Danny Peary
Encyclopedia
Danny Peary is an American film critic and sports writer. He has written many books on cinema
and sports-related topics.
and grew up in South Carolina
and New Jersey
. He earned a B.A.
in History from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and an M.A.
in Cinema at University of Southern California
. He is the brother of film critic, writer and columnist Gerald Peary
. He has lived in New York City
since 1977.
Peary has worked as the fine arts and sports editor for Panorama
while he ran a film society. His film criticism has been published in TV Guide (Canada)
, Focus on Film, Bijou
, The Velvet Light Trap, Newsday
, Film and Filming, The Philadelphia Bulletin, and the Soho News.
Peary remains an important and influential figure in the film reviewing field chiefly due to his three volume book series Cult Movies
(1981), Cult Movies 2 (1983), and Cult Movies 3 (1989). Peary’s informative and passionate dissection of such critically ignored (at the time) cult film
hits as Black Sunday (1960), Night of the Living Dead
(1968), Aguirre, the Wrath of God
(1972), The Conqueror Worm
(aka Witchfinder General) (1968), Once Upon a Time in the West
(1968), Jason and the Argonauts (1963), Eraserhead
(1977), The Shooting
(1966), and Plan 9 from Outer Space
(1959), helped foster a growing interest in these and many other out-of-the-mainstream titles among the more general film fan audience. In all, Peary wrote lengthy reviews of 200 movies in the three books, providing thoughtful criticism and production details, including information gleaned from interviews Peary had with various producers, directors and actors. While the majority of these films have subsequently been extensively written about and discussed in other books, magazines and various genre
-specific website
s, in some ways the Cult Movies books can be seen as one of the first critical “Seal of Approval” acknowledgements of many of these titles. However, Peary’s response to the films under discussion was not always positive, and his writing often shows bemusement regarding the appeal of some titles( such as Emmanuelle
(1974) or Zardoz
(1974)) , as well as occasional disgust ( Blood Feast
(1963)) .
Peary currently mostly concentrates on sports books. He is the writer-researcher on the long-running national sports interview television show The Tim McCarver Show
and has done 3 books with McCarver, a close friend. He is the New York correspondent for the Australian magazine FilmInk, as well as a contributing editor to Timessquare.com. He worked with Ralph Kiner
on his autobiography, Baseball Forever. His 21st book, written with Tom Clavin, is his first biography, Roger Maris: Baseball's Reluctant Hero.
Peary was interviewed for Machete Maidens Unleashed! (2010), a documentary film about Filipino genre films of the 1970s and '80s. The director of that film, Mark Hartley, has said that, "I’d worn my copies of Cult Movies 1, 2 and 3 into the ground from constant re-reading so meeting author Danny Peary was a pleasure."http://tiffmidnightmadness.blogspot.com/2010/09/5-questions-with-machete-maidens.html
Co-author:
Editor:
Co-editor:
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and sports-related topics.
Biography
Peary was born in West VirginiaWest Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
and grew up in South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
and New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. He earned a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in History from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and an M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in Cinema at University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
. He is the brother of film critic, writer and columnist Gerald Peary
Gerald Peary
Gerald Peary is an American film critic, who has been a reviewer and columnist for the Boston Phoenix since 1996. He was formerly the Acting Curator of the Harvard Film Archive and is currently the General Editor of the University Press of Mississippi Conversations with Filmmakers Series...
. He has lived in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
since 1977.
Peary has worked as the fine arts and sports editor for Panorama
Panorama (disambiguation)
A panorama is a visual image display format in art or photography.Panorama or panoramic may also refer to:-Art:* Moving panorama, a theatrical device using a long panoramic painting wound on a scroll* Panoramic painting-TV and film:...
while he ran a film society. His film criticism has been published in TV Guide (Canada)
TV Guide (Canada)
TV Guide was a Canadian version, and later spin-off, of the American weekly magazine of the same name. It was originally published by McMurray Publishing from 1953 to 1976, and after its split from the US parent, became the property of Transcontinental Media since 1977...
, Focus on Film, Bijou
Bijou
Bijou may refer toPeople* Bijou Phillips , American actress, model and singer* Bijou , from Cape Verde* A character in the Japanese anime Hamtaro* Sidney W...
, The Velvet Light Trap, Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
, Film and Filming, The Philadelphia Bulletin, and the Soho News.
Peary remains an important and influential figure in the film reviewing field chiefly due to his three volume book series Cult Movies
Cult Movies (book)
Cult Movies is a 1981 book by Danny Peary, consisting of a series of essays regarding what Peary described as the 100 most representative examples of the cult film phenomenon...
(1981), Cult Movies 2 (1983), and Cult Movies 3 (1989). Peary’s informative and passionate dissection of such critically ignored (at the time) cult film
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
hits as Black Sunday (1960), Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 American independent black-and-white zombie film and cult film directed by George A. Romero, starring Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea and Karl Hardman. It premiered on October 1, 1968, and was completed on a USD$114,000 budget. After decades of cinematic re-releases, it...
(1968), Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Aguirre, the Wrath of God is a 1972 West German adventure film written and directed by Werner Herzog. Klaus Kinski stars in the title role. The soundtrack was composed and performed by German progressive/Krautrock band Popol Vuh...
(1972), The Conqueror Worm
Witchfinder General (film)
Witchfinder General is a 1968 British horror film directed by Michael Reeves and starring Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy, and Hilary Dwyer. The screenplay was by Reeves and Tom Baker based on Ronald Bassett's novel of the same name. Made on a low budget of under £100,000, the movie was coproduced by...
