by Anthony O'Connor
Worth: Discs: 19 (!), The Film: 4.5/5, The Extras: 3.5/5, Overall: 8/10
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Lon Chaney Jr., Vincent Price, Grant Williams, Randy Stuart, Elsa Lanchester
Intro:
… a hugely generous boxset positively brimming with classic horror and vintage oddities.
The Films:
They don’t make ‘em like they used to. It’s a phrase that gets repeated ad infinitum, usually by people of a certain vintage, to express a kind of cultural nostalgia for how things used to be. “Movies were better in my day”, “That used to be a Grace Brothers”, “My lower back didn’t hurt all the time” and so on and so forth. It’s usually pretty masturbatory stuff, but in some cases it’s an apt observation. Case in point: the Universal Horror: Monsters and Curiosities boxset. It’s a gargantuan collection of 45 (!) movies from the Universal vaults, spanning 1923-1960, and features a shitload of stone cold classics, some mid tier efforts and a couple of stinkers. One thought pervades when watching these antique genre efforts and it’s the aforementioned “they don’t make ‘em like they used to”, and in some ways that’s a real shame.
So, some quick housekeeping. In reviewing this boxset, your humble world janitor did not, in fact, watch all 45 movies. A fair whack of them were viewed, however, and we’re going to focus in on some of the more notable entries.
Bride of Frankenstein (1935), dir: James Whale
Probably the best known of the box set and undeniably a cracker. Thanks to James Whale’s stellar direction, every frame of this flick is a work of art and the superb performances from Boris Karloff as the Monster and Elsa Lanchester in the twin roles of Mary Shelley (a trick aped far less successfully in The Bride!) and The Monster’s Mate/Bride have truly stood the test of time. That said, this is a weird bloody movie. For a start, the Mate/Bride is on screen for all of three minutes! Sure, she makes a big impression in that short span but jeez, give a sister a break. Also, far too much of the runtime is devoted to Doctor Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger) and his tiny Homunculi, which is wonderfully weird and a hoot but, mate, this film is called Bride of Frankenstein not Some Funny Little Tackers Ol’ Mate Knocked Up in His Lab. Still and all, the flick is iconic for a reason and well worth your time.
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), dir: Jack Arnold
Based on The Shrinking Man by the great Richard Matheson (and with a screenplay by the same bloke), The Incredible Shrinking Man is an absolute gem. After getting engulfed in a mysterious cloud of glitter on holiday, Robert Scott Carey (Grant Williams) begins mysteriously shrinking. Like a stiffy in a cold pool on a winter’s morning. He gets smaller and smaller, seemingly in defiance of all known laws of physics, and things that were once innocuous become deadly: cats, spiders and dripping taps. Of all the films in this boxset, Shrinking Man feels like the one that could most successfully be remade these days. There’s such a surplus of creativity here and director Jack Arnold nails a couple of genuinely tense set pieces that have really stood the test of time. Combine that with Matheson’s whipsmart and thoughtful script and you’ve got a golden era classic that doesn’t put a foot wrong.
The Black Cat (1934), dir: Edgar G. Ulmer
Not to be confused with The Black Cat (1941), The Black Cat (1981), The Black Cat (1989), Black Cat (1991) or Black Cat (2007), The Black Cat (1934) is a tight little satanic melodrama starring those revered boogeymen Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. Although the plot is ropier than a Chibari convention, the film is buoyed by a truly excellent performance from Karloff (who has a lot more range than his iconic lumbering potato head role suggests) and the bizarre, art deco meets German expressionism style of direction from ol’ mate Edgar G. Ulmer. The result is a film that’s striking, stagey and resolutely odd. It possesses the kind of creative chutzpah that makes you look past the dodgy script and complete lack of anything to do with Edgar Allen Poe. Exactly the sort of film that should be played on grimy tellies in the chill out rooms at goth clubs. Incidentally, the 1941 version is also available in this boxset and also stars Bela Lugosi.
There are heaps more worthy entries, of course. You’ve got silent classics like The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1922), The Cat and the Canary (1927), The Man Who Laughs (1928) aka the film where Batman’s ultimate foil The Joker stole his look. There are a bunch more Frankenstein films of which Son of Frankenstein (1939) is likely the best, there are three Invisible Man films, a whole lot of creature features and some giant bug sci-fi to usher in the nuclear fear of the 1950s.Of course, it’s worth noting what’s missing from the collection: we don’t have Dracula, The Mummy, the Creature From the Black Lagoon and the Wolfman only lobs up in 1943’s Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, which is average at best. This is a collection of some classics and a whole bunch of deep cuts. Still, it’s quite the smorgasbord and if you can get with the stagey, occasionally stilted rhythms of this era of genre cinema, there are wonders and horrors to enjoy aplenty.
The Extras:
Okay, so this is where things get a little controversial. There are no on-disc extras in this collection. Zero. So if you, like your humble scribe, envisioned a cheery afternoon of listening to film historian commentaries contextualising the various movies with nerdy facts galore you’re likely going to be disappointed.
What the boxset does come with, however, is a gorgeous hardcover booklet with 100+ pages of photos and essays from the likes of Emma Westwood, Dave Lee, and Alexandra Heller-Nicholas (and others). It’s a lovely piece of work, one that fans will no doubt enjoy digging into, but it doesn’t quite balm the sting of not even having a single audio commentary or doco. We want to hear what some massive nerds have to say about The Leech Woman (1960) or The Mole People (1956), dammit!
There are also ten art cards (which are fun) and the whole thing comes bundled in a custom rigid case with superb art from Olivier Coulon. It’s a beautiful boxset and will look handsome on your shelf, it’s just a pity there’s not a bit more meat on the bone. Other than, you know, 45 classic motion pictures.
The Verdict:
Universal Horror: Monsters & Curiosities is a hugely generous boxset positively brimming with classic horror and vintage oddities. While the lack of on-disc special features is definitely a bummer there’s more than enough here to keep fans of monochrome monsters engaged for a very long time indeed.
Perhaps you could watch them with a friend. After all: friend… good.
