With Halloween just around the corner, MCA/Universal Home Video is repackaging and repricing their early classic horror films. Boris Karloff made his immortal claim to fame in the 1931 Frankenstein, the definitive film version of Mary Shelley's horror classic. Billed simply as "The Monster", Karloff's character is the product of the overzealous mind of Dr. Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive), who along with his ghoulish assistant Fritz (Dwight Frye), spend their off-hours robbing graves for spare body parts that they can sew onto the trunk. When they're down to just a brain, Fritz makes the serious boo-boo of dropping the glass jar with a good brain inside, and grabs the jar marked "Criminal Brain" instead. When Henry realizes that what he's created is not a deep, sensitive, philosophical type, but rather a murderous monster, he chains Karloff in a dungeon. Of course, the monster escapes, and in one of the most numbingly horrifying scenes on film, he plays a game of tossing flowers into the stream with a little girl. Frustrated, when he runs out of flowers, the monster throws the girl into the water, and she drowns. The townspeople rally, chase Henry and his creation to a deserted windmill, and send the whole shebang up in flames; Henry escaping to marry his fiancée, and Karloff supposedly becoming a crispy critter. But, as we all know, successful Hollywood characters never die. Karloff returned in The Bride of Frankenstein four years later.If Director James Whale put the emphasis on horror in Frankenstein, he decidedly shifted it to parody in The Bride of Frankenstein: a no-holds-barred tale of unrequited love. Opening with a framing device of Mary Shelley shown telling the tale to listeners George Gordon Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, the action picks up with the burning mill, where the monster (Karloff) is seen escaping. He visits a blind hermit, sharing food and drink (and learning the meaning of the word "friend") before he's discovered by local villagers and routed. Falling into the hands of the evil Dr. Pretorious (Ernest Thesiger), who has created a number of amazing miniature humans which he keeps in glass jars, the monster is ordered to steal Henry Frankenstein's (Colin Clive) fiancée. The mad Pretorious believes that this will help convince the reluctant Frankenstein to aid Pretorious in creating a mate for the monster. In a scene replete with bells, buzzers, lightning, and fanatical faces on the actors, the bride (Elsa Lanchester) gets her life-giving jolt. Which is nothing compared to her shock upon seeing the monster with his poignantly outstretched arms pleading "Friend? friend?". Lanchester, virgin to the end, screams blue murder, and Karloff pulls the mysterious lever which blows everybody sky high... (until Karloff returned four years later in Son of Frankenstein). Some actors play roles, but in the case of Bela Lugosi, he was Count Dracula, in the popular mind, and the typecasting left him with very little range in subsequent starring roles. Based on Bram Stoker's masterpiece of horror, Tod Browning's haunting film about the Transylvanian vampire who'd "like to suck your blood" is relatively faithful to the source material as it follows the plasma-mad Count in his journey to America, his obsessive quest for Jonathan Harker's (David Manners) fiancé Mina Seward (Helen Chandler), and his destruction at the hands of the fearless vampire killer Dr. Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan). Karl Freund's dark and ominous photography coupled with the absence of a musical score (with the exception of some snippets of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake) heighten the overall squirminess of the movie. But it all hinges on Lugosi's absolute inhabitance of the role--difficult since the "monster" is, in all outward respects, human (except for the fact that he's dead). Director Whale took time out between the first two Frankenstein films to lense an excellent adaptation of The Invisible Man, H. G. Wells's horror story about a scientist named Jack Griffin (Claude Rains) who discovers a new drug (which he calls "monocaine") that turns the ingester invisible. Unfortunately, for Griffin, it also has the side effect of turning him into a megalomaniac. Beginning with small pranks in, and around, the English village of Ipping, the "invisible man" escalates to robbery and finally, murder, before he is tracked down by police in a barnyard, and killed. Two points of interest: 1) Rains' performance is all the more extraordinary when one considers that his face is seen only very briefly at the film's end, and 2) a minor flaw at the conclusion: the police are able to "see" Griffin by his footprints in the snow--they are actually quite clearly "shoe" prints--but Griffin is unquestionably naked at this time. The only Universal Pictures horror classic of the early 30s not based on an existing literary masterwork, The Mummy was Dracula cinematographer Freund's directorial debut. The film opens with a long scene, in which an archaeological expedition led by Professor Muller (Edward Van Sloan), uncovers both a 3,700 year old mummy, and a scroll containing a curse. Muller's student (Bramwell Fletcher) foolishly transcribes and reads aloud the curse--bringing the most-bandaged man in Hollywood out of his sarcophagus. After the disappearance of the mummy, the film flashes forward twelve years, and we meet Ardeth Bey (Boris Karloff), who, judging from his face, hasn't been near a jar of Noxema in centuries. He counsels the son, Frank Whemple (David Manners), one of the original members of the archaeological dig on where to look for the tomb of Princess Anck-es-en-Amon. Shortly thereafter, Bey meets Helen Grosvenor (Zita Johann), Whemple's fiancée, whom he hypnotizes, and plans to murder--on the theory that her soul will rise again in the Princess. In a long flashback, Bey shows Helen in a misty pool the sordid story of his forbidden love affair with the Princess nearly four centuries ago. The future definitely doesn't