UNIVERSAL HORROR COLLECTION VOL. 5 (1941-1945) (Scream Factory Blu-ray Review_)

UNIVERSAL HORROR COLLECTION VOL. 5 

(1941-1945)

Label: Scream Factory 
Region Code: A
Rated: Unrated
Duration: 245 Minutes  
Video: B&W 1080p HD Full Frame (1.37:1) 
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio Mono with Optional English Subtitles 

THE MONSTER AND THE GIRL (1941) 

Label: Scream Factory 
Rated: Unrated
Region Code: A
Duration: 65 Minutes
Video: 1080p HD  Full Frame (1.37:1) 
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio Mono with Optional English Subtitles 
Director: Stuart Heisler
Cast: Ellen Drew, Robert Paige, Paul Lukas, Joseph Calleia, Onslow Stevens, George Zucco, Rod Cameron, Phillip Terry, Marc Lawrence, Gerald Mohr

In this vintage black and white thriller a nice guy church organist named Scot Webster (Philip Terry) is framed for murder while trying to free his sister Susan (Ellen Drew) from the grips of a gangster named Bruhl (Paul Lukas) and his cronies. It plays out in the courtroom with plenty of flashbacks filling in the gaps, and I tell you I was a bit surprised when he's found guilty and sent to the electric chair. The courtroom stuff is a bit of a slog to be honest, but at least some of the gangsters have a cool suave seediness to 'em. The film does manage to escapes the mundane when it plunges itself into lunacy when Scot's corpse ends up in the hands of mad scientist Dr. Perry (George Zucco) who transplants his brain into the body of a gorilla, which is something of a theme with all the films on this set. 

While imprisoned in the body of the huge ape Scot plots his revenge, managing to escape the lab and murdering the gangsters one by one. The ape costume is surprisingly good, but the kills aren't exactly electrifying, but the film is not without it's vintage charms, but it just ain't that good either. A highlight would be gallows humor shared back and forth between the investigating detectives and the city coroner. Also it's a notable early bit of ape-sploitation, and at just barely an hour long it's fun enough if you're into vintage black and white stuff that's a bit on the goofy side. Interestingly this is not a Universal Film, it was originally made by Paramount and it fell into the hands of Universal sometime in the 50s.

Special Features:
- NEW 2K scan of a fine grain film element
- NEW Audio Commentary with film historians Tom Weaver and Steve Kronenberg

CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN (1943) 

Label: Scream Factory 
Rated: Unrated
Region Code: A
Duration: 61 Minutes
Video: 1080p HD Full Frame (1.37:1) 
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio Mono with Optional English Subtitles 
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: John Carradine, Evelyn Ankers, Milburn Stone, Lloyd Corrigan, Fay Helm, Martha Vickers, Vince Barnett, Paul Fix, Acquanetta, Fred Aldrich 

The second film on the set Wild Captive Woman is another ape-entry, that also features a human-to-ape brain transplanting. It's interesting to note that this and the next two films on the set are a trilogy, known as the Paula Dupree Trilogy. In this one we have a travelling circus where big cat tamer Fred Mason (Milburn Stone) is returning from an African safari, bringing with him several large cats and a remarkably smart gorilla he calls Cheela (Ray Corrigan).

Enter into the picture a mad scientist named Dr. Sigmund Walters (John Carradine) who is obsessed with glandular science, which is the impetus for him to steal Cheela the gorilla from the circus. He implants the ape with some borrowed human glands, which strangely turns the beast into a not-unattractive human-looking woman. He's so pleased with the results that he decides he must cram a human brain into it's cranium, with no other options he kills his lab assistant and implants her brain into the ape-woman, whom he calls Paula (Acquanetta). He introduces her to lion-tamer Mason who while taming his big cats notices that she has an uncanny ability to control the cats. He then takes her on as part of his act. The act is a huge success but Paula develops hostile feeling towards Mason's attractive fiance, and she begins to revert to her beast form, with things spinning violently out of control.  

Again this is only just over 60-minutes long but about a third of it seems to be stock footage of a big cat show. The best part of this one for me was seeing a very young David Carradine (House of Seven Corpses) as the mad scientist. Paula the Ape Woman is a cool idea, but as attractive as Acquanetta was she was also as stiff as a board throughout, but it's still mildly entertaining if you're into this sort of ridiculousness.   

Special Features:
- NEW Audio Commentary with film 
historian/author Tom Weaver
- Theatrical Trailer
- Still Gallery

JUNGLE WOMAN (1944) 

Label: Scream Factory 
Region Code: A
Rated: Unrated
Duration: 61 Minutes
Video: B&W 1080p HD Full Frame (1.37:1) 
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio Mono with Optional English Subtitles 
Director: Reginald Le Borg
Cast: Evelyn Ankers, J. Carrol Naish, Samuel S. Hinds, Lois Collier, Milburn Stone, Douglass Dumbrille, Richard David, Nana Bryant, Pierre Watkin, Christian Rub

The sequel Jungle Woman takes a page from The Monster and the Girl by staging it around a murder trial, with Dr. Carl Fletcher (J. Carrol Naish) standing trial for the murder of a young woman, a woman we know very well at this point, Paula Dupree (Acquaintance). Again the events unfold in flashbacks, and we learn that Dr. Fletcher took over the sanitarium  previously run by the late Dr. Walters from the last film. There he discovers Walters' notebooks detailing his experimentation on Cheela and the resulting ape woman, which the doc beginning to replicate the experiments with Cheela, who he resuscitated following the events of the last film. 

