In Film Crazy, McGilligan shares some of his fascinating interviews with screen luminaries from his salad days as a young journalist working the Hollywood beat. He rides the presidential campaign bus with Ronald Reagan, visits Alfred Hitchcock on the set of the Master of Suspense's last film, "Family Plot," meets George Stevens at the Brown Derby and conducts the last interview with the director of "Shane" and "Giant." Other interview subjects captured for posterity include rough-and-ready pioneer directors William Wellman and Raoul Walsh; likeable actor Joel McCrea; actress - and the only female director of her era - Ida Lupino; French legend Rene Clair; and lowly-contract-writer-turned-studio-mogul Dore Schary. Film Crazy is a must for film students, scholars and professionals.

While the impact that legendary actors and actresses have had on the development of the Hollywood film industry is well known, few have recognised the power of movie fans on shaping the industry. This books redresses that balance, and is the first study of Hollywood's golden era to examine the period from the viewpoint of the fans. Using fan club journals, fan letters, studio production records, and other previously unpublished archival sources, Samantha Barbas reveals how the passion, enthusiasm, and ongoing activism of film fans in Hollywood's golden era transformed early cinema, the modern mass media and American popular culture.

GUN CRAZY: THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN OUTLAW CINEMA examines the history of the extraordinary 1950 film, from its genesis as a Saturday Evening Post short story through its tumultuous production history to its eventual enshrinement as one of the most influential cult films of all time.

Explosive! Amazing! Terrifying! You won’t believe your eyes! Such movie taglines were common in the 1950s, as Hollywood churned out a variety of low-budget pictures that were sold on the basis of their sensational content and topicality. While a few of these movies have since become canonized by film fans and critics, a number of the era’s biggest fads have now faded into obscurity. The Cool and the Crazy examines seven of these film cycles, including short-lived trends like boxing movies, war pictures, and social problem films detailing the sordid and violent life of teenagers, as well as uniquely 1950s takes on established genres like the gangster picture. Peter Stanfield reveals how Hollywood sought to capitalize upon current events, moral panics, and popular fads, making movies that were “ripped from the headlines” on everything from the Korean War to rock and roll. As he offers careful readings of several key films, he also considers the broader historical and commercial contexts in which these films were produced, marketed, and exhibited. In the process, Stanfield uncovers surprising synergies between Hollywood and other arenas of popular culture, like the ways that the fashion trend for blue jeans influenced the 1950s Western. Delivering sharp critical insights in jazzy, accessible prose, The Cool and the Crazy offers an appreciation of cinema as a “pop” medium, unabashedly derivative, faddish, and ephemeral. By studying these long-burst bubbles of 1950s “pop,” Stanfield reveals something new about what films do and the pleasures they provide.

In the 1950s, Hollywood made a variety of sensational movies meant to capitalize upon current events, moral panics, and popular fads. The Cool and the Crazy examines seven of the decade’s key film cycles, including short-lived trends like boxing and juvenile delinquency movies, as well as uniquely ‘50s takes on established genres like the Western. Delivering sharp critical insights in jazzy, accessible prose, Peter Stanfield offers an appreciation of cinema as a “pop” medium, unabashedly derivative, faddish, and ephemeral.

Joseph H. Lewis's 'Gun Crazy' is the story of two young lovers who embark on a crime spree. For this book, Kitses researched widely into the film production's history and explored its connection to the crime film tradition and to the dark underside of American society.

If you love movies then you are sure to appreciate the thought, ingenuity and downright creativity that some film makers have shown when it comes to naming their work. A witty pun, clever play on words, blood curdling situation or terrifyingly scary creature in the title can help to draw you in and build your anticipation prior to viewing. In this book we have selected over 400 of the wackiest, strangest and funniest movie titles that we have come across. Titles such as Microwave Massacre, Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader, Redneck Zombies and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Amazingly they are all real films. Crazy Title, Crazy Movie provides an indispensable compendium that is sure to entertain and amuse any film buff prone to the curious compulsion of watching the best and worst that cinema has to offer. Spanning decades and genres the book selects a range of titles so bizarre that you wonder how some of them ever got made.