The Monster Legacy DVD Gift Set

 

 

Create your own review

To all Horror Movie fans like myself, I first bought all these movies on VHS format back in the early 80's after seeing them in my youth..I am so glad to be part of this release..I loved these then and love them even more now..I happen to be a fan of alot of unusual movies and this is a must for my library. My next addition is to add Vincent Price's masterpiece House of Wax and the much anticipated "The Tingler"...I would love to keep in touch with other ppl who enjoy my type of movie..

Wonderful films, magnificant music, fascinating documentaries - very high quality for a very low price. The commentary of AgeofAnxiety below says everything about the relative quality of the films. Only one complaint - the conclusion of this story is not in the collection. "Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein" is the final masterpeice that brings Dracula (Lugosi), Frankenstein (Glen Strange), and Wolfman (Lon Chaney) together with far greater success than do the "House of Dracula" and "House of Frankenstein" films shown here. Buy this one as well and enjoy the entire saga!

nicely remastered and nicely priced. of course its all to coincide with the definitely mediocre van helsing, but who cares? take advantage of it.
there are of course the stand out gems, beginning with the 1931 dracula.
the philip glass score is a disservice. one of the problems with dracula has indeed always been its lack of a good score. the film is a bit too minimalistic to begin with but having a minimalist composer (and, sorry, a bad one at that)score this film only compounds the problem. it really needs something more dramatic.
but, you can opt out of the glass score anyway, so...
that said;
dracula is certainly flawed. at times lugosi is brilliant and at times much less so. the first half of the film is undoubtedly the best and its mood and atmosphere are most striking in the transylvania castle.
the spanish dracula, on the whole, is somewhat better.
helen chandler seemed a bit too vampiric even before she was bit.
her mexican counterpart is much better and oozing far more sexuality.
the mood and pacing is better. torches instead of candles. draculas emergence from his casket and the ships travel to london is far more effective.
but this dracula doesnt hold up to lugosi, and at times the spanish dracula seems to be aping lugosis performance and
it too loses some steam once being transplanted to england.
still, dracula started a whole new hollywood genre, which leads us to :
frankenstein and bride of frankenstein.
it really is apparent that the two whale films stand way apart from the rest. whales films possess an original style and art. even the mob scenes here seem genuine. in the later films the mob scenes seem paled down, weaker copies of what they are here.
karloffs pantomime performance is brilliant in frankenstein, but it is in bride that he surpasses himself. his monster is touchingly human.
as excellent as karloff is thesiger steals the show and his performance should have at the very least garnered an oscar nomination.
son of frankenstein is the last decent film with the monster. its also karloffs final turn at the character. but, karloff only has one good scene (when he finds the dead ygor). but it is lugosi and atwill who steal the whole movie.
lugosi is brilliant here, smashing the myth that he really couldnt act to smithereens. his ygor is gnarled, pathetic, evil, and charming. he would never top this performance and its a shame the universal execs didnt wake up to lugosis potential after this.
atwill gives a classic performance which was later spooofed by peter sellers in dr strangelove.
the scene when he is explaining his handicap to rathbone and crahes his false arm into the wall is milked for all the campy brilliance it can muster.
rathbone however overacts badly and his performance is at time embarrasing. originally peter lorre was wanted for the role and one can only imagine how much better lorre would have made it.
too, the kid is the worst sort of cutesy hollywood tyke and one keeps hoping the monster will dispose of the brat.
it is in the rest of the sequals that we start getting that sense of paled down copies.
draculas daughter however is a nicely paced sequal to dracula. gloria holden should have developed a following after this, but the film didnt take with a public who didnt want to see it without lugosi.
son of dracula also has a decent pacing,atmosphere, a badly miscast chaney and the quintessential whiny hero that you absolutely hate.
the wolfman was the 40s entry and it is a superbly cast film with chaney earning his place in horrordom.
everbody from claude rains to ouspenskia are excellent. the film has numerous loop holes in logic but none of that matters.
its a lesser classic but stiil a definite classic.
frankenstein meets the wolfman propels the story into the B category.
its a lot of fun and it moves along at a rapid pace. but lugosi was classically screwed over in this. at the end of ghost ygors brain had been put into the monster and the monster spoke again for the first time since bride (albeit briefly).
in ghost the sound of lugois raspy ygor voice coming out of the monsters lips actually worked and was one of the few interesting things about that movie.
and meets the wlfman was filmed that way, with lugosis blind monster speaking. but someone didnt like it so the voice was muted out and all references to the monsters blindness was eliminated, rendering lugosis performance ridiculous.
it was a cruel case of bad editing.
still, chaneys talbot is really a cool character here and if anything he is even better here than in the previous film.
the two house films are D grade. house of frankenstein at least has karloff and hes damned good. chaneys character is now starting to sound whiney but j carrol naish and john carradine are nice mixes to the brew and the scene were chaney gets put out with a silver bullit is classic.
werewolf of london is pre wolfman and stars henry hull. its mood is more subtle than the chaney one but its a very good film with more a sense of mythos and folklore than the wolfman.
the dogof the collection is she wolf of london (with house of dracula being a close second to the bottom) with the less said about it the better.
now if universal would put out a second collection with the black cat, the raven, black friday, the invisible ray, the invisisble man, the mummy and creature films then it would be a great round off. but then, unless van helsing returns to fight all these other characters, dont expect it to happen

