Classic Monsters Brings Thrills Home

 

Jeri Jacquin

Coming to 4K Ultra HD, Bluray and Digital from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment comes UNIVERSAL CLASSIC MONSTERS Icons of Horror Collection.

THE MUMMY hit screens in 1932 as Boris Karloff plays Imhotep, a mummy who is killed for trying to bring his love Ankh-esen-amun back to him. Once revived, he becomes Ardeth Bey to everyone around him while still searching for his long-lost love. Bey meets Frank (David Manners) and Professor Pearson (Leonard Mudie) who are looking for her as well.

He also meets Helen Grosvenor (Zita Johann) who looks like his love. When his secrets are discovered, the only way to stop the mummy is to burn The Scroll of Thoth. The climatic ending brings Helen to Bey’s world of power and a time long past but who will survive?

Other cast include Arthur Byron as Sir Joseph Whemple, Edward Van Sloan as Dr. Muller, Bramwell Fletcher as Ralph Norton, Kathryn Byron as Frau Muller and James Crane as Pharaoh Amenophis.

Bonus Features on THE MUMMY includes: Mummy Dearest: A Horror Tradition Unearthed, He Who Made Monsters: The Life and Art of Jack Pierce, Unraveling the Legacy of THE MUMMY, THE MUMMY Archives, 100 Years of Universal: The Carl Laemmle Era, Trailer Gallery, Feature Commentary with Film Historical Paul M. Jensen and Feature Commentary with Rick Baker, Scott Essman, Steve Haberman, Bob Burns, and Brent Armstrong.

The 1935 hit THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN sees the return of Boris Karloff as The Monster. Percy Shelly (Douglas Walton) and Lord Byron (Gavin Gordon) tell Mary Shelley (Elsa Lanchester) that her story of the monster is well done. She tells them there is more to the story continuing with villagers and Hans (Reginald Barlow) wanting to see the bones of the monster. While looking, he discovers he is alive and going after wife Minnie (Mary Gordon).

Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) has his body returned to his beloved fiancée Elizabeth (Valerie Hobson). Minnie tries to warn her that the monster is alive but no one is listening to her. Elizabeth is more interested in helping Henry recover from his trauma. He reaches out to Dr. Septimus Pretorius (Dwight Frye) to continue his research., The monster believes he has found his mate, but everything starts to go wrong but in the midst of madness.

Other cast include E.E. Clive as Burgomaster, Dwight Frye as Karl, Ted Billings as Ludwig, and J. Gunnis Davis as Uncle Glutz.

Bonus Features on THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN includes: She’s Alive! Creating The Bride of Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein Archive, 100 Years of Universal: Restoring the Classics, Trailer Gallery and Feature Commentary with Scott MacQueen.

The 1943 PHANTOM OF THE OPERA brings Erique Claudin (Claude Rains) no longer plays at the Paris Opera House which effect the young Christine Dubois (Susanna Foster) with her voice lessons. He is devoted to her and at the same time sees Raoul Dubert (Edgar Barrier) wanting to marry her. He isn’t the only one as Anatole Garron (Nelson Eddie), a famous opera singer, wants her heart as well.

Trying to write music, Claudin takes it to Maurice Pleyel (Miles Mander) who rejects him, yet, he hears his music being played by Franz Liszt (Fritz Leiber). Rage causes Claudin to become injured and he runs to the sewers covering his face with a mask he steals from the opera house. Once again helping Christine, he knocks out the singer Biancarolli (Jane Farrar) for the opera Amour et Floire and they have no choice but to put Christine in her place. She is a success!

As everything starts to go wrong and the men try to stake their claim to Christine, it is the Phantom who kidnaps the girl. He wants her to sing only for him, but when Raoul and Anatole go after her, disaster strikes them all but in different ways.  

Other cast include J. Edward Bromberg as Amiot, Fritz Feld as Lecours, Frank Puglia as Villeneuve, Steven Geray as Vercheres, Hans Herbert as Marcel and Hume Cronyn as Gerard.

Bonus Features on PHANTOM OF THE OPERA includes: The Opera Ghost: A Phantom Unmasked, Production Photographs, 100 Years of Universal: The Lot, Theatrical Trailer and Feature Commentary with Film Historian Scott MacQueen.

Finally, the 1954 CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON brings the expedition of Dr. Carl Maia (Antonio Moreno), Dr. David Reed (Richard Carlson) and Dr. Mark Williams (Richard Denning) going down the Amazon to look for the fossils a creature with webbed fingers. Davis has brought his girlfriend Kay Lawrence (Julia Adams) and scientist Dr. Edwin Thompson (Whit Bissell) along.

Watching them is the ‘Gill-man’ (Ben Chapman/Ricou Browning) and he notices Kay following their boat down the river. When Kay goes for a swim, the creature follows and leaves behind a claw in the net. The scientists now know that the creature is real. Once captured, it doesn’t stay so for long and kidnaps Kay! David, Lucas and Carl know they must go after her and face the creature.

Other cast include Henry Escalante as Chico, Bernie Gozier as Zee, and Nestor Paiva as Captain Lucas.

Bonus Features of CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON includes: CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, Back to the Black Lagoon, Production Photographs, 100 Years of Universal: The Lot, Trailer Gallery and Feature Commentary with Film Historian Tom Weaver.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has just added an amazing film to their library and making it available for us to all experience and re-experience in our own home theaters. There are films of every genre available from scary to drama to family films. For more of what they have to offer please visit www.uphe.com.

