Customer Reviews

Sinister Serials of Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney, Jr.

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Leonard Kohl's first book is a fine effort, a splendid purchase for any fan of the big three horror icons who made serials. It is loaded with interesting facts. Where else could you discover that silent comedy star Harry Langdon almost co-starred with Lugosi in THE WHISPERING SHADOW. The book is chock full of rare photos, and they are a genuine treat. Fans of Charle Chan would be happy to find rare photos of Warner Oland from silent serials. This volume is a recommended purchase. As an author myself, I can see the hard work and dedication that went ito this volume.

Kudos to Kohl, who has done a fine job of presenting an informative, and always fair-handed, look at a fascinating period in movie making. This is clearly the product of painstaking research, resulting in a heaping-helping of historical data, elucidating testimonials, with a rich array of pictures to boot. Every true fan of "The Sreamsome Threesome"--Karloff, Lugosi, and Chaney--and the too-often overlooked serials genre, should get their hands on this.

Because Mr. Kohl will blow you away!!!! This is a fine book. The research is impeccable. The photos are sublime. Kudos to the author!!! I saw Mr. Kohl give the commencement address at the University of Chicago and the crowd was mesmerized. Most likely, because he hadn't been invited by the school to give it.

Leonard Kohl's book fills a much needed gap in my personal knowledge of cinema history. The serial is a form I remember with great fondness. As a child, it was a part of my first forays into the world on my own when my chums and I hoofed it to the Strand Theater on Saturday mornings for an hour of cartoons, a cowboy double feature, a humiliating go in the yo-yo contest and, of course, to catch the latest installment of ..... Radio Patrol....Don Winslow of the Navy...Tim Tyler's Luck... Whatever! By then (circa 1950), the heyday of the cheap and keep-em-coming-back cinema serial was ending and the subjects of Mr. Kohl's excellent work had gone on to bigger things (except, sadly, for Bela Lugosi, who -- as I discovered in "Sinister Serials" -- began his American film career with bigger things, only to slide into the world of serials).

This book is clear, concise, and well written. Kohl spins out the stories of these three seminal film figures and provides us with an outstanding look at a now-past era in film history. An excellent piece of work!