Description
Book Synopsis Photoplay editions were usually hardcover reprints of novels that had been made into movies, illustrated with photographs from the film productions. Sometimes, instead, they were fictionized versions of film scripts, rewritten in narrative form.
Here is an annotated checklist of more than 500 horror and mystery photoplay novels and magazine fictionizations, collected over a period of four decades. Photo-illustrated stories that are not strictly in the horror or mystery genres are included if they are linked to films with such stars as Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, or other genre figures. Mysteries are generally defined as novels or stories featuring a detective as the central character, although in some cases melodramas, thrillers, and film noir books having crime as a plot element are included. Science fiction and fantasy works, and others having outre aspects, are also within scope. With a few exceptions, the cut-off date for inclusion in the catalog is the y