UNIVERSAL TERROR
(1937-1952)
Label: Eureka Entertainment
Region Code: B
Release Date: July 18th 2022
Duration: 237 Minutes
Video: B&W 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.37:1)
Audio: English with Optional English Subtitles
Directors: Nathan Juran, Lloyd Corrigan, George Waggner
Cast: Richard Greene, Boris Karloff, Stephen McNally, Rita Corday, Lon Chaney Jr., John Hoyt, Michael Pate, Nancy Valentine, Tudor Owen, Jean Rogers, J. Warren Hull, Hobart Cavanaugh, Samuel S. Hinds, Susanna Foster, Turhan Bey, Dale Sondergaard, Thomas Gomez
Synopsis from Eureka Entertainment: A trio of horror tales from the vaults of Universal Pictures, all starring the iconic Boris Karloff! In the pulse-pounding crime thriller Night Key (dir. Lloyd Corrigan, 1937), Karloff plays the eccentric inventor of a high-tech security system who is kidnapped by a gang of burglars and forced to help them commit a series of robberies. Then, in the lavishly produced The Climax (dir. George Waggner, 1944), Karloff plays the house physician at an Opera house whose insane jealousy drives him to murder. And finally, Karloff stars as a doctor who risks his own life to save the captives of a mad count in The Black Castle (dir. Nathan H. Juran, 1952). Night Key and The Climax are available on home video for the first time in the UK.
NIGHT KEY (1937)
Duration: 68 Minutes
Director: Lloyd Corrigan
Cast: Boris Karloff, Jean Rogers, J. Warren Hull, Hobart Cavanaugh, Samuel S. Hinds
This silly sci-fi caper stars Boris Karloff (Black Sunday) as an elderly inventor who designs a futuristic (for the time) security system. He hopes to cash-in on the invention but is cheated out of the lucrative patent by a crooked businessman. Having been criminally conned the inventor gets back at the businessman by using a device that allows him to crack the un-crackable locking mechanism he designed, doing so more as an annoyance to the crook rather than actually stealing from the guy. Eventually a local gangster named 'The Kid' finds out about the inventor's knack for cracking the newfangled locks and forces him to assist in several high profile burglaries, which catch the attention of the local cops. This is definitely a z-grade programmer made to fill the second half of double-bill. It's not great but Karloff is solid as the kindly inventor who gets caught up in the crime life. This is not horror by any means but it's a decent watch for the Karloff completest, and I dig the super-vintage arcing electrical effects that looks like they're scratched right into the film emulsion.
Special Features:
- 2K scan of a fine grain film element
- Audio Commentary tracks on with Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
- Still Galleries
THE CLIMAX (1944)
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 87 Minutes
Director: George Waggner
Cast: Boris Karloff, Susanna Foster, Turhan Bey, Dale Sondergaard, Thomas Gomez
The Climax (1944) is a Technicolored melodramatic thriller with the legendary Karloff playing an aging physician who is a great benefactor of the Vienna Royal Theater. At the start of the film the doctor is quarreling with his free-spirited wife, the star soprano of the opera house, he's angry with having to share her with the world and ends up he strangling her to death in a fit of jealous rage with her own clutch of pearls. Afterward he stages her disappearance with no one seeming the wiser. Ten years later the new young starlet at the opera house sounds like a dead-ringer for his dead wife, re-igniting his controlling passions, putting her in immediate danger, as he sets about ruining her career with his diabolical hypnotic talents - oh yeah, he's got some sort of hypno-power over people. Universal shot this Technicolor thriller on the sets of their completed Phantom of the Opera production, giving it an rather opulent period setting. The vibrant Technicolor sights abound, but the operatic thriller fails to rise to the level of the lush visuals. That's said, this is notable as being Karloff's first color film, and it has a strong (for the era) feminist slant. The best stuff this film has to offer happens very early on, with the demented doctor strangling his wife, and a more light-hearted bit with the new opera starlet's boyfriend nervously devouring the playbill while watching his lady's debut performance from the front row of the opera house.
