Since the late 19th century, film has been the ultimate medium by which to express and illuminate the darker, wilder recesses of man's imagination. An alchemical convergence of magic lantern experiments and new photographic technology led to the production of the very first moving images, including visual captures of magic, mystery, violence, cruelty, crime, sex, nudity, devilry and death.
SHADOWS IN A PHANTOM EYE Volume Eleven reveals a flickering carnival of attractions and aberrations from the period 1934-1936, which saw classic horror film releases such as Bride Of Frankenstein, Mad Love and The Black Cat alongside provocative roadshow offerings ranging from Maniac and Marihuana to Gambling With Souls and The Third Sex. Classic cartoons and serials, shocking war documentaries, surgical procedurals, ethno-documentaries and the rise of the home projection market are among the many other strands of cinema unveiled with extensive documentation. This volume references around 1,300 films from all countries and reproduces more than 250 rare photographic images, posters and illustrations, many newly unearthed from international film archives and never before published.
SHADOWS IN A PHANTOM EYE is the ultimate multi-volume guide for those wishing to explore an alternative global history of the moving image in its inaugural decades - a history that reveals a wild, often disturbing and provocative world which includes Hollywood but also stretches far, far beyond.