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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: Universal Studios
EAN: 9781417058754
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
ISBN: 1417058757
Label: Universal Studios
Languages: DanishOriginal LanguageEnglishOriginal LanguageFrenchOriginal LanguageGermanOriginal LanguageFrenchSubtitledSpanishSubtitled
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
MPN: MCAD28295D
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Universal Studios
Region Code: 1
Release Date: September 06, 2005
Running Time: 337 minutes
Studio: Universal Studios
Theatrical Release Date: May 07, 1934
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Includes: murders in the rue morgue black cat raven invisible ray black friday Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 09/06/2005 Rating: Nr
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
THE BLACK CAT(1934)---(directed by Edgar G. Ulmer)---Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Jacqueline Wells(aka, Julie Bishop), Lucille Lind, Henry Armetta, Harry Cording.
This film features the first on-screen pairing of Karloff and Lugosi. Despite its reputation as a landmark horror film, I found it to be a major disappointment. The plot is ridiculous and incoherent, the acting is stiffer than a starched shirt, and the climax is "anti-"!!! A freshly married couple(Manners and Wells) are on a train heading for some unpronounceable destination in Hungary. Due to a "booking mistake", they find themselves sharing their compartment with Lugosi, who plays an "eminent" psychiatrist. By the damnedest coincidence, they are all headed for the same place---the newlyweds to honeymoon---the shrink to "visit an old friend"(played by Karloff). When they arrive at their destination, it's raining "cats and dogs", so they share a horse-drawn "taxi". The "taxi" flips over in the storm killing the driver and leaving the three travelers stranded in the deluge. By another coincidence, the home of Lugosi's friend is nearby so they all head for shelter there. They are welcomed by Karloff(who happens to be an "eminent" architect) and then things really get bizarre. We learn that Lugosi and Karloff had served together in WWI and that Karloff had betrayed his unit to the enemy so that he could get Lugosi's wife and daughter for himself; Lugosi escaped a massacre but was thrown into prison where he has languished for the past 15 years. In the interim, Karloff has built an extravagant house on the site of the gun emplacements where the betrayal took place!!! We also discover that Lugosi's wife died two years earlier but Karloff(who happens to be a Satan worshiper) has kept her corpse perfectly preserved and is now married to Lugosi's daughter! What a surprise when we learn that Lugosi has not come to pay a "social call" but to extract revenge on Karloff for "cutting up" the way he has. Karloff plans to conduct a Satanic ritual that will transfer the "life"(I think) of the newlywed bride to his wife(Lugosi's daughter) in order to "keep her young". Lugosi and the groom eventually manage to foil Karloff's plans, the newlyweds escape, and Lugosi blows himself and Karloff up(it seems that not only did Karloff build his house over the old gun emplacements, but also over an underground stash of dynamite!!!!!!). If this synopsis has you confused, try watching the movie---I kept it simple!!! This is truly an awful film, given the stars and the reputation it has garnered over the years. The best things about the movie are the "over the top" Art-Deco sets. As a general rule, I'm a fan of Edward G. Ulmer---his films are always a little "out there", but he has made some movies that I really like, e.g., STRANGE ILLUSION; DETOUR(a terrific little film noir); and RUTHLESS. However, he went totally "off the reservation" with this turkey---it is so full of plot inconsistencies, non-sequiturs, and truly awful acting that I regret buying it. By the way, the film takes its title from the fact that Lugosi suffers from a pathological fear of---you guessed it---black cats!
Rating:  -
several of these movies are just modern adaptations of edgar allen poe stories and my opinion is Vincent price versions were beter and true o the story lines.video quality and sound is good but not as good as the newer color stuff.
Rating: -
This is a good quality print of my favorite Universal Studios horror classics. The Black Cat has some of the most amazing art direction including a digital clock in one of the scenes. Its a must have for any horror fan.
Rating: -
And you thought Henry Frankenstein had a quality control problem when he put Fritz in charge of acquiring a brain for his creation. I bought the Bela Lugosi Collection and the Frankenstein Legacy Collection and they both have flawed discs! I was going to return them until I learned how pervasive these problems are. I've read horror stories of buyers who had to return up to 5 copies before receiving one that worked properly! Universal should haul their remaining inventory up to a spooky old windmill, light a torch and....well, you know.
