Lugosi's declining Hollywood experience, to be blamed on drug abuse and age, and doesn't go much further.

My best recommendation for anyone interested in the subjects of classic horror fiction and Bela Lugosi would be to seek out one of the many, many Lugosi biographies in existence, a Poe collection, and maybe another classic horror collection for the Stevenson, Stoker, and Doyle stories.

But, above all, do what you must to forget you ever heard the name Chandu.

Bela Lugosi is Dracula. History has made that so. In Lugosi's peerless performance in the film adaptation of Bram Stoker's classic, he set the template for all future filmed performances of that role. Lugosi is still an iconic film legend, as a result.

Unfortunately, as is well-documented, Lugosi's life inescapably spun into a downward spiral of failure, drug abuse, and disappointment, as seen in the movie Ed Wood, and also within innumerable biographies and horror film anthologies.

In S. Michael Wilson's "Performed By Lugosi", Lugosi's struggles are painstakingly de-lineated by analyzing eight of his film performances, each with a comparison to the original text from which each individual film was drawn, and some additional contextual back story which shows the gradual, yet steep decline of Lugosi's tragic film career.

The most difficult thing about reading this book is finding out just how liberally directors tampered with the original classic stories from which their films were being adapted. Many of the films bore only a nominal resemblance to their original sources.

With the additional influence of economic constraints, political pressure from the film studios and finally, a media and societal backlash against the content of horror films, many of the films that Lugosi appeared in were flawed from the start, his personal demons aside.

Wilson's book is obviously sympathetic to Lugosi and he never hides the fact that he is a fan of Lugosi's ouevre. This is an excellent book for fans of horror literature and films, but other readers may find themselves a bit lost, while reading about the Lugosi films, even with the inclusion of the original texts by Poe, R.L. Stevenson, and Arthur Conan Doyle(among others).

The book may have been better served with an introductory chapter that gives a minimal biography of Lugosi's life and a brief appreciation of his performance in Dracula. If a reader has never seen that landmark film, they may otherwise have no means for understanding why Lugosi was both a legend and a tragic waste at the same time.

I personally enjoyed the book and found it very readable, despite not having seen several of the films mentioned. I give Wilson a lot of credit by devising a unique strategy with which to consider (or re-consider) the legendary life and career of Bela Lugosi.

The idea behind this book seems to be to collect a bunch of works that were turned into movies with Bela Lugosi in them, and then write a bit about the movies themselves and Lugosi's role in them. This is certainly an interesting concept, even if doesn't really work all that well. There are several problems with this:

Firstly one of the movies selected, based on "Dracula's Guest" by Bram Stoker, didn't actually star Bela Lugosi. This movie was "Dracula's Daughter," which is at least vaguely related to Lugosi, since he is most well known for starring in Universal's "Dracula," but even so, this feels was out of place. The short story is a fairly well known one that seems to turn up in just about every anthology of classic vampire stories, so I don't really see why there was any need to have it here as well.

Then there's the fact that one of the stories, "Chandu the Magician," is an adaptation of the movie and not the inspiration for the movie. It is also a really bad story that reads like something submitted to a high school creative writing course by a not-particularly-talented student. This story is so bad that I can't help but wonder why it was included at all.

Half of the stories are by Edgar Allen Poe, and all but one of the bear almost no resemblance to the films based on them. "Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Black Cat," "The Raven," and "The Cask of Amontillado" were the stories included. None of these are particularly obscure, and none but "Cask" really give any insight into the films that were based off of them, and "Cask" wasn't even a film; it was an episode of the CBS television series Suspense. I don't think any of these add much to the book either.

Then there's "J Habakuk Jephson's Statement" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I'm guessing this is one of Doyle's more obscure works, since it was a very early effort and really not that good. The story itself is fairly profoundly racist and kind of slow moving. The movie that it was turned into, "The Mystery of the Marie Celeste," seems to be a better story, though it has almost nothing in common with the source other than some of the names. Really, this story is one that the collection would have been better off without.

The only remaining story is "The Body Snatchers" by Robert Louis Stevenson. This isn't a very bad story and it was actually fairly similar in plot to the movie that was based off of it. Really, this is the only one that I can actually see why it was in there.

Besides the stories, there is also much commentary on the movies by S. Michael Wilson. This is for the most part good, though the uncorrected proofs that were sent out to Early Reviewers were full of typos and repetitiveness and other problems that will hopefully have been edited out in the final version. Quite frankly, I think this book would have been much better without the short stories, and with musings on more of Lugosi's movies. As it is, I find the book mediocre.

