Gothic Romance is Alive!

I took this snap of the house beyond the field yesterday and immediately thought of those fabulous gothic romance paperbacks I used to collect.

 Gothic romance, an American literary sub-genre which boomed in the 60's and 70's, always had superbly illustrated covers which mostly followed the same artistic conventions: a dark night, a fleeing lady and an eerie house in which an upstairs light can be seen, as in my photograph too!

Here's one of countless examples of these covers, The House at Swansea, showing all three graphical conventions.

Perhaps the most famous of the gothic romance writers was Marilyn Ross, who penned the Dark Shadows paperbacks, now very collectable.

He also wrote many generic gothic romances, such as this, Beware My Love, which again shows all three cover conventions.

Have you any gothic romance in your life?

 

A PUNISHING TV SCHEDULE

Watching telly ain't so simple anymore is it! Hundreds of channels and loads of platforms, a thousand programmes and countless ways to watch them anywhere in the house! It ain't 1969 anymore when Thunderbirds was a no-brainer!

So with so much choice you would think its easy to find things to watch. Alas, I struggle. Things I think will be brilliant turn out not so at all and some random stuff is really quite good.

Take for instance The Punisher on Disney+. It starts with a blisteringly good first episode where the anti-hero Frank Castle says very little but avenges aplenty for a whole hour dropping bad guys in cement by the dozen. If only it stayed that way. The Punisher starts to talk and everyone around him in the series likes to talk a lot as well. Too much gabbing and not enough Punishing has switched me off I'm afraid. Its a shame. Like Moon Knight, I'm done with The Punisher's yakketing.

And so I've moved onto something more random. Not Marvel. Just Jeff Bridges, who's chinny rasping voice always draws me in. His Obadiah in Iron Man was just great - "I'm deeply enjoying the suit!".

Anyway, Jeff Bridges stars in The Old Man on Netflix. He's old and gritty, like Clint in Gran Torino or Denzel in the Equalizer, and he isn't in the mood for faffing about either. 

I'm about three episodes in and despite a lot of CIA folk now rabbiting on old Jeff himself is doing well in the less-chat-and-more-action department. We'll see how it pans out over the next few episodes.

Another series I've started and one that came recommended is The Peripheral. Its on Prime and so far so good. The next episode comes out Friday - the Power of the Rings slot! Starring the new Scarlett Johannsen, Chloe Grace Moretz, its a futuristic Sci Fi ride for sure. I likes it.

As for horror this week, I caught Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde last night. Starring Ralph Bates, he's always a draw for me for some reason. I think its his lack of facial expression and his brisk clipped speech that I enjoy. I was really sad to learn that he died so young, just 51 years old.

Tonight Talking Pictures TV are showing The Night of the Eagle at 9pm, a black and white slice of suburban witchery and voodoo I've seen a few times before. Renamed Burn Witch Burn in the USA it's based on Fritz Leiber's novel Conjure Wife. I've always liked the 1950's paperback gothic romance-style cover art for it, a sub-genre of books I used to collect.

Friday is another worthwhile rendezvous with endearing Caroline Munro. On the bill are The Outer Limits The Inheritors Part II, The Brotherhood of Satan, the Ghost of Sierra de Cobre and One Body Too Many. 

I don't think I've seen any of those before so it will be interesting. Will you be watching readers in the UK? What's everyone watching around the globe?

Puppet House Lights

I took this snap of a toy Sylvanian family doll house through our front window last night. I liked the silhouette.

It recalls similar creepy dolls houses.

One I half remember is a TV series where the camera followed miniature people inside a doll's house. It was at the start of each episode with the theme music. I had thought it was Thriller from the 70's but its not, I checked. Any ideas?

Another creepy house with lit windows was the Aurora Addam's Family House model kit. My brother had the original one in the late Sixties, which I remember at home.

I had a modern re-issue - in the 90's I think. Alas I sold it but I did have fun making it and trying out torches inside it! The model contained small glow ghosts on moving levers, which came to the door and the windows. Great fun! Did you have one readers?

CultTVMan has an amazing illuminated Adam's Family House model. Have a peek! 
https://culttvman.com/main/randy-neuberts-lighted-addams-family-house/

All these lighted windows remind me of that neat device on the covers of Gothic Romance paperbacks. There's always one light left on upstairs as the damsel runs away from the old dark house!

I do love a lighted window in winter, maybe lit by a candle.
Something to come home to.

CLEAR-OUT SATURDAY: DO YOU THROW STUFF OUT?

Yesterday we had a bit of a clear-out at Moonbase. We'd taken in a display cabinet from our Daughter's house for safe keeping as they need more room for a growing family.

The new cabinet is now housed in my room, which required some sorting before it could come in.

One of my aims during the sort-out was to ditch a few things. 

I always find this really really hard as I sort of like everything I have.

When I'd done I was surprised just how big the ditching pile had got. Books, LP's, toys, games and models. 

When I say ditching I mean some of the following: giving to Moonbase Junior, listing on Ebay, selling on social media and taking to a charity shop.

I refuse to take my old stuff to the tip. I don't mind taking old timber, duff electrics and worn furniture but draw the line with old games like Frustration and Ker-Plunk. Never mind anything else, it took effort and cash to get them in the first place after I trudged around car boots all year round every year in all weathers in the 90's. I'm not chucking them in a skip and that's final!