The doc's daughter visits the sanitarium and Paula becomes infatuated with her boyfriend, resulting in more jealousy, and soon enough the bodies begin to pile up again. When the doctor realizes what's happening he takes matters into his own hands, resulting in the accidental death of Paula. The shocker ending of this one is a bit of a bust, and 
Acquanetta is still wooden. It seems like someone told her that an ape-woman would walk around with dead-arms, because she's always walking with her arms hanging straight down with no movement, it's an odd choice, and she's even less sympathetic than the last film, making it the least interesting of the trilogy in my opinion. 

Special Features:
- NEW 2K scan of a fine grain film element
- NEW Audio Commentary with film historian Gregory William Mank
- Still Gallery

THE JUNGLE CAPTIVE (1945) 

Label: Scream Factory 
Region Code: A
Rated: Unrated
Duration: 63 Minutes
Video: B&W 1080p HD Full Frame (1.37:1) 
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio Mono with Optional English Subtitles 
Director: Harold Young 
Cast: Otto Kruger, Vicky Lane, Amelita Ward, Phil Brown, Jerome Cowan, Rondo Hatton, Eddie Acuff, Ernie Adams, Charles Wagenheim, Eddy Chandler

The third and final film in the Paula Dupree Trilogy does not star Acquanetta, she having been replaced by Vicky Lane, but it does star the misshapen mug of Rondo Hatton as a brute named Moloch working for a Mr. Stendahl (Otto Kruger), a mad scientist who has managed to bring a rabbit back to life, and now he's wants to move onto human experimentation. To that end he send Moloch to the city morgue to pick-up the ape-looking corpse of Paula Dupree (Vicky Lane).

While I don't think that any of these films are fantastic, I will say that this entry is a whole lot more fun than the last if only because it gets back to the original formula with a mad scientist and brain transplants.  It also stars the rough-faced brute Rondo Hatton as the Moloch, which amps it up quite a bit. I also really liked Jerome Cowan as the fast-talking Inspector Harragan. Again I am not saying this is top-tier Universal, it's barely horror, but it's a fun, fast-paced slice of silly science-fiction. 

Special Features:
- NEW 2K scan of a fine grain film element
- NEW Audio Commentary by film historian Scott Gallinghouse

Disc Menus: 

Audio/Video: All four of these vintage Universal films arrive on a 4-disc Blu-ray set from Scream Factory framed in the original full frame (1.37:1) in 1080p HD. The Monster and the Girl (1941), Jungle Woman (1944) and Jungle Captive (1945) each benefit from brand new 2K scans, only Captive Wild Woman (1943) is not a new scan. Overall the black and white visuals are very pleasing, offering a crisp monochrome presentation with solid contrast and pleasing fine detail.    

Audio for all four films comes by way of English DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 with optional yellow (not ALL CAPS) English subtitles. Dialogue sounds quite good for  films of this vintage, a tiny bit of hiss is to be expected, but overall these are clean and crisp audio presentations that didn't have any egregious issues to contend with .

Trailers:

Onto the extras we don't get a lot this time around, it's fairly anemic compared to the other entries in the Universal Horror series from Scream Factory. We only get vintage trailers for Captive Wild Woman and Jungle Captive, and galleries with posters, stills, promotional shots and lobby cards for Captive Wild Woman and Jungle Woman. 

The main bulk of the extras are brand new  commentaries for each film, which are truly excellent, with knowledgeable film historians like Tom Weaver and Steve Kronenberg tackling The Monster and the Girl, Tom Weaver digs into Captive Wild Woman, Gregory William Mank takes on Jungle Woman and finally, but certainly not least, Scott Gallinghouse sits in for Jungle Captive. These vintage Universal films are a blind spot for me so I love watching the films, and then as I do chores around the house I'll usually listen to these commentaries, which add a lot of context to the film.  

Galleries:

The four-disc set arrives in an over sized Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of artwork featuring the original movie posters for each of the films, the slipbox features the same artwork. Inside there's a 12-page booklet with cast and credit information, plus stills and movie posters for all four films.It's a handsome looking set with nice shelf appeal, and I love that Scream Factory are still giving each of these hour-long films their own disc and not cramming them onto a single. 

It's great to see another batch of vintage Universal films get these fantastic looking transfers. If you're into the vintage Universal stuff these sets are total catnip, but these four films in particular were not my cup o' tea, being more along the lines of crime-films with a silly sci-fi twist, but it was cool that we get a complete trilogy of this set.