The Kings Of Horror – Legends Of Hollywood (BCI Eclipse DVD Set/Bela Lugosi/Boris Karloff)
Picture:
C- Sound: C Extras: D Films: C+
As part
of their low cost, high quantity Legends
Of Hollywood box sets, BCI continues with The Kings Of Horror featuring many of the post-Universal B-movie
projects of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.
A few are even important. Most
are from the Monogram Studios, though a few are independent, PRC did one, Fox
made one, Columbia made the newest film, and some prints are from companies who
redistributed them to make a quick buck on TV and in revival houses. The films are as follows, with links where we
have previously covered them:
Scared To Death (1947, in Natural Color/CineColor)
Lugosi offers the story of a dead man telling us how he got there from the
grave. A touch of Noir with George
Zucco, Nat Pendleton and Gladys Blake.
The Ape Man (1938) Lugosi as the half-man,
half-ape is unintentionally comic and worthy a look and one of several
collaborations Lugosi would have with infamous filmmaker William Beaudine.
White Zombie (1932) Lugosi in the classic that
introduced voodoo and zombies to Hollywood, it is somewhat of a classic and a
must-see for Horror fans.
The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934, Monogram)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3253/Mysterious+Mr.+Wong+(Roan+Group)
The Ape (1940, Monarch/Monogram) A
candidate for one for the worst films ever made, the sometimes amusing but bad
film has Karloff as scientist trying to help mankind, but it backfiring. Amusing and amusingly bad.
Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1937, RKO)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4315/Dick+Tracy+Collection+Box+Set
The Terror (1963, American International)
Early Karloff/Roger Corman project made after The Raven since the sets were up with Jack Nicholson, as he is
lured by a woman to the castle inhabited by you know who. Not bad, but I wish the print were much
better.
The Devil Bat (1935, PRC) Lugosi breeds
oversized bat through electric machine, which goes on killing spree until even
he cannot control it. Amusing and
another howler from PRC, especially in the way he sets up the bat attacks.
Black Dragons (1942, Monogram) Lugosi is joined
by Clayton Moore as FBI Agent investigating Lugosi and other industrialists as
part of a sabotaging effort that may be linked to the Nazi spy ring known as
The Fifth Column, a real life organization.
Amusing.
Human Monster aka Dark Eyes Of London (1940, Argyle Prod.) Lugosi in Edgar Wallace tale
of deformed killer and timely collectings of life insurance was made in England
and is one of his more interesting efforts.
It may be short, but it is worth a look.
The Death Kiss (1932, California KBS/Tiffany)
Lugosi reteams with some of the Dracula cast in this decent murder mystery that
deserves a new audience in a nice one-shot that goes along with the many
Mystery films being made at the time.
Boys From Brooklyn aka Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla (1952) Another candidate for
one for the worst films ever made, Mitchell Duke and Sammy Petrillo debut as
impersonators of Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis, for which they were quickly
sued. William Beaudine directed.
The Snake People (1971, Columbia/Horror Films
International) Karloff made this at the end of his career as part of a set of
often lame Spanish productions, but this is at least watchable… when he is on
screen. Title refers to cult, of course.
The Invisible Ghost (Monogram, 1941) Lugosi teamed up
with legendary indie director Joseph H. Lewis on the brink of his Noir run as
abandoned husband becomes serial killer.
Not bad at all.
The Gorilla (1939, 20th Century
Fox) Lugosi and Lionel Atwill join The Ritz Brothers in this mixed comedy that
is amusing sometimes, if not great. Fox
seemed to have some hopes for it. Allan
Dwan directed, which helps.
The Corpse Vanishes (1942, Monogram) Lugosi as part
of mad plan to kidnap, kill and harvest “virgin brides” and their bodies for
sick purposes is somewhat watchable and short enough to get way with its
premise.
All the
films except Snake People, The Terror and Scared To Death are black and white, usually 1.33 X 1 and not in the
best shape, but most are in awful shape.
The exceptions give you an idea of how good these could look and then
makes you realize the work they’ll need for HD presentation. Hope better prints are in a vault somewhere. All are in Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, but a few
of the older programs have actually been amusingly boosted to Dolby Digital
5.1, which boosts some sound aspects, but also gives you more hiss. Some random episodes of The Phantom Empire serial in very bad copies are here as filler,
but we will not consider that a good extra due to condition and incompleteness.
- Nicholas Sheffo