(aka Witchfinder General) (1968), Once Upon a Time in the West
Once Upon a Time in the West
Once Upon a Time in the West is a 1968 Italian epic spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone for Paramount Pictures. It stars Henry Fonda cast against type as the villain, Charles Bronson as his nemesis, Jason Robards as a bandit, and Claudia Cardinale as a newly widowed homesteader with a...
(1968), Jason and the Argonauts (1963), Eraserhead
Eraserhead
Eraserhead is a 1977 American surrealist film and the first feature film of David Lynch, who wrote, produced and directed. Lynch began working on the film at the AFI Conservatory, which gave him a $10,000 grant to make the film after he had begun working there following his 1971 move to Los Angeles...
(1977), The Shooting
The Shooting
The Shooting is a 1966 western film directed by Monte Hellman, with a screenplay by Carole Eastman . It stars Warren Oates, Millie Perkins, Will Hutchins, and Jack Nicholson, and was produced by Nicholson and Hellman. The story is about two men who are hired by a mysterious woman to accompany her...
(1966), and Plan 9 from Outer Space
Plan 9 from Outer Space
Plan 9 from Outer Space is a 1959 science fiction film written and directed by Edward D. Wood, Jr. The film features Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Tor Johnson and Maila "Vampira" Nurmi...
(1959), helped foster a growing interest in these and many other out-of-the-mainstream titles among the more general film fan audience. In all, Peary wrote lengthy reviews of 200 movies in the three books, providing thoughtful criticism and production details, including information gleaned from interviews Peary had with various producers, directors and actors. While the majority of these films have subsequently been extensively written about and discussed in other books, magazines and various genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
-specific website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
s, in some ways the Cult Movies books can be seen as one of the first critical “Seal of Approval” acknowledgements of many of these titles. However, Peary’s response to the films under discussion was not always positive, and his writing often shows bemusement regarding the appeal of some titles
Emmanuelle
Emmanuelle is the lead character in a series of French softcore erotic movies based on a character created by Emmanuelle Arsan in the novel Emmanuelle...
(1974) or Zardoz
Zardoz
Zardoz is a 1974 science fiction/fantasy film written, produced, and directed by John Boorman. It stars Sean Connery, Charlotte Rampling, and Sara Kestelman. Zardoz was Connery's second post-James Bond role...
(1974)
Blood Feast
Blood Feast is a 1963 American horror film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis, often considered the first "splatter film". It was produced by David F. Friedman. The screenplay was written by Alison Louise Downe, who had previously appeared in several of Lewis' other films. Lewis also wrote the...
(1963)
Peary currently mostly concentrates on sports books. He is the writer-researcher on the long-running national sports interview television show The Tim McCarver Show
The Tim McCarver Show
The Tim McCarver Show is a syndicated sports show hosted by Tim McCarver featuring interviews with athletes, coaches, managers, authors, and sportscasters, from every type of sport....
and has done 3 books with McCarver, a close friend. He is the New York correspondent for the Australian magazine FilmInk, as well as a contributing editor to Timessquare.com. He worked with Ralph Kiner
Ralph Kiner
Ralph McPherran Kiner is an American former Major League Baseball player and has been an announcer for the New York Mets since the team's inception. Though injuries forced his retirement from active play after 10 seasons, Kiner's tremendous slugging outpaced nearly all of his National League...
on his autobiography, Baseball Forever. His 21st book, written with Tom Clavin, is his first biography, Roger Maris: Baseball's Reluctant Hero.
Peary was interviewed for Machete Maidens Unleashed! (2010), a documentary film about Filipino genre films of the 1970s and '80s. The director of that film, Mark Hartley, has said that, "I’d worn my copies of Cult Movies 1, 2 and 3 into the ground from constant re-reading so meeting author Danny Peary was a pleasure."http://tiffmidnightmadness.blogspot.com/2010/09/5-questions-with-machete-maidens.html
Books
Author:- Cult Movies (1981)
- Cult Movies 2 (1983)
- Omni's Screen Flights/Screen Fantasies: The Future According to the Cinema (1984)
- Guide for the Film Fanatic (1986), short reviews of over 1650 films
- Cult Movies 3 (1989)
- Cult Baseball Players: The Greats, the Flakes, the Weird and the Wonderful (1990)
- Cult Movie Stars (1991)
- Alternate Oscars (1993), Peary's choices for best picture, actor, and actress Oscars
- Super Bowl: The Game of their Lives (1997)
- We Played the Game: Memories of Baseball's Greatest Era (2002)
Co-author:
- Tim McCarver's Baseball for Brain Surgeons and other Fans (1999), with Tim McCarver
- Baseball Forever: Reflections on Sixty Years in the Game (2004), with Ralph Kiner
- Great Golf: 150 Years of Essential Instruction from the Best Players, Teachers, and Writers of All Time (2005), with Allen Richardson
- 1,001 Reasons to Love Baseball, with Mary Tiegreen
- Raising a Team Player, with Harry Sheehy
- The Perfect Season, with Tim McCarver
- How to Buy, Trade and Invest in Baseball Cards & Collectibles, with Bruce Chadwick
- Tim McCarver's Diamond Gems (2008), with Tim McCarver and Jim Moskovitz
- Roger Maris: Baseball's Reluctant Hero (2010), with Tom Clavin
Editor:
- Close-Ups: The Movie Star Book (19??)
Co-editor:
- The American Animated Cartoon: A Critical Anthology (19??), with Gerald PearyGerald PearyGerald Peary is an American film critic, who has been a reviewer and columnist for the Boston Phoenix since 1996. He was formerly the Acting Curator of the Harvard Film Archive and is currently the General Editor of the University Press of Mississippi Conversations with Filmmakers Series...