A stack of LP records is going to a charity shop. Its is a classic pile of unwanted opera, jazz, schmaltz and early stereo pop. Notables include Des O'Connor, Demis Roussos, Nana Mouskouri, K-tel 24 Greatest Hits, Harry Secombe and Pinky and Perky.

There's also a big bulging bag of paperbacks, which are all Gothic Romances, a niche type of novel I began to collect years ago. The sub-genre had its finest hour with Dark Shadows in the 60's in my opinion with a series of novels by Marilyn Ross, a fascinating author I've blogged about before. 

My love affair with Gothic Romance has faded enough now for me to pass the pile on, although I'll always be interested in the book style.

I'll be sad to see all of this assorted flotsam go to pastures new and leave Moonbase. 

Finding this stuff is much more fun than letting it go but I have to admit I'm a bit of a hoarder! If we ever decide to downsize in our dotage then I'd better get some practice now!

Do you find it hard having a clear-out readers?

will the real dan ross please stand up!

Its May Bank Holiday here in the UK and I'm just been sorting through more old tomes at Moonbase.

Behind Locked Shutters is a good example of the gothic romances which were popular in the Sixtoes and Seventies.

The most prolific author was Canadian Marilyn Ross who wrote all the paperback tie-ins for the US Dark Shadows TV series about family manpire Barnabas Collins.

Marylin Ross was in fact a man and wrote under dozens of other names including Dana Ross, Rose Dana and Dan Ross, under which he wrote Behind Locked Shutters in 1968.

Oddly enough he also wrote using his two wives' names: Charlotte McCormack who had died and the more famous Marilyn Ross, who was still alive when he used it.

Interestingly inside my copy of Behind Locked Shutters is this dedication by 'Dan' to his wife 'Marilyn'.

'Novel one hundred' is an indication of just how prolific Mr. Ross was and many of his Dark Shadows novels were actually written using his wife's name Marilyn!

Fun to collect but be warned, it could drive you insane!

Have you any Dark Shadows novels?

Enjoy your May holiday!

PS. How are you celebrating May Day in your neck of the woods?

THE DARK SHADOWS ON MY TABLE

My collection of old Dark Shadows and Gothic Romance paperback novels.

Do you collect books readers?

PROP CULTURE: THE NESTING 1981

I've just been watching The Nesting on You Tube from 1981.

Not a particularly memorable horror film, it does contain an element which has always fascinated me, namely the Gothic Romance novel.

The Nesting is that rare film that contains such a novel. Its the prop - pictured - which gives the movie its title [one of many names it has I might add]. The story is about an author, Lauren Cochran, who rents a large house in which to complete her novel. As you can guess the house turns out to be a haunted brothel.

I've never come across a film with a nested book inside it which gives it its title. I say nested because i can't think of another word, although I've talked about this before in terms of films within films.

The book The Nesting was fabricated for the film as a prop. It doesn't exist in its own right as far as I can see from online searches. They made quite a few copies for the film, which I assume is a stack of the same random hardback books with the film's custom covers over them as you can see in the following screengrabs.

In the movie, the author is out driving one day and comes across the house described in her book and on the cover. This deja vu is a rather neat twist, which further nests the book into the fabric of the film.

The location itself is actually a well-known New York State octagonal landmark, the Armour-Stiner house in Westchester County.

The 'The Nesting' book cover art [artist unknown] depicts the house in classic Gothic Romance style, principally at night with an upstairs light on and a lady running away in a distressed state.

I had thought that the artist may have simply lifted an existing cover like these:

But by painting the actual Armour Stiner house and a lady who looks like the lead actress I think its an original illustration in its own right.

Its a pity that the film distributors didn't simply use it to promote the movie rather than relegating it to the dark left corner and generalising it in the process, the octagonal house making way for a regular mansion.

The VHS VIPCO video art all but abandons the subtle tropes of Gothic Romance found on the original book cover. The artist has at least retained the octagonal house with an illuminated window, but its now surrounded by a garish band of dark luminescent figures. Most obvious of all is the omission of the fleeing gothic damsel to make way for the new icons of the video nasty, the scream and the scythe. Shame.

Have you seen The Nesting readers? Are you aware of any other books made specifically as a film prop?

COLLECTING DARK SHADOWS AND GOTHIC ROMANCE PAPERBACKS

One of my many vintage interests has been collecting paperbacks from the Dark Shadows TV series.

I have found most of them at car boot sales over the last 25 years.

Dark Shadows was a gothic TV soap featuring classic monsters and ran from 1966 to 1971. It had and has a cult following and spawned films, comics, radio plays, toys, games and kits.

Many of the Dark Shadows paperbacks were authored by Marilyn [aka Dan] Ross. These gothic stories became part of the sub-genre of literature known as gothic romance, which has its roots in the 18th Century and even the Brontes.

Modern gothic romance like Dark Shadows novels blossomed in the Sixties and Seventies with publishers like Paperback Library and Ace Gothic. I also have a collection of their gothic romances.

Gothic romance featured dark settings, lost loves, commanding men, love-stricken ladies, ruined castles and many other gloomy devices.

For me the covers have always held my fascination. The true modern gothic romance paperbacks covers almost always featured a fleeing maiden, a country house in deep shadow and most curious of all, a single illuminated window! See for yourself here. How fabulous is that!

Have you any gothic novels or other gothic collectables readers? Have you ever seen Dark Shadows on TV?