Customer Reviews

Scream Queens: Heroines of the Horrors

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I just loved this book. "Scream Queens" features chapters on just about
every actress who ever screamed in the movies. Beck has written very
informative mini-biographies on some really wonderful actresses. From
old favourites like Brigitte Helm, Mary Philbin, Fay Wray, Joan Crawford,
Mae Clarke (there is a huge chapter on Barbara Steele) to rather
interesting ones ie Diana Dors, Patty McCormack, Hazel Court, Acquanetta
and Vampira - there is an excellent overall view of their careers with
special emphasis on their horror roles. The book is dedicated to Barry
Brown, an up and coming actor and enthusiastic film historian, who,
unfortunately, took his own life before the book was published. He did
an excellent chapter on Katharine Victor. I didn't know who she was
before but after, I felt I did.
Two complaints I have - 1. There was some extensive interview quotations
in the Mary Philbin and Brigitte Helm chapters. In the Helm chapter
there is a 6 column interview from 1932 where the reporter compares
Helm to Eleanora Duse and dismisses Louise Brooks as a flash in the pan.
In the Philbin chapter there is a 2 column review from 1923 on "Temple
of Venus" which I thought wasn't very relevant to her career. 2. I know
it is nitpicking but there were a few omissions - Zita Johann was a
terrific "scream queen" in "The Mummy", I thought, likewise Helen
Chandler in "Dracula". Gloria Stuart, to me was a major omission whose
roles in "The Old Dark House", "The Invisible Man" and "The Secret of
the Blue Room" should have given her a chapter at the expense of
people like Hope Summers whose main film role was as a supporting
player in "Rosemary's Baby" and Helena Carter with a main role in "Invaders
From Mars" but with little else on her acting resume.
Those complaints aside, it is an excellent book and the thing I like about
books written in those older times is the fact that the stars, their
friends and family were usually still alive to tell what it was really
like to live in those glorious days of the silver screen.