Bela Lugosi, mostly known for his iconic role as Universal's Count Dracula also, as it is, starred in other pictures. Gathered together in a single volume are critiques of several of those movies he played in (as well as one he was paid for but never appeared onscreen), as well as the original source material on which each film was (loosely) based. S. Michael Wilson digs deep into the graves of Hollywood to bring you closer to one of the more underrated stars in 1930's cinema.

While I did appreciate (most) of the original short stories (with the exception of the dreadful radio-script novelization of Chandu), getting a chance to see the stories freshly before learning about the films that were apparently based on them, I found that due to the fact that most films that are "based on" something are actually just capitalizing off of its popular name that putting them in the book seemed only for the purpose of inflating the page count, as the differences between the original source and the film are discussed at great length for each film.

Wilson manages to discuss the films with a whimsical air, flippantly musing on this or that aspect for the sake of humor. Likewise, he discussed what went on behind the camera as much as what went on in front of it. While each module, read on its own, can prove quite informative and entertaining, taken as a whole, the book feels very, very repetitive.

I would recommend this book for film buffs out there, especially those who take a shining to the films of Lugosi. For everybody else, this book may not be that interesting, or may just be worth a quick skim.½

S. Michael Wilson has written a marvelous book, one I would recommend most highly to Lugosi fans.
"Performed by Lugosi" is in the tradition of classic movie books by Scarecrow, McFarland and Midnight Marquee, with the added (and welcome) attraction of reprinting the nine stories(out of all of Bela's movies) which have a literary inspiration.
Some of the stories I had read before (the four Poe stories, of course), some I should have read (the Stoker, Conan-Doyle and Stevenson stories) but hadn't, and the one which I wasn't even aware was "inspired" by a written work- "Chandu the Magician", by Earnshaw and Oldham.
After each of the short stories, Mr. Wilson breaks down his commentary on the movies into five separate sections: The Performance, Production Notes, Bela's Involvement, Comparing the Literary to the Film, and Musings.
The first two sections one could find in any book about horror movies, film history or, indeed, Bela Lugosi. The third section does manage to add some new information on a field already well-covered. It is the fourth section, "Comparing the Literary to the Film" is where Mr. Wilson takes on some rarely trodden ground. It added a lot both to the appreciation of and the troubles with the adaptations as they were presented on film. This section was the shortest but most interesting of the five, at least to this reader.
In second place of the five, and just a skosh behind the section immediately prior, the "Musings" proved both interesting and informative, written from the point of view of a scholar and a Lugosiphile. We (fans) all have our own interpretations of Bela's portrayals and all seem to notice different things in the various films- to the initiates, that's what makes Lugosi LUGOSI. In fairness to possible readers, I must say that the humor in this section sometimes seems a bit forced, hence the 4½ rating instead of a 5.
Having said that however, I would urge Horror/Lugosi fans to purchase this book- it is a worthy addition to any one belonging to the Cult of Lugosi, which are (and despite the critics) legion.½

A Monster Mashup

(Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review through Library Thing's Early Reviewer program.)

S. Michael Wilson’s MONSTER RALLY is an eclectic anthology of pop culture essays (new and old) which share one common thread: namely, monster movies! The “monsters” highlighted in this fun volume run the gamut, from Mutants (EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS, INVADERS FROM MARS, THE ANGRY RED PLANET) to Monsters (KING KONG, GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE, Mexican horror films, Yeti/Abominable Snowman monster movies) to Madness (Jason, SCREAMING MIMI, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, FREAKS, THE BLACK CAT, Jim Jones, Charles Manson). While novice fans will mostly enjoy this collection, monster movie geeks will get more out of MONSTER RALLY, as some of the references are more obscure than others. Likewise, the bulk of the films discussed are “retro”/B movies, with little culled from the 21st century.

As is usually the case with anthologies, some of the essays are stronger than others, and of course personal favorites may vary according to taste. As a Kong fan, I quite enjoyed editor S. Michael Wilson’s contribution, “A Giant Falls: A Critical Looks at Peter Jackson’s KING KONG,” but perhaps you might prefer Patrick O’Donnell’s “Curse of the Abominable Snowmen: A Bigfoot Researcher Sheds Light on Three Yeti Films.” To each her own! What’s certain is that these geeks (primarily S. Michael Wilson, Patrick O’Donnell and David Jacobs, who penned most of the essays in MONSTER RALLY) know their stuff.

http://www.easyvegan.info/2009/05/19/monster-rally-edited-by-s-michael-wilson/