Universal Studios Monsters: A Legacy of Horror

Michael Mallory

Rizzoli, Sep 8, 2009 - Performing Arts - 252 pages

From the 1920s through the 1950s, Universal Studios was Hollywood's number one studio for horror pictures, haunting movie theaters worldwide with Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon, among others. Universal Studios Monsters: A Legacy of Horror explores all of these enduring characters, chronicling both the mythology behind the films and offering behind-the-scenes insights into how the films were created. Universal Studios Monsters is the most complete record of the horror films of this legendary studio, with biographies of major personalities who were responsible for the most notable monster melodramas in film history. The stories of these films and their creators are told through interviews with surviving actors and studio employees. A lavish photographic record, including many behind-the-scenes shots, completes the story of how these classics were made. This is a volume no fan of imaginative cinema will want to be without.

What people are saying

Review: Universal Studios Monsters: A Legacy of Horror

User Review  - Steven - Goodreads

Good overview of Universal's history and its most famous film series. Nice coffee table book with many photographs and a great reminder (if not a great intro) to why many of us love these 70+ year old movies.

Review: Universal Studios Monsters: A Legacy of Horror

User Review  - Abs007 - Goodreads

This is a very nice coffee table book. It's full of lovely glossy pics and no little information about the movies themselves and the people that made them great.

About the author

Michael Mallory is an internationally recognized authority on twentieth-century popular culture and the author of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Marvel: The Characters and Their Universe, and X-Men: The Characters and Their Universe. He has written some 400 articles for newspapers and magazines, including several on the monster films of Universal Pictures, for publications such as the Los Angeles Times, Scarlet Street, and Millimeter.

Stephen Sommers is the director of The Mummy and The Mummy Returns.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Universal Studios Monsters: A Legacy of Horror
• Author: Michael Mallory
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Rizzoli, 2009
• ISBN: 0789318962, 9780789318961
• Length: 252 pages
• Subjects: Art / General; Performing Arts / Film & Video / Direction & Production; Performing Arts / Film & Video / Reference