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 88 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

 

4.0 out of 5 stars Bevare! Bevare! Dracula is suspect here!
When I bought my set I went to my local retailer and they had a stack of them. I picked up one and rotated the box and heard loose discs clunking around. Lisez davantage

Published on July 1 2004 by Bliggick

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have!
Fantastic price and great quality, these movies are a must have for anyone interested in the Universal monster movies. Lisez davantage

Published on July 1 2004 by Keith John Helwig

4.0 out of 5 stars Enough Whining About The Mummy!
OK, enough about the Mummy already. This set was released to plug the new "Van Helsing" flick which contains Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolf Man. Lisez davantage

Published on July 1 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Good News!
This has nothing to do with this set, but since everybody is asking where the mummy, creature and invisible man are I feel compelled to share this: according to several sites I... Lisez davantage

Published on Jun 29 2004 by J. A Hayes

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent as can be-- but WHERE'S THE FREAKIN' MUMMY?!?!?!?
This set may contain a near dozen of my favorite movies ever. The Universal Monster films have never really been topped. Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein... Lisez davantage

Published on Jun 27 2004 by David

5.0 out of 5 stars Very cool
Je ne reviendrais pas sur les films qui sont des bijoux, je voulais juste dire que mon coffret est arrivé en parfait état alors qu'il a du traverser l'Atlantique... Lisez davantage

Published on Jun 23 2004 by Julien F

5.0 out of 5 stars monster schmonster
I love these wonderfuly silly movies! even though they scared the pants off me as a ten year old kid. Besides..you could'nt ask for better packaging. Lisez davantage

Published on Jun 20 2004 by John Corcoran

5.0 out of 5 stars It's All True, and All Good.
I bought the gift set and, like others, ran into a problem with it. However, in my case, I didn't have any scratched disks, and the only problem was on disk 2 of the Dracula set... Lisez davantage

Published on Jun 16 2004 by Eugene R. Graff

3.0 out of 5 stars Son of "Careful...the Sequel" or The Curse of the Naysayers
My third review of this set. Amazon was kind enough to have replaced my defective set prior to my returning it. Lisez davantage

Published on Jun 14 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Gothic Horror
Firstly, I know these movies but can't comment on the quality of the discs that are being shipped. The other reviews express enough dissatisfaction with the packaging etc. Lisez davantage

Published on Jun 12 2004 by Carl Slim

Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

› See all 88 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

Search Listmania!