look too good for Helen, until Whemple and Muller arrive to save the day. A bit slow today, The Mummy still offers a few genuine shocks, and some wonderfully humorous dialogue. In 1941, Universal Pictures went to the well one more time, and created yet another horror classic: The Wolf Man. Lon Chaney Jr. stars as Larry Talbot, a young British heir who visits an antique shop one day, meets Gwen Conliffe (Evelyn Ankers), and buys a walking cane with a silver wolf's head for a handle. Later on, Gwen, her best friend, and Talbot go to a carnival, where the best friend's fortune is read by Bela (Bela Lugosi). He sees a pentagram (sign of the wolf) in her hand, and cuts short the reading. Shortly thereafter, the best friend is attacked and killed by a werewolf, and Talbot is bitten trying to save her. When his wound magically disappears he consults Bela's mother Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya), who tells him that he's now a werewolf. That night, under a full moon, Talbot becomes rather hirsute, and pads off in search of prey. Eventually, Talbot discovers that Gwen (on whom he sees the sign) is to be his next victim. He returns to his father (Claude Rains), and tries to convince him he is a werewolf. The father is unconvinced, and ties his son to a chair to prove it to him. When the father goes off to join a hunting party on the moors, Talbot transforms, easily breaks his bonds, and goes on the prowl. In a stirring climax, father and son meet on the fog-bound moors, and the film comes to its poignant end. A slew of werewolf films were released after the success of The Wolf Man (Chaney would reprise his role in five more films), but none had the shocking power of the original. All of these low-priced classics are highly recommended. (R. Pitman) [DVD Review—Oct. 3, 2006—Universal, 2 discs, 75 min., not rated, $26.98—Making its third appearance on DVD, 1931's Dracula (75th Anniversary Edition) boasts an improved transfer and Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. DVD extras include two audio commentaries (one with film historian David J. Skal; the other with Steven Haberman, screenwriter of Dracula: Dead and Loving It), a 95-minute 'Universal Horror' documentary on memorable monster films (narrated by filmmaker/actor Kenneth Branagh), a 36-minute tribute featurette 'Lugosi: The Dark Prince' on the actor's work with director Tod Browning, the 35-minute 'making-of' featurette 'The Road to Dracula,' the complete 1931 Spanish version of the film with an intro by Lupita Tovar Kohner (4 min.), a score by Philip Glass performed by the Kronos Quartet, a 'Monster Tracks' viewing option with interactive popup facts, a poster montage, and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a horror classic, although some of this material also appears on the 'Legacy Collection' edition.] [DVD Review—Oct. 3, 2006—Universal, 2 discs, 71 min., not rated, $26.98—Making its third appearance on DVD, 1931's Frankenstein (75th Anniversary Edition) features an improved transfer and Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. DVD extras include two audio commentaries (one with film historian Rudy Behlmer; the other with historian Sir Christopher Frayling), a 95-minute 'Universal Horror' documentary on memorable monster films (narrated by filmmaker/actor Kenneth Branagh), the 45-minute 'making-of' documentary 'The Frankenstein Files: How Hollywood Made a Monster,' the 38-minute tribute 'Karloff: The Gentle Monster' focusing on Karloff's work with director James Whale and actor Bela Lugosi, the 10-minute comedy short 'Boo!,' a 10-minute 'Frankenstein Archives' montage of posters and photos, a 'Monster Tracks' viewing option with interactive popup facts, and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a horror classic, although some of this material also appears on the 'Legacy Collection' edition.] [DVD Review—July 8, 2008—Universal, 2 discs, 75 min., PG-13, $26.98—Making its latest appearance on DVD, 1932's The Mummy (Special Edition) features a solid transfer and Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound. DVD extras on this two-disc set include two audio commentaries (one with film historian Paul M. Jensen; the other with special effects experts Rick Baker and Brent Armstrong, film historians Scott Essman and Steven Haberman, and horror/sci-fi archivist Bob Burns), the 95-minute 'Universal Horror' monster films documentary narrated by Kenneth Branagh, the half-hour 'Mummy Dearest: A Horror Tradition Unearthed' featurette, 'He Who Made Monsters: The Life and Art of Jack Pierce' featurette on the legendary makeup artist (25 min.), 'Unraveling the Legacy of The Mummy' (8 min.), a 10-minute posters and stills montage, and trailers. Bottom line: an excellent extras package for a horror classic.] [DVD Review—Feb. 2, 2010—Universal, 2 discs, 70 min., not rated, $26.98—Making its latest appearance on DVD, 1941's The Wolf Man sports a nice transfer and Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound. DVD extras include audio commentary by film historian Tom Weaver, a 'Universal Horror' documentary narrated by Kenneth Branagh on memorable monster films (95 min.), a 'Monster by Moonlight' making-of featurette (33 min.), a 'Pure in Heart: The Life and Legacy of Lon Chaney Jr.' tribute featurette (37 min.), a 'He Who Made Monsters: The Life and Art of Jack Pierce' tribute to the legendary makeup artist (25 min.), a 'From Ancient Curse to Modern Myth' segment on the mythology of werewolves (10 min.), 'The Wolf Man Archives' montage of original posters, photos, and lobby cards (7 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a fine re-release meant to tie-in with the remake starring Benicio Del Toro.]
The Bride of Frankenstein; Dracula; Frankenstein; The Invisible Man; The Mummy; The Wolf Man
(1935) 75 min. $14.95. MCA/Universal Home Video. Library Journal
The Bride of Frankenstein; Dracula; Frankenstein; The Invisible Man; The Mummy; The Wolf Man
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
Order From Your Favorite Distributor Today: