Description:
The definitive biography of Hollywood horror legend Tod Browning--now revised and expanded with new material
One of the most original and unsettling filmmakers of all time, Tod Browning (1880-1962) began his career buried alive in a carnival sideshow and saw his Hollywood reputation crash with the box office disaster-turned-cult classic Freaks. Penetrating the secret world of "the Edgar Allan Poe of the cinema," Dark Carnival excavates the story of this complicated, fiercely private man. In this newly revised and expanded edition of their biography first published in 1995, David J. Skal and Elias Savada researched Browning's recently unearthed scrapbooks and photography archives to add further nuance and depth to their previous portrait of this enigmatic artist.Skal and Savada chronicle Browning's turn-of-the-century flight from an eccentric Louisville family into the realm of carnivals and vaudeville, his disastrous first marriage, his rapid climb to riches in the burgeoning silent film industry, and the alcoholism that would plague him throughout his life. They offer a close look at Browning's legendary collaborations with Lon Chaney and Bela Lugosi as well as the studio politics that brought his remarkable run to an inglorious conclusion. With a revised prologue, epilogue, filmography, and new text and illustrations throughout, Dark Carnival is an unparalleled account of a singular filmmaker and an illuminating depiction of the evolution of horror and the early film industry.
Review Quotes:
"An entertaining and informative biography of one of America's most fascinating filmmakers." --John Landis
"A detailed, painstakingly researched biography." --Booklist
"A remarkable achievement." --Kirkus Reviews
"Long overdue . . . a compelling, in-depth examination of one of America's first cult film directors." --Journal of Popular Film Television
"Succeeds in resurrecting the reputation of one of Hollywood's long-buried eccentrics." --Houston Chronicle
"Tod Browning remains an enigma, but Dark Carnival casts more light on him than all previous writings about him combined." --American Cinematographer
"Dark Carnival is an excellent, consistently riveting biography full of strange surprises."--Psychobabble
"Skal and Savada's marvelous biography will confirm Browning's place in the auteurist pantheon."--Cineaste
"It is unlikely that Browning's story will ever be told better than here in the pages of Dark Carnival. The greatest platitude I can ascribe to Skal and Savada's masterful study is that it rekindles genuine interest in the director's filmography."--Cinema Retro
"Skal and Savada have produced the definitive biography of their enigmatic subject; it is a book worthy of Browning's idiosyncratic genius." --The Journal of American Culture