For those who prefer big, fuzzy-bunny, feel-good movies, or "chick flicks," look elsewhere. This guide represents the epitome of the Real Man genres: westerns, gangster, action/adventure, tough renegade cop, sci-fi, splatter movies, and beyond. Contributors, David Everitt and Harold Schechter, deserve a Pulitzer for this unique collection of "Virile Videos" and "Two-Fisted Cinema" reviews.

As the cover guarantees, there are "NO tears,"NO Smooching," and "NO Weddings!" Best of all, the authors deliver side-slapping, tongue-in-cheek self-satire that one rarely finds in any critical collection.

This volume's "Manly Movie Hall of Fame" (including the likes of Lee Marvin, Ben Johnson -- NO! NOT the poet! --, the Duke -- naturally! --, and Steven Segal)is worth the price alone. Included also are hilarious "comparison charts," explaining the difference between guy movies and chick movies...as if we didn't know, and consistently excellent film criticism laced with comic irony and priceless throwaway lines.

Incidentally, women of good taste, do not be put off by the title! Similar to me, you've hated films, such as *The Piano*, *How To Make an American Quilt*, and *Message In a Bottle*, while our female colleagues have gone unanimously gaga over them. So let me remind you: this book is NOT just for guys; it is for anyone who would rather gargle with broken glass than sit through another insipid Julia Roberts tearjerker.

The Manly Movie Guide hit me like a fist full o' knuckle-punches. Today's "film experts" and "popular culture commentators" don't know Jacob Pschidtt when it comes to your important manly movies of manliness featuring he-men with abundant manlitude. But Everitt and Schechter know what movies matter most to the I-write-my-name-in-the-snow-standing-up crowd. MMG takes no prisoners. MMG shoots to kill, and kill hard. And like it. MMG dares to talk about the kind of movies today's on the go men of action and derring-do want to sit on a couch and watch. (And, yes, teacup, that is how you spell "derring-do"; you gotta problem with that?) When it comes to talking about "controversial" topics, other movie books shy away and whimper in the corner, crying for their mommies and wetting their puny little pantaloons . They make me wanna puke guts. But MMG takes on all the tough issue and vital movie categories. For example,in MMG you got your sections on: Movies That Celebrate The Wanton Destruction Of Endangered Species, Cops With Big Guns, Two Cops With Big Guns, Prison Movies That Afford Their Heroes The Opportunity To Show They Can Take It Like A Man. And there are pantloads of others. Of course there are also your sundry cross-referencings amongst, betwixt and between your varied topical references which have already been heretofore aforementioned. Now, personally speakin', this here Man-strosity's movies of choice are horror and science fiction. MMG is the only book around which has Who Bear A Surprising Resemblance to Really Hot Babes, and, Horror Films That Celebrate The Vital Contribution Women Have Made to Society As Devil-Worshipping Sluts, Homicidal Hookers, and The Helpless Victims of Insanely Sadistic Psycho-Killers. Plus, MMG is the only book you'll find which gives an erudite and nuanced treatment (long-overdue) of an important movie like Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers. Plus after reading MMG I knew sure as shootin' that I could not let another weekend roll by without finding Invasion of the Bee Girls. This is just one of the many valuable lessons this king of the castle learned while reading MMG on the throne. MMG also contains a Night with a Member of the Opposite Sex. This contains suggestions of shall we say, pinkie-finger-pointed-skyward type of movie, with non-stop blabbing about feelings and love and like that) then you propose....... (a red-blooded manly type of movie with copious punching and dying due to profuse bleeding ). For example, she wants a Jodie Foster movie, you propose Taxi Driver. If you're a man, woman or Alien with enough guy-ness to like movies with double shots of ballistic mayhem, bakini-listic babes with bulbous bazookas, and multiple breakings of assorted body parts starring lips, foreheads, and cheeks, then this is the book for you. Go out and buy Manly Movie Guide or I may have to come over to your house and do my Billy Jack "I just go BER-ZERRRRK!!!!!" impression all over your cute lil' manicured lawn, pilgrim. Signed, A Guy-hunkster who can dish it out, take it, and then rewind it on the VCR

In his early days, the subject of this true-crime history was so weird and insane-acting that no one in their right mind would allow him near them. But when he was sent to an insane asylum, over the years he learned a skill that made him one of the most dangerous predators in serial killer history: he learned to be perfectly, completely charming! Landladies had no hesitation showing this handsome, polite and obviously highly religious man their upstairs room to let... and they never left that room alive, as Ferral induced them to look up--- "what caused that stain?"--- broke their necks, and then raped their cooling corpses! As harrowing a true-crime account as I have ever read.