What is amazing about this collection is that these are the movies my mother introduced me to because they are the movies her parents introduced her to! This was the height of frightening films and how I loved Friday nights in our house. First, making pizza (yes, there was a time when people made pizzas in their own home) and then pajamas, grabbing pillows to gather on the floor and making a night of horror films.

As my kids grew up, we did the same thing, tradition in the best possible way. It was a way to gather to have family time but also to enjoy some of the best monster movies ever made. The jumps, the richness of the black and white films, the chaos, the yelling at the screen was a blast as a child, a blast with my kids and now, a blast with the grandkids.

These characters are iconic and have made history because of the story, the cinematography, special effects and directors that knew exactly who to cast in the roles. Boris Karloff and Claude Rains brought exactly what these characters needed for us to be frightened but yet, also felt a bit of humanity at the lives they were forced to live.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has brought this awesome collection just in time for the spooky season so get your pizza made (or ordered), find the most comfortable p.j.’s you own, every pillow in the house and settle in with the lights out for a bit of monster binge watching!

All of these iconic characters are, well, misunderstood to my way of thinking which is probably why we enjoy them so much!

In the end – these are the icons of horror!

 

 

Celebrating 90 Years of Fright with UNIVERSAL CLASSIC MONSTERS

 

Jeri Jacquin

Coming from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment in time for the season of spookiness are four memorable faces with UNIVERSAL CLASSIC MONSTERS ICONS OF HORROR COLLECTION.

In 1931 Garrett Fort wrote a screenplay all about the monster created by Bram Stoker in the 1897 novel DRACULA. The vampire creature from Transylvania would terrorize victims because of his need for human blood. Universal Pictures would find their vampire in Hungarian born actor Bela Lugosi and audiences ran to theatres to be frightened and thrilled.

Lugosi spent years of his career continuing to entertain in the monster genre leaving a lasting mark by just saying his name alone. Now an icon, DRACULA became recognized in 2000 by the United States Library of Congress to be preserved in the National Film Registry.

That same year, another creature created by author Mary Shelley in 1818 would come to the screen in the film FRANKENSTEIN. Director James Whale along with Universal Pictures brought the creature who was created by scientist Frankenstein to life. Finding their Frankenstein’s monster came with Indian-British actor Boris Karloff who would return again in 1935 for BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and 1939 for SON OF FRANKENSTEIN.

THE INVISIBLE MAN arrived in theatres in 1933 with the return of James Whale in the director seat. Universal Pictures brings the H.G. Wells story to the screen finding their Dr. Jack Griffin in Claude Rains. A man in glasses and bandages lives alone until he is discovered to be invisible and when he is offered help, tragedy strikes again and again.

Rains’ career is filled with roles such as MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, CASABLANCA, NOTORIOUS and my personal favorite NOW, VOYAGER.

He returned to the genre again in 1941 with THE WOLF MAN as director George Waggner and Universal Pictures brought the story to the silver screen. Actor Lon Chaney Jr. would bring the story of a man who is bitten by a wolf and during a full moon discovers that his life will never be the same.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has just added an amazing film to their library and making it available for us to all experience and re-experience in our own home theaters. There are films of every genre available from scary to drama to family films. For more of what they have to offer please visit www.uphe.com.

MOVIES ANYWHERE gives viewers the ability to download the Movies Anywhere App. With that you can view films by downloading or streaming to your favorite device using a Digital Code. For more information on Movies Anywhere please visit www.MoviesAnywhere.com.

The Classic Monster Films include: The 90^th Anniversary of DRACULA, the 90^th Anniversary of FRANKENSTEIN, THE INVISIBLE MAN and the 80^th Anniversary of THE WOLF MAN.

There is hours of Bonus Content including: The Road to DRACULA, The FRANKENSTEIN Files: How Hollywood Made a Monster, Karloff: The Gentle Monster, Monster by Moonlight, THE WOLF MAN: From Ancient Curse to Modern Myth, Now You See Him THE INVISIBLE MAN Revealed, 1931 Spanish Version of DRACULA, Behind-The-Scenes Documentaries, Featurettes on Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr., Feature Commentaries, Theatrical Trailers and More!

As a young kid (without giving my age away), my mother use to have us gather around the television on Friday and Saturday nights to watch Lugosi, Karloff, Chaney Jr. and Rains give us chills. It began my love of what I would call ‘thrillers’ because I never saw these creatures as monsters.

Instead, I saw them as a reflection of our own fears and the potential we all have of a dark side. Hidden behind pointy teeth, body hair, or bolts in the neck, it would be the invisible man who would prove that what is ‘monstrous’ does not always have to be in plain sight.

The story of monsters were written down in the 1800’s with DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN showing us that even 200 years ago people were aware of what scares us. Stoker and Shelley also gave us a glimpse of the possibility that there may be something more than evil driving their actions.

H.G. Wells took the idea even further by taking away the outward appearance of fright by making the monster invisible. Presenting the question of ‘if you can not see it, is it still evil?’ has brought many conversations among my film friends.

THE WOLF MAN is a little different because here is a man who was not born, created or whipped up in a lab but instead became a monster. Chaney Jr. is torn (no pun intended) by what has happened to him and the fight to regain his soul.

Universal Pictures has brought a powerful, thoughtful and belief in helping us to remember what a classic film looks and feels like. Even 90 years later, we talk about the genre, performances and what the films have come to mean. Having this collection in a home entertainment library means pop that popcorn and gather up like minded horror-thriller fans to re-live the greatness of cinema.

In the end – celebrate our monsters!