Thrills that have been tapped

[scifirenegade]

Finished Michael R. Pitts' Thrills Untapped.

Like I said previously, it's a catalogue of lesser-known fantasy, horror, mystery and science-fiction films released in the US (apparently). Being written in the 2000s, when availability was an issue (it still is though), the plot synopsis-es are very detailed; sadly, there aren't enough production tidbits.

Thoughts and things:

• Not only was our boy Connie "too reserved" in FP1 (I have seen the film now, Ellissen is wildin'), he's also "oddly passive, almost spectral like" [sic] in The Passing of the Third Floor Back. Well, he's "spectral like" because he's not exactly human, he's a trancendental being (essentially an angel). And he can't outright take action, he has to steer this broken group towards kindness, they have to make that choice themselves.


• The whole thing needed another round of revision. Sometimes, I feel like some sentences needed one more comma, and I caught a few typos. Just look at the quote below.



During the production of The Woman in White sound pictures became a reality and director Herbert Wilcox considered scrapping previously shot footage and making it as a talkie but no sound technicians were available in London so the film was finished as a silent.



• Actresses are assessed by how beautiful they look in the film, rather than their actual performance, most of the time. A dude wrote this, for sure...


• Some of these films didn't even premiere in the US! Others did. Decades later. On TV. Basically, the film choice criteria isn't too great.


• Continuing that bit, some films can't even be classified as mystery, or science fiction, or fantasy, or horror. Looking at The Last Performance, it's more of a love square drama than anything else. And freaking Pandora's Box?? Seriously?? Even the author admits that some of these probably shouldn't have been here:



Anyone expecting a horror film will be disappointed with Where East Is East, which is really a love story with a subplot of a woman trying to take away her daughter’s fiancé.



• I didn't know documentaries could be in a thing in a catalogue about fiction films. For example, Eisenstein's Que Viva Mexico! makes an appearance.


• Got a few films to watch though :D

Fun film stuff:

• Lots of films about murderous giant manta rays. Except they're also all the same film. The murderous giant manta ray paradox, I call it.


• I Conquer the Sea! (1936) has a Portuguese family... with a Spanish surname!


• Very sad Masks of the Devil (1928) is lost. A bit Dorian Gray-ey, a bit Student of Prague-ey, seemed right up my alley.

Comments

[liadt]

Actresses are assessed by how beautiful they look in the film, rather than their actual performance, most of the time. Same old, same old, isn't it?

oddly passive Wasn't paying attention to the film was he? Or is it odd because the author thinks a man should be active.

With the insta accounts I follow 'The Last Performance' has been reclaimed as a horror because it's Universal basically and uh, Connie did 'The Man Who Laughs' too so he's a Universal horror actor. Technically, TMWL isn't a horror either, but I've long noted this ableism in film genre classification and nothing's changing.

'The Sea Bat' (1930) starts off promisingly as a proto-Jaws manta ray film and then goes crap with slut shaming.

[scifirenegade]

Pitts would love Poor Creatures lol

I don't think he was paying attentikn to any of the films!

Connie: Universal's new Lon Chaney (because as we all know, Chaney only did "horror" films 🙄). Don't get me started on the treatement of The Man Who Laughs. The fans of the musical get it much better than most film fans. And yeah, the ableism *seethes*

The Sea Bat was not one the films I thought were neat :/

(Go away as in "Go away, Pitts!", not you *hugs*

[liadt]

I thought of another annoying thing about 'Poor Things' today, argh. The "gift" that keeps giving...

Isn't it annoying when people start putting films on the 'net and can see all the inaccuracies in your book;p

Yeah, the definition of American silent horror: is Lon Chaney in it? Sheesh. There's a musical? I learn something new everyday! I imagine the musical fans are better because they aren't mentioning 'The Joker', double argh.

Ha, ha, no worries.

[scifirenegade]

They're still selling the book, almost 50 fucking dollars! (And there's going to be a sequel?? This many years later??).

Literally Where East is East is in there because "yeah, it's not a horror at all, but Chaney has a facial scar, so it kinda counts" *sigh*

I've only heard of The Grinning Man, but apparently there's 5 different musicals. And operas.

The fans do seem nice, maybe a bit young, but they love the characters fervently. Some of them do overlap with the film! And yeah, no Joker shit.

[liadt]

Academic text book prices! The e-book would probably be cheaper? He's taking his time, everyone will have watched everything off the net by now. Looks like a small company/self published book.

"yeah, it's not a horror at all, but [X] has a facial scar" Yup!

They sure like writing songs for TMWL. Fans generally seem to be young to me these days, lol. Nice that they're nice with lots of toxic fandoms around.