Pressbooks (Horror, Sci Fi, Fantasy)
Movie Pressbook: Death Machines (1976)
I recently acquired this pressbook from eBay, mostly because the poster art is so 1970s exploitative gritty and cheesy-futuristic, you know?. Sadly, there are no "death machines" like the munching maw illustrated here. The story revolves around martial artists injected with a drug to make them killing, zombie-like, machines of death. Get it? I'm not sure if the audience did.
Movie Pressbook:
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Here's a nifty Halloween treat from Tony Rivers. He notes: "This one's a little tricky…I used to have the press book for ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN and photocopied several pages. I also have the Philip Riley script book, but he only had 11 of the 12 pages. At one time I did take photographs of each page with a camera so I had to use the photo I took of page 10 to have the complete press book but the image is small and you can't really read what it says on page 10….so until I can find a better version, here's the "complete" 12 page ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN pressbook."
Movie Pressbook: The Face of Fu Manchu (1965)
A coloring contest for The Face of Fu Manchu? Sure, the cover of this pressbook is fantastic, but I'm not sure using a coloring contest (see next to last page) is a suitable promotional gimmick. I think Tsai Chin as his daughter stole the show. This series left quite an impression on me when they originally appeared in the theaters. I read the Sax Rohmer books after seeing Christopher Lee's sinister performance.
Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954) Pressbook
The original theater 3D release of Creature from the Black Lagoon used the gray polarizing lenses, not the red and blue ones. This is one of the few 3D movies that looks good in 3D, especially the underwater photography. Still a treat to see today, the Creature will always be with us.
Comic reader version: Download Creature from the Black Lagoon Pressbook
See more pressbooks From Zombos’ Closet.
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Movie Pressbook: The Mummy’s Curse (1944)
From Tony Rivers, who notes: “Here’s another press book…with a little help from Philip Riley’s Mummy’s Curse Scriptbook and its pressbook reproduction, plus a lot of Photoshop to tint the color the original one had and reposition some ads….only six pages. Seems the later 1940’s Universal pressbooks were, more or less, only 6-8 pages in length.”