Schechter's book is a great read. It is a well written account of an American serial killer from a time before the term serial killer had been invented. The pleasant surprize of "Beastial" is the excellent treatment he gives the Social environment of America during the 1920s. The result is a greater understanding of the mind set of a country that was terrified by the sick twisted, corpse raping, body concealing "Gorilla" of a man known as Earle Leonard Nelson. I absolutely could not put this one down!

As a writer, I truly respect Schechter's ability to give a reader facts, while telling an incredible, and true tale. Particularly, "The Bestial" left me unsettled, yet captivated. I had difficulty thinking about his book - especially after the lights went out!

Good book...well written with illustrations and examples of manly comportment. References to men of our past to emulate. This will offend certain "guys", particularily men who dance and sing while wearing lavander colors and/or eating designer pastries! Readers of this book often stockpile guns and ammo, just in case!

We've followed this bible since college in '82, through 10 yrs of military service, and continue to place it on the pedestal it deserves today. So simple, so obvious, and yet so needed in this fairy age we live in. I now have this propped up in my H2, what better vehicle for MEN? Excuse me now, I need to hang glide through enemy airspace.....

I read this book in the mid-80's, and it changed my life. Gave a copy to a friend of mine what was in the hospital for lung surgery, and a coupla weeks later got a thank-you card. Said that without reading The Manly Handbook, he never would have had the courage to have the surgery without anesthesia.

This book should be a must-read for every male in America - before it's too late. There aren't many manly men around these days, and I think there's a direct correlation to the fact that the book has been out of print for a few years.

Unique work that is overlooked. All work has a very narrative-illustrative style. Srong line quality, color and composition. For a viewer with the ability to explore.

Nothing can prepare you for a Joe Coleman painting if you've never seen one before-- the beauty of these works will literally rip your eyeballs from your skull. With a scholarly, yet fierce courage Coleman reinvents the characters and scenes he portrays, with a technical skill which borders on the supernatural. In a recent show in Rotterdam, Coleman's work was hung beside those of Hieronymus Bosch, a deserved honor.

The essays in this book are excellent, describing Coleman's ground-breaking history as a performance artist as well as a painter. The design of the book by Katharine Gates is beautiful, and enhances appreciation of Coleman's work. I recommend this book to anyone who cares about art in the early 21st Century (or the 15th Century for that matter!).

Joe Coleman is represented in other books, but the essays in this book , along with the reproductions, give the viewer an intimate glimpse into the twisted and detailed paintings of joe coleman! a bargain!

What hath Ed Gein wrought? If he had gotten a cut of the profits of all the books and movies containing variants of his unique persona, he'd have died a millionaire. Schechter's book cuts through one myth about Gein in presenting the facts of his tragic life--- namely, he was not a serial killer. He may have killed his own brother, and certainly killed two middle-aged women, but only when he ran out of fresh graves of middle-aged female corpses to rob! Technically, he is a necrophile who was driven to murder, not a serial killer. A typically well-researched book by this praiseworthy author.

This is the story of a man obsessed with his mother, Augusta. Hating her and loving her at the same time. From the time he was born, he revered her like a saint. Following in her views of the town they lived in and her views of women. To her, everyone was living in sin and all women were harlots who should never be looked at much less spoken to. When she died, Eddie Gein's world fell apart. Before he would be caught, Ed Gein would kill two women and rob the graves of at least nine other women. He would rob them of their genital areas, the head, and the skin off other parts. He'd also parade around in the skin dressed like a woman because that is what he secretly wanted to be. No one could believe that this slight, shy litte man could be capable of such heinous crimes against the dead. He was a true deviant in every sense of the word. This book takes you on a journey from birth to death to everything in between in the life of Ed Gein, the real "Psycho". This book is recommended to anyone who is a fan of true crime novels.

I've heard of Ed Gein off and on for many years. I've heard his crimes were of an unspeakable, stomach-churning, monstrous nature. Yet again, I wanted to satisfy my somewhat morbid curiosity and see just how morbid his crimes were. I was repelled. Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre...all of these films came to, thanks to Eddie and his crimes. A cannibal, necro-sadist grave robber. Not even in fiction have I seen a person crazier than Gein. Harold Schechter does a job that is, in a word, brilliant. As awkward as it may seem, I sympathize with Gein. If his early life hadn't been as it had, he most probably wouldn't have gone so over the edge as he had done in his later life.

