J a n c e e D u n n

Lou Reviews A Beloved Book

David Deal is my soul mate, my alter ego, my idol. Okay, at the very least, maybe we’d have coffee or something. While trolling Amazon for ancient VHS tapes of old movies-of-the-week, what do I stumble upon, like a virginal heroine running from a psycho through the woods, but a magnificent volume by Dave.

Even the title sends shivers: TELEVISION FRIGHT FILMS OF THE 1970s. It didn’t even matter if the book was good, I had to have it. But it’s very good. It’s an A-Z look at the top movies-of-the-week from that glorious heyday of - and shame on me, I had never heard this term before – telefrights. "The Screaming Woman," "Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell," "Ski Lift to Death." Glorious! There’s something like 150 in here and I’m not too proud to say that I haven’t even seen some of them. ("Snowbeast," how did I miss you?) But that’s what makes this treasure both an examination of an important genre - and a shopping list (I need my hands on "Women in Chains," asap.

The preface and contents are thorough and smart. You won’t find a lot of humor in his writing (which is why I think we should hook up for a sequel) but that’s a minor point in a book whose detail puts Leonard Maltin to shame. And it’s in hardcover. Finally, some respect.

A chat with Julie

You know my closest friend Julie if you have read "But Enough About Me." Well, she has her own memoir coming out in March, called "Please Excuse My Daughter."

I was reading the January issue of Vogue at the gym and saw that they had written nice things about her book, so I called her and said, 'have you read the new Vogue yet?"

"No," she replied. "Why?"

I said, "just run out and get it and turn to page 96."

"What's it about?"

"Just go get it," I said. "You'll have to trust me. It's worth it."

Then she said, "Is it about someone we hate?"

Which is the only proper response, really. This is why I love her.