Folly of the Faithful Canine

To those who haven’t read it, here’s a detail not well known:
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, old Victor worked alone.
He had no lab assistant till the first recorded play,
Presumption, which I doubt is still performed a lot today.
The bumbling servant there was Fritz, who later would appear
Within the film of ’31. To add to viewers’ fear,
He had advanced kyphosis like the dude at Notre Dame.
Dwight Frye, who also worked that year as Renfield (he’s the bomb),
Became a different henchman in the sequel with the bride.
The next two films, however, let Lugosi come in stride
As Ygor, whose deformity resulted when the town
Had hanged him but messed up at it (why was he still around?).
This Ygor was a blacksmith, not a toady in the least.
Indeed, he took control of the reanimated beast.
The later House of Frankenstein had Daniel take the form,
So Universal Studios made hunchbacked aides the norm.
The first assistant Igor, tho, was Warner Bros.’ doing
In House of Wax, a Frankenstein-free film for 3D viewing.
It wasn’t till Young Frankenstein that hunchback Igor came,
And he pronounced it “eye-gore,” so it wasn’t quite the same
As that which has been used in countless parodies to date.
Who knew that a composite’s role in lore could be so great?

OK, I didn't finish before my birthday, but close enough. After a rather dated novel, I decided to try one published in 2022, albeit set mostly in the 1930s. It's also probably the first book by a non-White author I've read in nearly a year.

( Cut for length )

Now I'm reading a graphic novel, The Metabarons by Alejandro Jodorowsky. It's large but going fast, which is important in the wake of a birthday that put several more books on my shelves.

In 1939, the world-famous statuette
Officially was christened with the “Oscar” sobriquet.
The earliest known mention was in 1933,
But people have conflicting thoughts of how it came to be.
A Bette Davis bio says she nicknamed the award
For Harmon Oscar Nelson, then a husband she adored.
But then there’s an Academy executive director:
When Margaret Herrick saw the statuette, it did affect ‘er.
She said that it reminded her of “Uncle” Oscar Pierce,
Who really was her cousin (was he getting on in years?).
Another naming candidate’s an office secretary,
Called Eleanore Lilleberg, who handled statuary.
Her brother thought of Oscar, a Norwegian army vet
The two knew in Chicago, quite the straight and tall cadet.
Whoever coined the moniker or gave the inspiration,
It’s stuck around since almost the award’s initiation.

A tennis champ named Guy encounters someone on a train,
Named Bruno, who is devious and not entirely sane.
The latter knows the former wants to leave his cheating wife,
But Miriam’s decided to remain with him for life,
So Bruno has a plan: He knocks off Miriam for Guy,
And Guy kills Bruno’s dad. The cops would see no reason why,
So neither of the murderers should even be suspected,
With alibis for deaths of those more blatantly connected.
Guy nervously pretends the scheme amuses him and leaves.
That constitutes a bargain sealed as Bruno misperceives.
Soon Miriam is dead, and Bruno turns the screws on Guy
To take his turn as hit man. Will our hero thus comply?
If not, he risks a frame-up job that’s simple yet compelling.
You’d better learn the ending for yourself, as I’m not telling.

Tim Grierson opens by noting that his title is slightly misleading: He means to convey multiple ways, and they're not comprehensive. Indeed, this is merely a crash course, an appetizer, inviting readers to explore further.

The back of the book almost serves as a table of contents, apart from not listing page numbers. Suffice it to say that there are five main sections -- acting, directing, light and camera, editing, and writing -- with a total of 42 chapters. Each chapter consists of one page explaining the general technique followed by three pages detailing its use in three movies. Apart from titles and relevant credits in sidebars, the text on each page runs only two to four paragraphs of typical length, with one or more stills to fill the space on movie-specific pages.

I'm not surprised to have seen most of the discussed movies already, despite Grierson's effort to vary them. Fortunately, he goes into some I never heard of, and while they tend to have gotten middling receptions, a few seem worth adding to my watch list. And for many that I have seen, I needed his reminders of details, or else he points out something I hadn't noticed in the first place. That's one way to enrich the experience.

While I don't expect to remember much of the trivia (e.g., cinematographer names, director comments), I hope to retain the gist of the industry jargon. Would you know what "golden hour" means? How about the rule of thirds? I may not hope to make a movie someday, but the more I know, the better my assessments should be. Whether it'll improve my reviews is another question.

TIHYMaM is no substitute for a college cinema course. It's not even worthy of a textbook. But it does make for speedier and less dull reading. Check it out if you want a jump start.


I have now picked up City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett. It looks rather different from the last few fantasies I read.