It is true to say his crimes are inexcusable, but Schechter looks at it in such an angle that I actually (believe it or not) saw a reason for Gein acting in the way he did...as depraved, as sickly demented as it was. It is highly informative, and written very well. There is not a single boring moment in it. It is impeccably researched. And, believe it or not, it's a true story. This actually happened.

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word," said Mark Twain, "is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug."

Twain's insight is brilliantly illustrated in Harold Schechter's new novel, The Hum Bug, in which Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) joins forces with P(hineas) T(aylor) Barnum (1810-1891) to track down a psychopath.

The most impressive feature of Schechter's novel is not the tale itself, but rather the author's uncanny ability to find precisely "the right word" for every circumstance.

Longtime admirers of Poe (among whom I include myself) are cognizant of Poe's idiosyncratic style: the subtle nuances of his diction and vocabulary; the cadence and rhythm of his sentences; the haunting, melancholy mood of his essays, short stories, and poems; the aesthetic beauty of his poetic prose.

Beyond doubt, Schechter has immersed himself in Poe's world. As one reads The Hum Bug, one suspects that the real Poe, as opposed to Schechter's fictional Poe, is actually narrating the tale. Indeed, one wonders if Schechter has purchased a Ouija board and is receiving direct messages from the Great Beyond!

For example, here is one of many passages I could cite: "As the workmen commenced to lower the casket into the yawning pit, I was seized with a sudden paroxysm of dread. Every fiber of my being recoiled from this all-too-vivid demonstration of the hideous end that awaits every mortal. To lie, for all eternity, within the confines of a narrow box, deep inside the earth, surrounded by the unseen but all-pervading presence of the Conqueror Worm! The mere thought of this awful eventuality caused my heart to quail--to cringe--to sicken. I gasped for breath--perspiration burst from every pore--my soul was possessed with a vague yet intolerable anguish!"

In lesser hands than those of Schechter, such an audacious first-person narrative by the author of "The Raven" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" would degenerate into maudlin purple prose--a ludicrous parody of Poe. On the contrary, Schechter succeeds with remarkable aplomb.

The time is 1844 in New York City. The venue is P. T. Barnum's American Museum, a vast assemblage of oddities, curiosities, and monstrosities. The plot centers around the search for a fiendish serial killer who is decapitating beautiful young women and leaving a long-stemmed crimson rose clenched between their teeth.

In addition to the well-developed characters of Poe and Barnum, the story features "Sissy" (Poe's wife: Virginia Clemm Poe); "Muddy" (Maria Clemm: Poe's aunt and mother-in-law); and the bizarre people who inhabit Barnum's menagerie.

Unless you are an astute detective, The Hum Bug will keep you guessing until the end, when the identity of the killer is revealed. Containing many allusions to classical works of literature, The Hum Bug is a crackling good yarn that both amuses and entertains.

Edgar Allan Poe is unable to feed his family on the wages he makes as a journalist/editor in Philadelphia. He relocates, with his family, to New York City where writing opportunities are much better. When he sees a handbill for the P.T. Barnum's American Circus, Edgar turns irate because he knows that at least one falsehood exists on the handbill he was given. He confronts Barnum, but obtains nothing but blarney from the glib talker.

Barnum is very impressed with Poe and visits the writer in his home when the media blames Barnum's American circus for causing a murder to happen. Poe who has solved murders before (SEE NEVERMORE) agrees to investigate. When the victim's missing arm is mailed to Poe's home, he concludes he is on the correct path and if can stay alive long enough he will solve the case.

Poe is clearly the star of this book as he uses his belief in his superior brain power to slice and dice everyone using self-deprecation so nobody will be offended. The HUMBUG is a serious historical mystery though Barnum lightens up the atmosphere with his unique brand of showmanship. Though a nineteenth century who-done-it, mystery lovers of all sub-genre persuasions will enjoy Harold Schecter's tale.

Harriet Klausner

Today, a 14-year-old boy was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the death of a young girl whom he killed while practicing wrestling moves, according to his defense. This harsh sentence is strikingly similar to the one Jesse Pomeroy received over a century ago. Pomeroy spent over 50 years in prison for two heinous murders committed when he was 14. Of those years in prison, over 40 of them were in solitary confinement. To me, his survival of his punishment is more astounding than his crimes. I wish Schechter had devoted more space to Pomeroy's prison years than he did. I found the descriptions of Pomeroy's ceaseless attempts at escape both somewhat humorous and highly pathetic, as this man, hated across the US, constantly tried a variety of escape methods, even into his 70's. Where he would have gone had his attempts succeeded is an interesting question. The book, while well-written, fails in its attempt to prove that things are no different now than they were in the 1870s. Yes, Jesse's crimes were terrible, but the main difference between then and now is the number of crimes committed by children. The very reason Jesse was so hated was the unique brutality of his crimes. Today, we hear of similarly brutal acts by children every day, to the extent that we simply shake our heads and then go on with our lives. I disagree with Schechter's repeated premise that today's society has not influenced more children to violence than did the dime novels of the past. Given that, "Fiend" is still an excellent account of a crime that shocked the nation--and of a punishment that SHOULD shock people everywhere even today. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in crimes and criminals.

