Bela Lugosi Collection

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

This single-disc/five-movie DVD release is a bargain and then some. Two of the movies, Edgar G. Ulmer's The Black Cat (1934) and Robert Florey's Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), are brilliant pieces of horror filmmaking, while the others are very nicely made and satisfying entries of somewhat variable quality in the same genre. Two of them, The Black Cat and The Raven, were paired together in the 1980s on opposite sides of the same laserdisc release, in time-compressed editions mastered from what looked like second- (or third-) generation materials. This DVD utilizes a better transfer of the same quality materials on those two movies; the digital video format eliminates many of the defects that marred the laserdisc edition, so that on The Black Cat, in particular, sections of the film -- most especially the section depicting the Black Mass -- look quite stunning. There is still some lingering graininess, however, which leads one to ponder just how good proper preservation materials of these movies would look if properly transferred. Of the remaining titles, Murders in the Rue Morgue is the best of the three and looks very good despite some staining and artifacting, owing to the sheer age of the 1932 film. This movie, although a full talkie, bears the closest resemblance to a silent movie in its acting and visual styles, and is the most beguiling on that level -- resounding with echoes of late silent cinema in its look, editing, and visual language -- as well as generally looking astonishingly good. Of the remaining titles, The Invisible Ray was widely available in a laserdisc release, and it looks very good in most spots, despite some vertical scratches in the film element. The newest of the movies in the package, Black Friday, isn't much more than a footnote to Lugosi's career; whereas he was either a star or co-star in the other four movies, he isn't much more than a supporting player in this film, with Boris Karloff and Stanley Ridges getting the best roles and screen time. The film does look gorgeous, however, without any undue scratches or other excessive blemishes, and the contrasts and details are very rich. Each movie has been liberally chapter-encoded, there are reissue trailers for three of the five films here, and the sound is good throughout. The two-sided disc opens automatically to a simple, easy-to-use menu on either side, each leading to a simple dual-layer submenu for the individual film. There are optional English and French titles available on all five movies. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Audio: DDM2.0
• Subtitle: Spanish, French
• Features:
  • • [None specified]

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  Robert Florey, Edgar G. Ulmer, Louis Friedlander, Lambert Hillyer, Arthur Lubin

• Producer:

  Carl Laemmle, Jr., David Diamond, Edmund Grainger, Burt Kelly

• Screenwriter:

  John Huston, Tom Reed, Dale Van Every, Peter Ruric, Edgar G. Ulmer, David Boehm, John Colton

• Screen Story:

  Howard Higgin

• Screenwriter:

  Curt Siodmak, Eric Taylor

• Cinematographer:

  Karl W. Freund, John Mescall, Charles Stumar, George Robinson, Elwood Bredell

• Composer (Music Score):

  Heinz Roemheld

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Heinz Roemheld

• Composer (Music Score):

  Gilbert Harland, Franz Waxman, Hans Salter

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Hans Salter

• Editor:

  Miton Carruth, Ray F. Curtiss, Albert Akst, Bernard W. Burton, Phil Cahn

• Art Director:

  Charles Hall, Albert S. D'Agostino, Jack Otterson

• Set Designer:

  Russell A. Gausman

• Costume Designer:

  Vera West

• Makeup:

  Jack Pierce

• Special Effects:

  John P. Fulton

• Choreography:

  Theodore Kosloff

• Short Story Author:

  Edgar Allan Poe, Douglas Hodges

REVIEWS:

• Black Friday is, of course, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in modern clothing and with a "scientific" explanation, and it is probably no coincidence that Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale was being readied at the time by MGM as a vehicle for none other than Spencer Tracy. Although they didn't employ anyone of that caliber, Universal had both Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi on the payroll and much have been said in recent years about the studio's failure to bring the horror icons together in Black Friday. For the more casual viewer, however, such trivia means little, especially since the real star of the thriller is Stanley Ridges, a veteran character actor who earned the role of a lifetime playing both the kindly and learned Professor Kingsley and the homicidal gangster Red Cannon. Ridges is a revelation, and, like Tracy, attempts the difficult task of creating two very different characters with little to no makeup. To Ridges' eternal credit, he succeeds where Tracy would fail. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
• Bela Lugosi in the prime of his horror career delivers a sublimely evil performance that carries this effective thriller released by Universal in the wake of their horror success of Frankenstein and Dracula. Based on a tale by Edgar Allen Poe, Murders in the Rue Morgue strikes a similar feel to some of Tod Browning's pictures: dark and rather sadistic. Lugosi's Dr. Mirakle is an evil doctor whose prize sideshow attraction is a killer gorilla whose blood he wants to mix with that of a woman (Sidney Fox) for some bizarre reason. While Lugosi takes the role to its horrifying limits, his co-stars pale by comparison playing rote characters in corny performances. Leon Waycoff (aka Leon Ames) is the hero, a medical student whose girlfriend (Fox) is abducted by the runaway ape in an exciting rooftop climax. The film's stronger elements -- a woman's death in Mirakle's lab, another who is murdered and left stuffed in a chimney -- come across even more powerfully thanks to the fine cinematography of the masterful Karl Freund (Metropolis). In one particularly noteworthy shot, the sound of a woman's screams are intercut with footage of shocked villagers. Director Robert Florey does a solid job of keeping the action moving and the audience on its toes despite a script that does have its occasional lame points. One notable example of this is when Waycoff's friend becomes overly upset that his pal won't eat. John Huston received credit on the film for adding dialogue. ~ Patrick Legare, Rovi
• The Raven is a real treat for fans of old horror movies. It features two of the top stars of the genre, it's preposterous enough for campy enjoyment, and it isn't a completely dreadful movie either. Granted, it's not in the same league as Bride of Frankenstein, for example, but it's still fun to watch. The filmmakers go to absurd lengths to compensate for the plot's limited connection to Edgar Allan Poe; not only does Dr. Vollin have an insane obsession with Poe's work (although he doesn't seem to understand its meaning), but the film even includes a Poe-inspired interpretive dance. Indeed, the most unbelievable part of the movie isn't Dr. Vollin's crazed plan or the assortment of weird devices in his mansion, but rather the overwhelming ovation that the dancer receives for her performance. In addition to fans of modern dance, people who enjoy watching portentous close-ups of Bela Lugosi's stare should also be pleased with this film, which proves conclusively that this underrated thespian needed only his eyeballs to overact. His performance may be stagy and hammy, but it's also dynamic; he knows how to raise his eyebrows or cackle insanely for maximum effect. Karloff's less theatrical acting style provides a nice balance to Lugosi as well as the film's dollop of pathos. Not surprisingly, the supporting cast is a lot less interesting to watch, a problem that isn't helped by uninspired generic dialogue (e.g., "Oh darling, isn't it wonderful?"). The suspenseful ending seems a bit slow by modern standards, perhaps because the characters have a tendency to face danger by huddling together in apparent fear of stepping on Lugosi's or Karloff's lines. Nonetheless, this movie is fun as long as you don't take it seriously. ~ Todd Kristel, Rovi
• The Black Cat is director Edgar G. Ulmer's masterpiece, and only the commercial considerations of its day prevent it from ranking higher on lists of the greatest films of the 20th century. The story operates on multiple levels, most deeply as a parable for post-WWI Europe. Unlike such anti-war films as All Quiet on the Western Front, which seem to have all the answers worked out before the first scene, The Black Cat presents a series of morally ambiguous metaphors that undermine the story's conventional ending. At its most basic level, The Black Cat works as a great horror film. The Bauhaus-inspired set design is uncomfortably disquieting, and Boris Karloff's performance creates one of the screen's most distinct and credible villains. The monsters in The Black Cat are human, unlike in other horror films of the era, where viewers could leave the theater and be quite sure that they would never be terrorized by a mummy or a werewolf. And while the audience understands that Bela Lugosi is the de facto representation of good, there are uncomfortable shortcomings in his character that hinder the audience's comfort. Regrettably, Ulmer felt the commercial need to include various elements of comic relief, and the stiff, uninteresting performance of David Manners as Peter Allison is a major liability. Nonetheless, in its best moments, The Black Cat is as powerful as any film of its era, and it represents the creative direction in which horror films of the 1930s were headed until censorship and other pressures forced them back into the mainstream. ~ Richard Gilliam, Rovi