Monsters of the Movies was right up the alleyway of my 13-year old self in 1977, and I was so thrilled to find this little gem that I still vividly remember to this day when and where I bought it and how I plopped down my 45p with both determination and delight. I perused my copy of Monsters of the Movies again and again, and it primed me for an even more influential purchase only a week or two later - Denis Gifford's Pictorial History of Horror Movies.

Of course most (if not all) of the films listed by Denis Gifford were completely out of reach in the 1970s, not just for teenagers thrilling to the delightfully eerie pictures featured in Monsters of the Movies, but for horror movie buffs of all ages. Quite often, the only way to view them was through abridged home movie versions on (Super)8mm, and Gifford actually provides a list of what was available in 1973 on that medium in his Pictorial History of Horror Movies (VHS would only be introduced in 1976 by JVC, and "home videos" only started to catch on by the very late 1970s). However, given the costs involved (for both a decent sound projector and then the movies) that was more like theoretical than practical advice.

But by now, 45+ years after the publication of Monsters of the Movies, and with DVDs (since 1996) and Blu-ray discs (since 2006) galore, things are looking a lot better. Here then is Denis Gifford's list of monsters and movies, with some links to additional, spoiler-free information for each movie (marked in light yellow and all work in progress, I hasten to add) or the relevant page on Wikipedia. Quite amazingly, I have by now been able to watch (and own a copy of) almost all of them...

DENIS GIFFORD'S LIST - A FEW OBSERVATIONS

When Gifford passed away in 2000, The Guardian in its obituary pointed out what really seems to have been at the core of his work:

"Whether known as "Britain's most eminent comic historian" or the more cheery "Mr Nostalgia", Gifford had an infectious enthusiasm for days gone by, which he spread to a wide audience through books, radio and television." (Holland, 2000)

Gifford's keen nostalgia for the early days of horror movies is not only very tangible in his classic Pictorial History of Horror Movies, it also shows in his selection for Monsters of the Movies. That doesn't mean he left out or ignored more modern films - on the contrary, some of his choices regarding 1960s and 1970s productions are to a degree even surprisingly "modern" (and, to be honest, hardly what would have been considered children and teenager friendly in the mid-1970s), such as The Vampire Lovers or Countess Dracula (which both stem from Hammer's early sexploitation era). His nostalgia does, however, account for the numerous silent movies on his list (no less than five). Arguably, they are all classics.

Gifford's penchant for (obscure) pre-WW2 movies does shine through at times, and some selections do seem slightly odd once you've actually seen the movie - The Ape-Man is a prime example of a film that really shouldn't make it onto any list with a positive spin, and since Gifford already had the Alligator People, it could not have been the need to find a monster/movie that starts with the letter A (the letters Q, X and Y, by the way, are missing in his list, unless you drop titles such as Doctor and Count, which then gives you (Count) Yorga and (Dr.) X).

It is not really obvious from the selection of films featured in Monsters of the Movies, but Gifford's nostalgic perspective was also his achilles heel which prevented him from appreciating more modern horror movies - and he was especially hard on Hammer.

"In quantity Hammer films are fast approaching Universal, but in quality they have yet to reach Monogram. Meanwhile they can admire their Queens Award for Industry and scream all the way to the bank." (Gifford, 1973)

One could to a degree accept the jab at Hammer for sniffing out what would make them money (even if Universal did the same thing back in the 1930s), but the quality comparison statement was patently ridiculous.

The fact that you had horror themed ice cream is more of an anecdotal nature (Wall's "Count Dracula" ice cream didn't, at least in my memory, taste that good but it looked too wicked to not get it when you could).

"Any self-respecting ten year old would have lapped up [Monsters of the Movies], and many undoubtedly did." (Branaghan, 2019b)

BRANAGHAN Sim (2019a) "Monsters Maidens and Mayhem: Horror Film History Books 1965-79 (Part 1)", online at SMGuariento.com

BRANAGHAN Sim (2019b) "Monsters Maidens and Mayhem: Horror Film History Books 1965-79 (Part 3)", online at SMGuariento.com

EMERSON Jim (1990) " Rating 6 recently published guides to movies on video", Chicago Tribune, 2 March 1990

FLOOD Alison (2019) "'Ghosts shaped my life': out-of-print children's classic to be resurrected", The Guardian, June 12^th 2019

GIFFORD Denis (1973) A Pictorial History of Horror Movies, Hamlyn

HOLLAND Steve (2000) "Obituary Denis Gifford", The Guardian, 26 May 2000