Rating:  -
Really, that tagline is all you need to know, but i suppose if you're going to be a baby about it, I'll go ahead and tell you about this set. It's a diverse collection of 5 genre-spanning films featuring horror legends Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Three of the films claim to be based upon the works of Edgar Allen Poe. This is largely nonsense, but the films themselves are quite good and run about an hour apiece. 5+ hours of classic horror icons in awesome packaging for the price of a single DVD. You'd be a damn fool not to buy this unless you already own these films.
"Murders in the Rue Morgue" is the closest to a true Poe adaptation here and came but a year after Lugosi's legendary performance in Dracula. The film tells the story of a mad scientist -played by you-know-who- working at a sideshow who intends to create a human-ape hybrid race by injecting women with his captive ape's blood. Lugosi is a smooth operator if more then a little creepy trying to move in on his female of choice, but is probably a crummy scientist considering the rest of the women he attempted his experiment on all died. Definition of insanity and all that, I suppose. Apparently a whole lot of violence was cut out of this film which is a real shame because the original material has not been restored and it really could have made this one close to perfect.
4 stars
"The Black Cat" is a great film. A terrible excuse to invoke the works of Poe, but still very enjoyable. The title creature appears all of twice (maybe thrice) and has no effect on the story except for invoking comically exaggerated displays of fear from Lugosi. This was the first of several Karloff vs Lugosi films and aong the best that I've seen of the lot. Lugosi plays a war survivor whose comrades were wiped out due to a betrayal by his superior officer (Karloff). Two innocent travelers wind up being thrust in the middle of the vendetta and the way it plays out is really extraordinary. This is the most despicable Karloff role I've ever seen and it was nice to see Lugosi play the hero.
4 1/2 stars
While "The Raven" has little to do with the immortal poem everybody knows by heart, it is one of the best film tributes to Edgar Allen Poe that I've come across. And coming from a Vincent Price fanatic, that is saying a lot. Lugosi plays a surgeon obsessed with the works of the macabre poet who is prodded into saving the life of a beautiful young lady, who he easily falls for. But the lady is spoken for. Karloff plays an escaped murder who implores the doctor to change his face, and he does...to resemble half-disfigured Batman villain Two Face. He then orders the crook to help him do that which he has already done: take a life. The opposition are treated to a gallery of Poe-inspired torture devices (yes, there is both a pit and a pendulum) and Karloff's character has to decide between redemption and damnation. There is a very memorable performance where Lugosi gives some fantastic insight into the psychology of Poe's works and of course recites some of the title poem as well, which is a treat.
5 stars
"The Invisible Ray" is a science fiction film with a touch (so to speak) of horror to it where Lugosi again got to play the hero. It's the longest film in the set at about 80 minutes and it doesn't waste it. Karloff gets to give the mad scientist role a go this time and does a predictably great job. The sci-fi aspect really makes this one stand out and the idea of looking at rays of light as possible doorways to the past was well ahead of it's time. After all, the light we see from stars has been traveling for million of years or more. Think about if we could somehow see images of the things that a ray of light has been privy to in it's voyage. Anyways, Karloff uses this notion in a fairly backwards way to glimpse an intergalactic asteroid striking Earth in the distant past. Hunting the asteroid down -having seen where it hit- with a group including a respectful professional rival played by Lugosi, he discovers that the meteor contained a new element with amazing properties. Karloff's character vanishes and is presumed dead, reappearing years later and finding that his fiance has married another and his rival has used his discovery's properties to heal the sick and become famous. Can somebody say "insane radiation-fueled vengeance spree"? Great flick.
4 1/2 stars
"Black Friday" is the weakest of the set and features both Karloff and Lugosi, but neither in starring roles. This one combines the gangster film genre with science fiction for an intriguing mix. As fate has it, a mild-mannered professor is run down during a gang shootout that leaves a mob boss dead at the hands of his own crew. Karloff plays a doctor who uses the slain mobster's brain to somehow save the prof's life. If anybody should know that messing around with criminal brains is a bad idea, it's ... Read More
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