Tim Lucas' 'Mario Bava: All The Colors of the Dark,' or, Physical Manifestation is the Best Revenge

I remember a few years ago, talking to another critic, a name guy, at a screening, and somehow this book, a 35-year long labor of love for author Tim Lucas, came up. As it happened, I was one of the guys who shelled out, I think, 95 bucks or so in a sort of "patronage" pre-order when Lucas announced the subscription in his fantastic magazine Video Watchdog...was it ten years ago? More? I can't remember, and I can't find the info on the book's blog. But I do remember the droll reaction from the critic when I mentioned my investment: "Oh, you fell for that?"

But Lucas—and I, and a lot of other people—now have the last laugh on the doubters and haters (whose voices grew shriller as the book, growing, was delayed). Mario Bava: All The Colors of the Dark made it to my house while I was away at the Toronto Film Festival, to the slight consternation of My Lovely Wife, who didn't relish lugging the twelve-pounds-plus package up three flights of stairs. This is one big book. Check it:

Here it is topped by, and side-by-side with, the Phillip Lopate-edited Library of America anthology American Movie Critics, an over-700-page tome.

And sure enough, as promised, there I am, listed in the two-page "Patrons," along with other luminaries, including Bill Amazzini—a man I have heard much of over the past 30 years, and yet have never met—Maitland McDonagh, and Kyle Smith, among others. I'm not sure the "Kyle Smith" listed is the same Kyle Smith who writes for the New York Post. That Kyle Smith doesn't seem like a Bava kind of guy to me.

No matter. The book exists, and I'll have more to say as I plow through it. Bravo, Mr. Lucas.

Comments

[bill]

Holy shit.

[Tim Lucas]

Thank you, Glenn, for your patient support and righteous defense of ATCOTD.

We started accepting pre-orders for the book with an ad in VIDEO WATCHDOG #68, published in 2001. It may have felt like ten years (especially to us!), but it was six. (I resist the temptation to say "only six.") Our current issue is #134, which shows that whatever we have accomplished with this book was achieved by a man and his wife working out of their house, between monthly issues, in their spare (ha!) time. We've taken a lot of unnecessary flak over the years, usually from people with professional axes to grind, and I wonder if Russ Meyer experienced any such backlash during the decade he kept his customers waiting for A CLEAN BREAST (at three padded-bra volumes, a much shorter work than ATCOTD). We have kept every promise we ever made about the book, save its projected publication date -- we had no idea what the book would ultimately develop into, which caused us to give the eventual $250 product to our pre-order customers for well under half-price. I suspect it's the most lavish book ever devoted to a single filmmaker (though it also covers the first century of Italian popular cinema in general), and it's larger and longer than any single volume history of world cinema I know. At close to 800,000 words -- with full color throughout -- it's the equivalent of ten average-length books in one.

I look forward to your further comments as you make your way through what has been a 32 year labor of love for me.

Sincerely,
Tim Lucas

[Tim Lucas]

PS: Love your subtitle, which would have made a good title for a Bava film -- and is actually a serviceable logline for one or two.

PSS: In the previous comment, I should have said "personal" (not "professional") "axes to grind."

[Charlamain Johnson]

>>>But Lucas—and I, and a lot of other people—now have the last laugh on the doubters and haters (whose voices grew shriller as the book, growing, was delayed).

You seem to imply that there were hundreds and hundreds of these people. Let's get real! There were a few doubters who started to wonder after they'd heard for three years that the book had been at the printers, but the printer couldn't do the job, ya da ya da... If he'd just been straight-forward and said - "I found some new info and I'm going to pull the book back for a few months and add it", the doubters would have been silenced at that point.

As for the haters...they only spawned from a single message board, goaded on by someone with a personal enmity towards Lucas...and do you really want to give them the satisfaction of knowing that they actually did irk Lucas, when up to this point he'd kept himself above that?

[Tim Lucas]

To Charlamain Johnson:

To clarify: We never said that the book was at the printer until it went to the printer. Naturally we auditioned many different printers before settling on the one best capable of delivering what we wanted. We shared every step of that process with our customers because we felt accountable to everyone who had invested in the project. Despite going above and beyond the call of keeping everyone up to date, there was no silencing those doubters. Some people live to complain, and the internet's anonymity only encourages this.

Likewise, I should mention that, since the layout was ongoing as I was writing, I don't think anything I added to the book seriously postponed its arrival.

I can't pretend that the haters on that and other message boards didn't "irk" me, especially when they dedicated themselves to poisoning the public perception of our honesty. Let's say they didn't make a very difficult job any easier. Ultimately, they hurt their listeners more than they hurt us, their frothing gossip causing a few customers to cancel their pre-orders shortly before our book went to press. One thing they never admitted while accusing us of absconding with our pre-order monies was that we were always prompt to refund anyone's pre-order. This effectively doubled the book's price for those whom they selfishly led astray, sometimes after years of patient support.

[Dan Oliver]

Wow. This is the first I've heard of the doubters and the haters. I guess this is because I don't read the message boards. However, I do read Video WatchBlog every day and enjoy the hell out of it. I was not aware of the Bava Book until the WatchBlog debuted and was promoted by Glenn Erickson on his DVD Savant site. But I quickly became caught up in the ongoing saga of its writing and publication. It was fun to follow the progress on the Bava Blog, and it was a real treat to watch the video of Tim and Donna receiving the first of the final, approved copies. Although I wanted one, I hesitated because of the price. Still, when push came to shove (and when the price was about to jump from $130 to $260), I took the plunge. My copy arrived last Friday, and I have to say it is a magnificent (if heavy!) book. What I have read so far is interesting, well-researched and very well written. I look forward to making my way through this fascinating book.

Oh, and by the way, I was never particularly a Bava fan. I used to see the name a lot on the pages of Castle of Frankenstein, but his films didn't play much in central Kansas in the '60s. I had seen a couple on TV in their dubbed, American versions, but hadn't been swayed. (I'm one of those Ford, Welles, Kubrick guys.) Tim Lucas is making a believer out of me, though. Between him, his great commentaries, and the Anchor Bay box sets, I'm being converted to the fold.

So forget the doubt and the hate and just enjoy the book. And the movies.

[Evan A. Baker]

I know the Kyle Smith mentioned in the book. He's working a couple of offices over from me at the moment, and he ASSURES me that he does not now write, nor has he ever written, for the New York Post.

[BIll Amazzini]

WOW! I decided to google my name one night recently and I came across your review of Tim Luca's Bava book. You mentioned my name among the many loyal patrons of this wonderful tome. I have been a loyal fan of european genre films since I first saw the Steve Reeves Hercules broadcast on channel 9 in NY back in the early sixties. It seems we are kindred spirits. Lets hope we can connect. In this age of CGI and abysmal screenplays, we can pillaver over the good things that are thankfully within in hands reach through the DVD medium such as the works of not only Bava but Sergio Martino, Sergio Corbucci, and many other underrated artists that are still out there without the perpetuations of Quentin Tarrantino. Sorry, Quent, you are not the only one who Knows...