It's nice to know that youthful murderers are not just a recent phenomenon. Jesse Pomeroy makes Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold seem like choirboys. Since Jesse was only fourteen, the governor commuted his sentence from death to life in solitary without parole. Doesn't sound like much of a commutation, does it? Harold Schechter's descriptions of Jesse's crimes were haunting. I particularly liked the last two sections -- Jesse's letters to Willie Baxter, and the account of his life in prison and many escape attempts. (Not that I blame him for trying.) I like learning about lesser-known murderers instead of everything Ted Bundy all the time. Yet another good book from Harold Schechter!

Harold Schechter is among my favorite True Crime authors because he brings a much-needed historical perspective to violent crime. Unlike other writers in this genre, Schechter mainly follows psychopaths and serial killers at the turn of the century. And if you thought contemporary America bred the worst violent criminals, Schechter will quickly remind you that our past was always worse than our present.

"Fiend" tells the story of Jesse Pomeroy, a boy who began to abduct and sexually torture small children in South Boston when he was only twelve, and eventually murdered his victims when he turned fourteen. And Pomeroy's crime wave started in 1871, shortly after the Civil War ended.

After Pomeroy's arrest, newspaper editorials of that period quickly declared that America was in the midst of a violent "crime epidemic" that threatened to tear down the whole country -- just as they do today after every school shooting.

And like today, critics blamed Pomeroy's behavior on violent entertainment. Today's scapegoats are horror films and video games. In Pomeroy's day, sociologists blamed dime novels about "Wild Bill Hickock" and "Indian Dan."

And like today, outraged Americans struggled over how to appropriately penalize juvenile offenders. While many demanded that Pomeroy be executed to serve as a deterrent, others pleaded with the Massachusetts governor NOT to hang a 14-year-old boy. (Pomeroy was eventually sentenced to life in prison in an unusually cruel manner.)

Like all of Schechter's previous works, "Fiend" is a very well researched, very disturbing book that zips along at a breathless pace. But it's still not as gruesome as Schechter's biography of Albert Fish, the elderly cannibal who stalked New York's children during the 1920s. "Deranged" recounts a psychosexual pathology so bizarre and unbelievable, Albert Fish made Jeffrey Dahmer appear sane by comparison.

Deranged is Harold Schecter's true crime history of the fascinating, horrifying life of Albert Fish. The reader must be prepared for graphic detail, which is often scatological and consistently perverse and disturbing. On the surface, Schecter falls short of creating a suspenseful nonfiction novel. His arbitrary historical anchors and tedious inclusion of irrelevant details detract from the coherence of the story. Even so, the extremity and depravity of Fish's behavior create an original, unforgettable glimpse into the workings of a criminal sexual psychopath. I recommend this book to true crime buffs who have not yet heard much about the case of Albert Fish because there are no other books on this subject that I have yet located.

Harold Schechter's books are great, and in my opinion Deranged is the best of them. 'True Crime' books tend to be overly-sensational or poorly written, this is neither. This is a very shocking book, I'm surprised that more people don't know about Albert Fish. After reading Deranged, I have looked for other books about Fish and have been unable to find a single one, yet his crimes are about the most brutal I've read about. The fact that he preyed on children makes this absolutely terrifying. As fascinating as it is horrific, this is a must-read for crime buffs.

Albert Fish is one of those characters, that no matter how many times I read about, I can't seem to believe that such an evil person existed outside the walls of mythology. Along with the likes of the Ottis Tooles, Ted Bundys, and John Wayne Gaceys, Albert Fish was (as the book so adequately describes), deranged! The author of this book,Harold Schecter, does an excellent job on the research. Not only does Schecter tell the tragic story of Fish's kidnapping of little Grace Budds from her parent's home on West 54th street in New York City, but he tells of the horrific child abductions that took place in Staten Island at the hands of Fish. This book even takes into account of a trolley drivers observation of the old pervert Fish trying to calm a terrifiedchild while taking him to his death. Please read this book with caution. It is not for the faint in heart, and it will open your mind to the evil that is out there in this world.

