A Zombie’s Life by Giovanni Lombardo Radice Book Review!
If you grew up watching the Golden Age of Italian horror and cult cinema, there’s a usual rogues gallery of faces which become rather familiar to you in so many films. Some of these acting talents fall off the face of the earth in the end, whereas others still emerge.
Giovanni Lombardo Radice (a.k.a. John Morghen), certainly hasn’t faded away. Though not as prominent as once upon a time, he is a steady face if you know where to look. Giovanni acted for Lucio Fulci, Ruggero Deodato, Umberto Lenzi, Michele Soavi, plus many others in his youthful decades, and more recently a handful of Severed Cinema regulars such as Darren Ward (see review here) Domiziano Cristopharo (see review here) and Matthan Harris (see review here), plus Luigi Pastore, etcetera. A little side note, I think I’ve mentioned of Severed Cinema before, I’ve had roles in two of those films (never sharing scenes) and a thankyou in the third. I also have a small role in the upcoming Witches of the Sands in which Giovanni also has a part — maybe one day I’m destined to meet the gent in person.
Basically, all this, plus parts in The Omen remake and Gangs of New York, Giovanni is one of those cult legends in the fields, though for a very long time he dismissed his past. Akin to Ian (Zombie Flesh Eaters, Dr. Butcher MD) McCulloch, a lot of snide remarks, and jokes, up until recent times when it finally hit home that these films are big deals to collectors and lovers of cult horrors. As a matter of fact, they have given stars such as he a reason to enter the wonderful chaos of the convention scene.
However, after reading this excellent book, A Zombie’s Life, I can kind of understand some of his resentment against the films, at least he’s nothing like the “cold” John Saxon. The films of importance to fans aren’t brushed aside, they are all laid out in depth and Giovanni details every high and low whilst his career staggered through the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. It’s been a very rough and rocky road, he is very blatant about it all, including his personal habits including drugs and affairs.
House on the Edge of the Park was his big break, nothing but shining delight and emotion is given to the one and only David Hess. Many have stated that David was a fantastic human being, very generous, and encouraging. Giovanni is clearly in debt to sharing his first movie role with such a giant. In fact, years later, they joined together on the convention circuit for a bit of comedy to the joy of followers. The same cannot be said of John Saxon, who stood stony cold whilst sharing screen time with Giovanni in Cannibal Apocalypse. The whole creation of that flick seemed to be rather testing for our man, as was much of Cannibal Ferox. (Anthony Quinn and Bo Svenson are other names distastefully resurrected from his memory in the book).
Lucio Fulci, for all his biblical rages on set to his personal minions, receives a lot of praise, and you get the feeling that Giovanni truly liked his City of the Living Dead experiences (yes, the worms in the tobacco pouch jest gest a mention), but it’s Michele Soavi who is lavished the most, Giovanni adored working with him (and fancied him). Then in later years, Darren Ward is given many stars in Giovanni’s eyes (in fact Darren was a great help in developing the book). At the time of publishing, Giovanni was greatly looking forwards to taking on the lead villain in Beyond Fury.
Away from the world of films, both horror and non-horror (yes, he’s actually got a very diverse CV, worth checking out a few of his non genre roles), A Zombie’s Life, dives into his stage work, plus the many happy times, dark times, tragedies, and quiet moments in his very long life.
A Zombie’s Life is amazing, really sucking you in from the beginning. Though I read a lot of nonfiction, I rarely indulge in autobiographies, with the exception of classic names such as Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee (biographies I don’t mind, they standardly lack the ego and uncover more). I found myself engrossed frankly due to the honesty, the sense of humour, plus it covered the films of an era I grew up watching, many names in front of and behind the cameras appear along the way. I have shelved this next to Pete Chiarella’s A Whole Bag of Crazy (see review here) simply for those reasons. Additionally, fair mention to John Szpunar’s Joel M. Reed biography, Blood Sucking Freak (see review here) because I felt the same surge of enjoyment reading all of these.
There are photographs on near enough every two-page spread (over 150 of ’em). The quality of paper and print is brilliant (Midnight Marquee Press, you’re awesome). The 260 pages are pleasing on the eyes and rush by so fast, but you know that one day you’ll happily re-read it all once again.
Book: A Zombie’s Life
Edited by: Midnight Marquee Press
Written by: Giovanni Lombardo Radice (a.k.a.: John Morghen)
Published by: Midnight Marquee Press
Art by: Gary J. & A Susan Svehla
Year: 2017
A Zombie's Life by Giovanni Lombardo Radice
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