It's Alive! by Julian David Stone

​It’s Alive is a tale of behind-the-scenes shenanigans that ushered into existence one of the greatest movie monsters of all time. Eventually, Universal became inextricably associated with Universal Monsters just as It’s Alive is a call inextricably linked to one of its most famous ones, but back in the day the very fate of the movie hung in the air, batted between the powers that be like a tennis ball at Wimbledon.
Universal studio owner Carl Laemmle and his son Junior Laemmle was firmly in the opposing camps. Junior, the youngblood, believed in the project passionately, his much more conventional dad wanted nothing to do with it. They couldn’t even agree on the casting, yo-yoing between two actors who later came to be (once again inextricably) associated with the monsters they played on screen.
You probably have to be a movie buff to really appreciate all this, but if you are, this book will certainly hold your interest. Its author is a man who’s no stranger to the movie industry and appears to know a thing or two about weaving a compelling narrative about it. The book, as a result, does a great job of bringing a black-and-white movie to life in technicolor. It’s enjoyable to read, well-paced and reasonably succinct. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.