Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0025193093226
Format: NTSC
Label: Universal
Manufacturer: Universal
Number Of Items: 3
Publication Date: 2006
Publisher: Universal
Region Code: 1
Release Date: January 02, 2007
Sales Rank: 55083
Studio: Universal
Theatrical Release Date: December 14, 1955
Features:- Tarantula
- The Mole People
- The Incredible Shrinking Man
- The Monolith Monsters
- Monster on the Campus
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Editorial Review:
Description:
There's nowhere to run and nowhere to hide as five incredible science fiction films crash down on DVD for the first time ever in The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection. This fascinating, collectible set will shock, terrify and captivate you with film favorites from the golden age of Hollywood including Tarantula, The Mole People, The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Monolith Monsters and Monster on Campus. Featuring amazing, ground-breaking special effects, these classics set the standard for all sci-fi terror to come.
Amazon.com:
A quintet of fun '50s science-fiction thrillers from the Universal vaults make their DVD debut in this three-disc set that's sure to please fans of vintage creature features. Arguably, the best of the lot is The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), with Grant Williams as a businessman whose exposure to a radioactive cloud causes him to decrease in size exponentially until he is literally microscopic. Based on a novel by legendary fantasy writer Richard Matheson, director Jack (Creature from the Black Lagoon) Arnold's balance of suspense (Williams' battles with a house cat and common spider) and pathos (the effect his condition has on his marriage) make it one of the most memorable science-fiction films of the decade, and a favorite even of those with only a passing interest in the genre. On the entirely other end of the spectrum is The Mole People (1956), a loopy pulp adventure with John Agar and Hugh (Leave It to Beaver) Beaumont as intrepid adventurers who discover a lost city and the title creatures at a top of a Middle Eastern mountain. Campy to a fault, with a logic-straining script and ridiculous monsters, The Mole People is also a goofy good time for B-movie mavens. Agar, whose faded star power forced him to seek work in low-budget films during the '50s and '60s, also turns up in the effective Tarantula (1955), a fast-paced 'big bug' creepshow modeled after Them!. (1954), and featuring a cameo by Clint Eastwood as a jet pilot; the rest of the set is rounded out by the truly wacky Monster on the Campus (1958), with Arthur Franz as a college professor whose exposure to a prehistoric fish turns him into a rampaging Neanderthal, and The Monolith Monsters (1957), about fragments of a meteor that grow to colossal heights when exposed to water and threaten a small desert community. For TV babies that grew up on a steady diet of Saturday afternoon monster movies, The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection offers a nostalgic trip back to those cathode-soaked days, but without the barrage of commercials. The set offers trailers for each film by way of extras, as well as an anamorphic presentation of The Incredible Shrinking Man; the rest of the titles are presented in full screen. -- Paul Gaita
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - B-movie Bliss!
Grab the popcorn and dim the lights for some classic scifi entertainment!
I immediately scooped this up at first sight after seeing the set contains Tarantula on DVD...finally! This was one of my favorite monster movies as a kid and had never been released before on DVD. For me, it still holds up being just as fun to watch now as I remember.
The Incredible Shrinking Man stands above (ironically!) the rest of the features. The performances in it really give it just a bit more than the standard B-movie. It's a very interesting character study watching him try to come to grips with his diminishing stature.
The Mole Men are one of the most recognizible Universal monsters even though they don't get the love that the big guys do. It's a fun lost civilization flick. I always get a kick out of the lost people in these type of movies. The moral of this story is slavery is bad!
Monolith Monsters...you've gotta love any movie where the "monsters" are rocks from outer space. They're not alive, they can't chase you but in a way it's a bit creepy.
Monster on the Campus, the 2nd to last of Universal's scifi monster flicks, is a perfect example of what you expect a teen monster drive-in movie to be.
The transfers are ok and the extras are limited to trailers for each film. The packaging graphics are perfect for the set. Hopefully this will not be the only release of some of these films as they need more bonus material, especially "Man".
Rating:  - Monolith Monsters
Perhaps it is all because of Grant Williams. Williams was a B film actor who was best known for his starring and titular role in The Incredible Shrinking Man, generally acknowledged as one of the most literate and high quality B sci fi films from the 1950s. In watching the DVD of his next noted film, The Monolith Monsters, I was struck by how well written a film that film is also, even as it is another B sci fi film. No, Williams' role in the 77 minute black and white film, from 1957-as was The Incredible Shrinking Man, is not as important as his role in the prior film, but his mere presence, it seems, raises the bar for the other actors. In a sense, he was a B film version of Marlon Brando, who always seemed to elicit the best out of his A film co-stars.
Another positive for the film is that, of all the 1950s horror/monsters from space films, The Monolith Monsters is likely among the most plausible scenarios to be explored- almost like an early version of The Andromeda Strain, save that the monsters are not microscopic and biological, but huge and chemically reacting black crystal columns that have no agenda. They are not aliens nor atomically irradiated mutants, just meteor debris that grows when it comes into contact with regular water, and is destroyed by salt water. The former property is shown early in the film when a rock gets some water accidentally poured on it when a car radiator overheats and its driver pours in water. Even worse is that the rocks can turn people to stone, once ... Read More
Rating:  - A great "goodie bag"
THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN is a classic that alone deserves five stars. Fortunately the rest of the titles (Jack Arnold were involved in all of them but MOLE PEOPLE) in this package is equally enjoyable. THE MONOLITH MONSTERS are especially an interesting one, also starring the underrated Gran Williams.
For any extra material, we have to do with the trailers. But the transfers are all great.
Rating: - Don't Pay Too Much!
Great set this - but the people selling this secondhand are just trying to rip you off! This set is being reissued in May (and it's packaged with all the films from Volume 2). So don't pay over a hundred dollars here - wait a couple months and buy BOTH sets for $30 or so.
Rating: - "4 out of 5 aint bad"
Some really great Sci-Fi/Horror flicks in this package and a great bargain.
1.Tarantula - one of the best 1950s sci-fi movies
2.Mole People- Actually turned out to be a good movie
3.Incredible Shrinking Man- A movie way ahead of its time and very good
4.Monolith Monsters- The best movie of the five and very well made
5.Monster on Campus- Just down right silly
This is a very enjoyable set of movies at a great price !!
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