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 12 reveals a flickering carnival of attractions and aberrations from the period 1937-1940, when even the most garish of filmic horror phantasies began to be overshadowed by the real-life atrocities of worldwide war. Classic serials, ever more daring exploitation movies, horror nightmares and other prime examples of pulp cinema are examined alongside a growing body of newsreel depicting death and destruction, the throes of a world in turmoil.

This volume references more than 600 films from all countries and reproduces around 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.

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