Hollywood Bound

Hollywood was a city of extremes: not for Tinseltown the carefully judged subtleties of shot and tone that were the hallmark of the art-house auteurs. It demanded passion, thrills, suspense, violent outbursts of emotion and movement—and so for every protagonist sweeping his way across the screen with a silvery rapier or a sensuous leer, there had to be a victim, waiting to be tossed aside with contemptuous ease or devoured whole in a paroxysm of lust. And so it was that innocent maidens were pinned down by rapacious seducers; monstrous villains chained to receive their just desserts; valiant heroes manacled or trussed or viciously tied, awaiting the cruelest of tortures, physical or psychological—only to free themselves in the final reel, and carry off the equally endangered heroines to safety and starry-eyed romance. Researched and collated with typical stylish flair by editor Tony Nourmand and featuring insightful text by author Peter Doggett, Hollywood Bound is a photographic guide to the history of movie bondage.