Elias Savada is an American film historian and critic.

The son of New York record store owner Morton Savada, Savada is the founder of the Motion Picture Information Service, which provides copyright research for film and television show producers. He has been a member of the American Film Institute

American Film Institute

The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...

, and compiled the organization's Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Film Beginnings, 1893-1910, which was published in 1995. His film reviews have appeared at Film Threat

Film Threat

Film Threat is a former print magazine and, now, webzine which focuses primarily on independent film, although it also reviews DVDs of mainstream films and Hollywood movies in theaters. It first appeared as a photocopied zine in 1985, created by Wayne State University students Chris Gore and André...

 and Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

.

Savada collaborated with David J. Skal

David J. Skal

David J. Skal is an American cultural historian known for his writings on horror films and horror literature.-Early life:...

 on the 1995 book Dark Carnival: The Secret World of Tod Browning, Hollywood's Master of the Macabre. The book was the first major biography of Tod Browning

Tod Browning

Tod Browning was an American motion picture actor, director and screenwriter.Browning's career spanned the silent and talkie eras...

, a horror film director known for his work on Freaks

Freaks

Freaks is a 1932 American Pre-Code horror film about sideshow performers, directed and produced by Tod Browning and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with a cast mostly composed of actual carnival performers. The film was based on Tod Robbins' 1923 short story "Spurs"...

, Dracula

Dracula (1931 film)

Dracula is a 1931 vampire-horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosi as the title character. The film was produced by Universal and is based on the stage play of the same name by Hamilton Deane and John L...

, and several Lon Chaney Sr. films. Writing in the Journal of Popular Film and Television, Martin F. Norden called Dark Carnival "a compelling, in-depth examination of one of America's first cult film directors". Steven Alford of the Houston Chronicle

Houston Chronicle

The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...

wrote that the book "succeeds in resurrecting the reputation of one of Hollywood's long-buried eccentrics".

External links

• Elias Savada at Rotten Tomatoes
  Rotten Tomatoes
  Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...