UNIVERSAL HORROR COLLECTION VOL. 4
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 294 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Full Frame (1.37:1)
Directors: Ford Beebe, George Waggner, Jean Yarbrough, Lloyd Corrigan
Cast: Boris Karloff, Jean Rogers, J. Warren Hull, Hobart Cavanaugh, Samuel S. Hinds, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, Leif Erikson, Irene Harvey, Ralph Morgan, Susanna Foster, Turhan Bey, Dale Sondergaard, Thomas Gomez, Robert Lowry, Virginia Grey, Bill Goodwin, Martin Kosleck, Alan Napier, Rondo Hatton
NIGHT KEY (1937)
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 68 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Full Frame (1.37:1)
Director: Lloyd Corrigan
Cast: Boris Karloff, Jean Rogers, J. Warren Hull, Hobart Cavanaugh, Samuel S. Hinds
Horror icon Boris Karloff (Black Sunday) stars in this not-so-iconic silly-caper film as an elderly inventor who designs a then futuristic security system. He hopes to cash-in on the invention but is cheated out of the lucrative patent by a crooked businessman. Having been conned the inventor gets back at the business 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 arcing electrical effects that looks like they're scratched right into the film emulsion.
Special Features:
- NEW 2K scan of a fine grain film element
- NEW Audio Commentary with film historians Tom Weaver and Dr. Robert J. Kiss
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
- Production Design Stills/Production Artwork Gallery (4 min)
- Still Gallery (3 min)
NIGHT MONSTER (1942)
Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 73 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Full Frame (1.37:1)
Director: Ford Beebe
Cast: Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, Leif Erikson, Irene Harvey, Ralph Morgan
Night Monster (1942) is the tale of a wealthy wheelchair bound invalid who invites three surgeons - who are the men responsible for botching the operation that crippled him - to his creepy mansion which seems to be located right in the middle of a swamp. The surgeons are stunned when the crippled man seems to have use of his previously inert arms, which he reveals are the result of modern mechanization. He is also eager to show the surgeons the potential application of the mystic arts in regaining the use of his still crippled legs, which he has been studying with the help of an Eastern mystic, who demonstrates the mystical art of "materialization", summoning an Egyptian skeleton from thin air, which disappears as quickly as it appeared, but strangely leaves behind an inexplicable pool of blood. Over the course of the next few nights the invited surgeons are killed one by one, their necks snapped, each time the culprit leaving behind a telltale pool of blood, and with that the mystery is afoot. This is a cool little tale with loads of interesting side characters, all of whom could potentially be the killer. We have a determined no-guff local cop on the case, a date rapist chauffeur, a stern and secretive housekeeper, a hunchbacked servant, a mentally-ill sister, an attractive stranded psychiatrist, plus we get a butler played by the legendary Bela Lugosi (Dracula). Legosi is quite a presence when onscreen even though he s relegated to just one of many background characters, and not given a lot of screen-time, what a waste! It's fun in a Ten Little Indians sort of way with a supernatural slant that elevates it slightly, plus we get a bit of humor, and some decent tension and suspense throughout. That it's also set in a eerie fog-shrouded swamp adds to the overall effectiveness of it all, but at the end of the night it's no great shakes, but it's a fun little programmer that flies by at only seventy-three minutes.
Special Features:
- NEW 2K scan of a fine grain film element
- NEW Audio Commentary with film historian Gary D. Rhodes
- Theatrical Trailer (1 min)
- Still Gallery (4 min)
THE CLIMAX (1944)
Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 87 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Full Frame (1.37:1)
Director: George Waggner
Cast: Boris Karloff, Susanna Foster, Turhan Bey, Dale Sondergaard, Thomas Gomez
The third feature brings us back to the land of Karloff with The Climax (1944), a Technicolor melodramatic thriller with the legendary actor playing an aging physician at 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. Not wanting to share her with the world he strangles her to death in a fit of jealous rage with her own clutch of pearls, afterward staging her disappearance with no one seeming the wiser. Ten years later a new young singer 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 set about ruining her career with his diabolical hypnotic talents. Universal shot this Technicolor thriller on the sets of their completed Phantom of the Opera production, giving it an 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, it has a strong feminist slant, plus the love story between the singer and her beloved is quite charming. 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 singer's boyfriend nervously devouring the playbill while watching his lady's debut performance from the front row of the opera house.