Special Features:
- 2K scan of the interpositive
- Audio Commentary with Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
- Still Galleries
THE BLACK CASTLE (1952)
Duration: 82 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Director: Nathan Juran
Cast: Richard Greene, Boris Karloff, Stephen McNally, Rita Corday, Lon Chaney Jr., John Hoyt, Michael Pate, Nancy Valentine, Tudor Owen
Last, but certainly not least is the Gothic thriller Black Castle wherein adventurer Sir Ronald Burton (Richard Greene, The Blood of Fu Manchu) believes his good friend was murdered while staying at the castle of the nefarious Count von Bruno (Stephen McNally, Black Gunn). Looking to prove it he travels under a false name to the the castle and stays a few days as a guest of the Count. It turns out that though he and the Count have never met they share a shady past on the African continent, Burton is able to maintain his false identity for a bit, but things get a bit more complicated when he begins to fall in love with the Count's attractive, and apparently long suffering wife, the Countess Elga von Bruno, (Rita Corday, The Body Snatcher). This is a Boris Karloff set of films, so he shows up in a small but tasty role as the duplicitous Dr. Meissen, plus we get Lon Chaney Jr. (The Wolf Man) in his last Universal role, as a mute, simple-minded henchman.
It's sort of standard issue thriller that holds no real surprises, but it is well-directed - by Nathan Juran (The Brain from Planet Arous) - and is staged with some cool looking castle sets, complete with a torture dungeon. It's an immensely enjoyable flick for fans of vintage Gothic melodrama, and Stephen McNally is fantastic as the evil-hearted, one-eyed Count. Expectantly his character catches onto not only Burton's true identity and to the fact that he's trying to steal his wife from right under his nose, which leads to some diabolical premature burials. It's only a supporting role for Karloff but it's got some meat on it and he manages to make a savory meal out of what would have been a pitiful snack is less capable hands.
Special Features:
- 2K scan from a fine grain film element
- Audio Commentary with author Stephen Jones and author/critic Kim Newman
- Still Galleries
Audio/Video: All three of these vintage Karloff/Universal films arrive on a 2-disc Blu-ray set from Eureka! framed in the original full frame (1.37:1) in 1080p HD. Night Key (1937) and The Black Castle (1922) are sourced from 2K scans from fine grain film element, with The Climax (1944) being a new 2K scan of the interpositive. Of the pair of black and white films Night Key (1937) has the most pleasing visuals, offering a crisp monochrome presentation with solid contrast and pleasing fine detail in the close-ups. The Climax (1944) is a Technicolor film 2K scan of the interpositive, and it is very pleasing with period visuals that look spectacular with lush and vibrant coloring throughout, and all the elements are in great shape.
Audio on all four films comes by way of an English uncompressed Mono 2.0 with optional English subtitles. Dialogue sounds good within the context of films of this vintage, there's tiny bit of hiss that is to be expected, but overall these are clean and crisp audio presentations.
Extras come by way of brand new audio commentaries, with Night Key and The Climax we get an Audio Commentary with Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby while Black Catle gets an Audio Commentary track with author Stephen Jones and author/critic Kim Newman. All three are terrific, I own these films on Blu-ray from Scream Factory which includes them on various editions of the Universal Horror Collection set, and they each had commentaries and I appreciated hearing a different set of tracks from these authoritative and entertaining UK film scholars. For the purpose of this review we were only sent "check discs" without the benefit of packaging extras - so we have no comment on artwork or the booklet that will accompany retail versions, but I am sure they're terrific, Eureka are a pretty classy outfit.
Special Features:
- Limited Edition slipcase (2000 copies)
- 1080p presentation of all three films across two Blu-ray discs
- Night Key and The Black Castle presented from 2K scans of fine grain film elements
- The Climax presented from a 2K scan of the interpositive
- Optional English SDH
- NEW! Audio Commentary tracks on Night Key and The Climax with Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby
- NEW! Audio Commentary track on The Black Castle with author Stephen Jones and author/critic Kim Newman
- Stills Galleries
- Trailers
- Limited Edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Karloff expert Stephen Jacobs (author of Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster) (2000 copies)
If you're a fan of vintage Universal horror stuff or a Karloff completist this 2-disc set is well-worth investing in, this set highly recommended for connoisseurs of vintage shadowy Gothic intrigue, light-weight sci-fi/crime capers and Technicolor melodrama. I do wish they had a few more extras, but otherwise these are high-quality presentations for the serious horror archivist, and just having them look and sound as good as they do is a film gift unto itself.