"Depraved" tells the story, at least so far as it can be known (and perhaps a little farther than it can be known) of Harold Mudgett, alias H.H. Holmes (among others), who the book jacket will tell you was "America's first serial killer." I seriously doubt that he was, but the story is fascinating nevertheless. Holmes was a career con man who, using credit only as a source of financing, built a strange and imposing edifice in suburban Chicago ca. 1890 called "The Castle." He was a relentless schemer, dreaming up numerous quack inventions along with real-estate and insurance scams. His more sinister crimes, however, included at least nine murders, usually of his mistresses but including one of his co-conspirators and three of the man's children. This alone makes for an amoral monster, but the odd architecture of "The Castle"--with its airtight safe, asbestos-lined rooms, and greased chutes to a cellar containing vats of chemicals and a furnace fit for cremation, hinted at even more sinister deeds. Unfortunately, most of these crimes must remain the subject of speculation, as Holmes was an inveterate liar whose confessions were wholly unreliable, and little evidence of any additional murders actually exists. This naturally has not stopped Schechter from noting that some writers have estimated Holmes' body count at more than 100 people.

Like all of Schecter's books, this one refrains from a dry or staid recitation of the facts as they are known. Although these are woven into the narrative skillfully enough, it is clear that Schechter is of the school of biographers/historians who freely mix fact with "re-creation," or to put it more honestly, "fiction." Although he steps back now and then to note that we cannot know what was going through his mind at such-and-such time, a great deal of extrapolation went into this book. Nevertheless, I would hesitate to say that anything here is falsified or sensationalized. The writing is nothing inspired by muses, but chugs along at a breezy pace. Perhaps the most surprising fact to me is that Holmes is not as notorious today as he was then, or as other serial murderers are now. Overall, an interesting and entertaining bit of crime history.

There have been killers and con-men and thieves and dead-beats in America throughout its long history, but I don't think there has ever been anyone before or since like the subject of this long book. The history of H. H. Holmes is so complex, and with so many gaps, that Schechter has done an amazing job in managing to tell a more-or-less coherent story. Holmes himself never told the truth about anything, no matter how trivial, while his own caution and incessant travel kept much of his crime anonymous or undetected. Even in his early days, when he maintained more fixed addresses, his crimes were largely undetected--- there is no way to know how many people he murdered in a special building in a suburb of Chicago during the days of the Exposition, when he rented rooms to travellers who were never seen or heard from again. A continually fascinating book.

I love this book. H. H. Holmes is by far my favorite serial killer. That sounds strange but he is the most fascinating in my opinion. I picked up this book and could not put it down. I loved every minute of it. It's full of little known facts, information, and stories revolving around this intriguing man. From his roots in New Hampshire, to his pharmacy, to his castle, to his death. One thing though, above in the critic reviews it says that he kills his partner, his partners wife, and their five kids, that isn't true. He only kills his partner and two of his partners kids. There are countless others that no one even knows about that checked into the castle and never checked out. This is an excellent read and I recommend it to anyone interested in the killing mind.

As far as an educational/literary feast is concerned, this isn't much more than a midnight snack. I generally enjoy Schechter's single-subject documentations(i.e.-Bestial, Deviant, Deranged....all very good books), but he laid an egg with this one. It is a valuable source for juvenile cheap thrills, but as a reference guide it is severely lacking. You would be better off checking out M. Newton's Encyclopedia Of Serial Killers or Colin Wilson's Encyclopedia Of Modern Murder. The New Murderer's Who's Who & Human Monsters are also worthwhile, informative & accurate books on serial killers. Don't get me wrong here, this is a fun and entertaining book on the subject. However, if you are getting your information from this kind of book you are going to lose a lot of arguments. There are much better books on the subject of serial murder waiting to join the others on your bookshelf. All this having been said, it should be noted that I am a stickler for details and could be a bit jaded from having read so many better books on serial murder.

This is an excellent book for anyone who has only a minor interest in the subject. It can be very informative and covers many topics. However, there is no index, and it can difficult to find some topics. For instance, if you would like to know about more books about serial killers, you cannot find them under "B," but "R" for Recommended Reading. There are also some spelling errors, but overall an interesting read.

If you've ever been fascinated by serial killers, this is a book I highly recommend.
It's not a book that I'd sit down and read all at once, but it's good to flip through and read the short bios and all things related to serial killers.