Special Features:
- NEW 2K scan of the interpositive
- NEW Audio Commentary with film historians Kim Newman and Stephen Jones
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
- Still Gallery (4 min)
HOUSE OF HORRORS (1946)
Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 66 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Full Frame (1.37:1)
Director: Jean Yarbrough
Cast: Robert Lowry, Virginia Grey, Bill Goodwin, Martin Kosleck, Alan Napier, Rondo Hatton
Last but certainly not least, the noir-ish lensed thriller House of Horrors (1946) starring the scary-visage of Rondo "Brute Man" Hatton as a hulking serial killer. In this one a sculptor who has been recently savaged by an art critic contemplates suicide on the waterfront when he happens up a half-drown man, who turns out to be the here unto thought dead serial killer known as 'The Creeper', a neck-snapping behemoth of a man. The artists saves his life and nurses him back to health, making him the subject of his latest sculpture, and using him to exact revenge on the art-critic community. It's a delicious premise over-flowing with colorful characters, from the put-upon artist to delightfully seething critics dripping with venomous verbage. This is another slice of vintage Universal with a strong flavor of feminism by way of independent dame writer played by the lovely and quite sassy Virginia Grey. The visuals are chock full of the exaggerated silhouettes, cool art-deco design and the deep lined features of scary-man Rondo Hatton, all of this make for a tasty slice of vintage scares from Universal. I think this would make an awesome double-feature with Roger Corman's A Bucket of Blood (1959), another demented slice of art-hack inspired horror.
Special Features:
- NEW Audio Commentary by film historian Scott Gallinghouse
- NEW The Creeper – Rondo Hatton at Universal (22 min)
- Still Gallery (5 min)
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. Night Key (1937) and Night Monster (1942) are sourced from new 2K scans from fine grain film element, with The Climax (1944) being a new 2K scan of the interpositive, only House of Horrors (1946) seems to be coming from an existing HD master. Of the three black and white films Night Key (19437) has the most pleasing visuals, a crisp monochrome presentation with solid contrast and pleasing fine detail. The other pair are pleasing enough but look a bit softer to my eyes with evidence of digital tinkering, but still with decent shadow detail and contrast, but still a notch well below that of Night Key. The Climax (1944) is a Technicolor film, 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 DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 with optional English subtitles. Dialogue sounds good within the context of films of this vintage, a tiny bit of hiss is to be expected, but overall these are clean and crisp audio presentations.
TRAILERS
Onto the extras we get a vintage trailer for each film - with the exception of House of Horrors, plus still galleries for all four movies with stills, promotional shots, print ads and movie posters. We also get new commentaries for each film, the first from historians Tom Weaver and Dr. Robert J. Kiss for Night Key, Gary D. Rhodes on Night Monster, Kim Newman and Stephen Jones double-team The Climax, with Scott Gallinghouse covering the House of Horrors. The last of the extras on the set is a 22-min featurette 'The Creeper – Rondo Hatton at Universal' produced by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures. this examine the strange life and career of 'brute man' Rondo Hatton, whose distinctive disfiguring disease earned him a niche spot in horror history. There's some great talking heads on the featurette including special FX make-up legend Rick Baker, uber-fan and eternal kid-at-heart Bob Burns, director Fred Olen Ray and film historian C.Courtney Joyner among others. They explore Hatton's normal looking youth, his athletic career before getting into sports reporting, and fighting in WWI where exposure to mustard gas is thought to have triggered his deformity, ending with how he inspired the Rondo Awards and a character from The Rocketeer (1991).
The Creeper – Rondo Hatton at Universal
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.
STILL GALLERIES
If you're a fan of vintage pre-50's Universal horror stuff these Scream Factory sets are total catnip. The fourth installment in the series come highly recommended for connoisseurs of shadowy mysteries, scary monster-men and light-weight sci-fi/crime capers. I personally wish they had a few more extras, but otherwise these are high-quality digital bliss for the serious horror archivist.
