There’s the Frankenstein Legacy Collection the Dracula Legacy Collection and the Wolf Man Legacy Collection.
I’ve never been a ga-ga Univeral Horror fan, but I do think Bride of Frankenstein is one of the best movies ever. So, when I saw the new DVD collection on sale for just $21.95 I thought hey, might as well- I’d pay $21.95 just for Bride of Frankenstein alone so the rest is icing on the cake.
The collection includes:
Frankenstein
Bride of Frankenstein
Son of Frankenstein
Ghost of Frankenstein
House of Frankenstein
As a wee tike I always enjoyed watching these movies on Saturday afternoon T.V. but haven’t given them much thought since- there’s lots that I enjoyed as a wee tike that I’m not terribly impressed with today. With as many Monster Films as Universal put out in the 30’s/40’s I just figured most of them had to be crap. I was surprised to find that I enjoyed every one of the films included in this DVD collection. They aren’t all as good as B of F, but they all have great elements about them. (Once we lose Karloff as the Monster we gain Lugosi as Ygor- awsome! Then Karloff returns, not as the Monster, but as a new mad scientist in House of Frankenstein- I love him in House! Such a great performance!)
So, now I’m thinking of going back to buy the Dracula and Wolfman sets while they’re still on sale.
The Dracula Legacy Collection includes:
Dracula
Dracula (Spanish Version)
Dracula’s Daughter
Son of Dracula
House of Dracula
The Wolf Man Legacy Collection includes:
Werewolf of London
The Wolf Man
She-Wolf of London
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
I don’t know most of these films. Any insight would be appreciated.
I bought the Frankenstein set because of Bride (plus at CostCo it was less than $20), though the first one’s worth owning too, for that price. The others I haven’t seen for ages but don’t remember being too impressed–still, it’ll be fun to give them a second chance.
I won’t buy any of the others, primarily because I already have the earlier Universal Dracula release (w/the Lugosi, the Spanish one, and the Glass score) and I don’t think any of the Wolf Mans were good after the first.
Off-topic, but I was in attendance for the world premiere in London of the Kronos Quartet and Philip Glass performing his Dracula score live with the film–kinda strange, because they used a translucent screen to project on, and they performed behind the screen, so you were watching them and the movie at the same time.
Dracula’s Daughter & Son of Dracula are pretty darn good- as is F Meets the Wolf Man- no way I’m passing any of the sets.
Gotta say that while I generally like Philip Glass’s music (except for the his South Park Winter composition G), it does not belong in the Lugosi DRACULA- dammit, I know Tschaikovsky in a fit of precognition wrote Swan Lake knowing it would be essential to a future Dracula film (tho I think he wrote it long before 1897 so he also had precog about the book DRACULA also L).
Maybe I’ll give those above a shot one day. I’m always amazed how many DVDs people buy–I only have a (relative) few and they’re only for movies I really want.
I can’t argue with you about Glass and Dracula. The main thing I found frustrating was that Browning indulges in great moments of silence, but the Glass score is incessant–it never lets up. He’s done some terrific work for film (Candyman, Kudun, Errol Morris films), but this one didn’t work for me (though I’m still glad I got to see the performance).
I have an earlier collection - “The Universal Monster Box”, which include:
Dracula
The Mummy
Frankenstein
Bride of Frankenstein
Wolf Man
Phantom of the Opera
The Invisible man
Creature from the Black Lagoon.
I feel that I’m pretty set with those when it comes to classic monster movies. Sort of a ‘Best of’ cross section of what they did for a couple of decades.
Of course, this was the first time they were digitally remastered and released on DVD, so I payed about $150. Color me a mark for cheap publicity.
I just payed way too much for the Pink Panther box, which will probably be $19.95 in a year or so.
