When Dracula Met Frankenstein: My Years Making Drive-In Movies with Al Adamson

One must approach this book with a certain mindset. If drive in and very low budget films are not your thing, then this book is not for you.If you are fascinated by film distribution, the emergence of home video , How important editing is to a film, and of course , a lurid murder, This is the book you will need.A marvelous companion piece to the documentary Blood And Flesh from Severin, this boom fleshes out the history of I.I. from filmmaker Samuel M Sherman's point of view .

Reading Sam Sherman’s terrific memoir WHEN DRACULA MET FRANKENSTEIN was a treat! Mr. Sherman talks about how he started in the film distribution business while still a teen, how he hooked up with his partner the late Al Adamson (whose bizarre 1995 death would make a heck of a movie itself), and how he cofounder Independent International Pictures. Sherman and Adamson helped put together a number of classic exploitation films, including Blazing Stewardesses, Five Bloody Graves, Cinderella 2000, Psycho a Go Go, and the one I always caught on late night TV, 1971’s Dracula vs. Frankenstein. Along the way, both men crossed paths with the likes of Neal Adams, Gray Morrow, Kent Taylor, Russ Tamblyn, Georgina Spelvin, Paul Naschy, Regina Carroll, the Ritz Brothers, John Carradine, and many other artists and producers.Sherman’s book is a lot of fun, despite the occasional tragic note (like Adamson’s death). If you want to read about the exploitation film biz of the 60s, 70s & 80s, this is the book for you! Special thanks to editor Tim Ferrante, publisher Ed Hulse and their colleagues for putting this work together!

Sam Sherman started very young in film business, and he's still working today. He has plenty of entertaining stories to tell, mainly about doing business with his friends. But what he doesn't do is really go into a much depth of Independent International Pictures, which is what I expected this book to be about. For example, he mentions in a throwaway line how one of his films made all its budget back in foreign sales. But he never speak of how the company did business. No mention of the big three film markets of the day. Did the company have a presence at the markets? Did they do it through sales agents? Which countries did their films do good business. Another example, he mentions that at one point IIP employed a staff of 26. That's an astonishing number for a company handling independent films in the 70s. Aside from mentioning a handful of names, not much is mentioned of their roles. What did twenty-six jobs do to contribute to the company's massive success? As entertained as I was by the book, I was expecting a more detailed look at the golden years of he company in the 1970s...and what contributed to its fifty-three year survival.

Fans of the old IIP Movies of Sam Sherman and Al Adamson, Drive-In Movies in general, Old Hollywood or just Film Buffs will go Ga-Ga over this book! Not even all the way through it and I am enthralled by some of the never-before told backstories. As a fan of these movies - they take me back to my days of late-night weekend viewing on WOR 9 - I'm very familiar with the source material. And, while I got to meet Sam Sherman at a Drive-In, I didn't have the pleasure of meeting Al Adamson before his untimely death. However, with this book, I feel I've gotten an insight into him and the making of these movies. I found the story about how they filmed at Spahn Movie Ranch and actually hired Charles Manson to fix some vehicles both chilling and interesting. There's also a forward by John Russo and an afterward by Tom Weaver. Chock-filled with photos to go with these interesting stories, you will get your money's worth! Get this book, read it cover-to-cover and keep it in your collection!

If you are interested in old-school low-budget independent film making, this book is like a box of gourmet chocolates – so good, it takes willpower to keep from devouring it all at one time.I have always admired people who produced low/micro budget movies: Financing, casting, marketing, distribution, etc. One of the most interesting parts of his book is dealing with unexpected calamities -- star quits, camera breaks down, money runs out, lab goes out of business, etc. When others would give up, Sam Sherman took a deep breath and persevered.I enjoyed reading how Independent International Pictures acquired unreleasable pictures the original producers gave up on, and made them marketable by shooting new scenes, editing, retitling, retitling, retitling, and retitling!

I literally can't say enough good things about this book. The story of Independent International Pictures is one of the most interesting ones in low budget film history as is the relationship of partners Sam Sherman and Al Adamson. This book tells that story in the words of Sam Sherman in a way only he can. The studio's output was amazing and it still influences filmmakers to this day. This book is a great easy read and very entertaining. If you are a fan of cult movies, horror movies, or movies in general I highly recommend it for you!

To know who Sam Sherman is and his contributions to cinema is to love the guy. I was glad to find that the book is not exclusively about Al Adamson because II was a fascinating venture and great tales of many of the releases from around the globe are told. Certainly a MUST for any serious bookshelf.

Very entertaining read of Sam Sherman’s life and career in the B-movie world. Terrific.

Alongside Roger Corman's autobiography, this book really gives you the ultimate insight into low-budget American filmmaking from a bygone era.