I remember L.C.Jr.'s Lawrence Talbot as being one of my favorite characters when I was very young watching these movies on Saturday afternoon T.V. House of Frankenstein, in the set that I’ve bought already, has reminded me of just how much I like him in that role. In the Wolf man set, however, he only appears in two of the four films (Wolf Man and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man). I am not familiar with either of the . . . of London films, any reviews would be appreciated.
Thanks! These are two that I am not familiar with. You might have just talked me into the Dracula set. I mean jeez, most single DVDs are at least $21.95!
You better get the Wolf Man set, because your Frankenstein collection won’t be complete without Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man and House of Dracula.
I dislike the original Lugosi Dracula, but Dracula’s Daughter has some fine stuff in it. And the Spanish version of Dracula is just amazing…includes the bodacious Lupita Tovar in the main female role, and some real babes as Drac’s Wives.
…hey, quit lookin’ at me like that. Dracula is all about sex.
I assume I’ll be buying all three. Haven’t seen Ghost of Frankenstein or Werewolf of London since I was watching “Big Chuck and Houlihan” as a kid in Cleveland.
I missed out on most the original releases because at $24.99, the individual films were too pricey, so I kept waiting for a reduction. WhenUniversal took the films off the market in March 2002, I had only bought Dracula, The Mummy and Bride of Frankentein. What really hacked me off is that the 2-movie discs, like Dracula’s Daughter/Son of Dracula, were only out for 6 months before they went on moratorium.
This time I took no chances; I bought the Monster Legacy Collection Set with the figurines the day it came out.
I have not yet seen She-Wolf of London, but I enjoyed Werewolf of London. It actually pre-dates the Lon Chaney movie by 6 years. It has a slightly different take on lycanthropy than the Chaney films. It centers around two scientists searching for a magic flower that causes and cures lycanthropy. No mention of silver bullets. If you saw the movie Wolf, the hairy-face-and-fangs makeup that Jack Nicholson and James Spader wore in that movie was an homage to the makeup Henry Hull wore in W of L.
I pre-ordered the boxed set of all 3 collections a couple of months before they actually came out. I had not intended to get the busts, but what the heck. 14 films for 60 bucks was too good to pass up.
Now if they will just get the Mummy and Black Lagoon collections in the pipeline…
Trailers, commentaries by film historians, and documentaries for the major films (Dracula, The Wolf Man, Frankenstein, Bride of) and just trailers for the lesser-known films.
Directed by James Whale, the (ahem) “flamboyant” director who was doing “camp” decades before “camp” was even invented. With his all-star cast of bizarro Brit character actors: Ernest Thesiger, Colin Clive, Una O’Connor, Elsa Lanchester, E.E. Clive, Dwight Frye, etc.
Boris Karloff’s BEST perf as the Monster…he learned to TALK, and had some excellent lines. “Love dead. Hate living.”
Doctor Praetorius. Arguably the greatest character in any Universal horror movie.
Great set pieces, including the Monster hangin’ out with the blind hermit, and the Monster captured by the villagers in a delightfully blasphemous parody of Jesus’ Crucifixion.
Absolutely dandy climactic Creation scene: Kenneth Strickfadden at his very best.
“Dunt tetch thet leeevuh! Yewl blow us all to ehtahms!!!”
And what about Franz Waxman’s score? And the opening, with Elsa Lanchester (who plays the Bride) as May Shelley telling the sequel to Percy Shelley and Lord Byron?
Although I purchased Dracula/Spanish Dracula a few years back, I jumped at the chance for this collection as soon as I heard about it. I bought them from Universal; turns out that Amazon is about $20 cheaper. At any rate, they’re still behind in prodcution, so I’m waiting for that nasty backorder to go away. I ordered mine on April 26th–hopefully they’ll be here soon.
These things are what turned me on to horror movies in the first place. I used to stay up with my grandmother until 1:00 in the morning watching these movies and, later, the Hammer-directed Dracula movies starring Christopher Lee.
And I, too, can’t wait until they release the Mummy legacy collection.