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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 0883929069873
Feature: KARLOFF & LUGOSI HORROR CLASSICS (DVD MOVIE)
Format: Black & White, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
Label: Warner Home Video
Languages: EnglishOriginal LanguageDolby Digital 1.0EnglishSubtitled
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
MPN: 1000096172
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: October 06, 2009
Running Time: 309 minutes
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 2009
Features:- KARLOFF & LUGOSI HORROR CLASSICS (DVD MOVIE)
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 10/06/2009 Run time: 327 minutes
Amazon.com:
Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi are the magic names when it comes to a bygone era of horror, and quite a bit of that magic is still afoot in Karloff & Lugosi Horror Classics, a two-disc, four-film set that gathers some of their lower-profile appearances. Karloff reigns supreme on the first disc, delivering a soulful performance in 1936's The Walking Dead, one of his life-after-execution pictures. Here Edmund Gwenn is the professor applying his reanimation technique to the unjustly electrocuted Karloff; revenge killings ensue--or is it karma? Michael Curtiz's energetic direction reminds you that he rarely phoned it in. Karloff takes on the Frankenstein family name (not the Monster garb) in Frankenstein 1970 (1958), which allows him quite a long leash and more than a few doomy speeches. It gets off to a great start and has a promising "meta" setup (a movie crew is at the Frankenstein castle in order to get authentic atmosphere for their horror picture), but it falls off pretty badly.
The second disc boasts You'll Find Out, a 1940 curiosity that not only brings Karloff and Lugosi together, but throws in Peter Lorre for an extra treat. With all that, who cares if the movie is really a vehicle for the popular radio personality Kay Kyser (and his "Kollege of Musical Knowledge")? Kyser's zany style, complete with sidekicks such as the ineffable Ish Kabibble, actually translates fairly well to the screen, and the movie cheerfully follows the blueprint of a screwball-paced haunted-house comedy. Even disappointed horror mavens will warm to the sight of Karloff, Lugosi, and Lorre huddled together, plotting no good.
Zombies on Broadway is a 1945 B-picture that probably ought to be unwatchable, but in fact it's quite competent (director Gordon Douglas was a versatile pro) and often fun. The headliners are Wally Brown and Alan Carney, whose sub-Abbott and Costello repartee is generally painful, although one grave-digging joke pays off nicely. Lugosi has a meaty role as a Caribbean hoodoo doctor who creates zombies in his jungle laboratory (shades of his White Zombie character). The film was made at RKO, home to Val Lewton's legendary horror unit, and is actually something of a send-up of Lewton's I Walked with a Zombie--complete with two of IWWAZ's notable cast members, the looming revenant Darby Jones and honey-voiced calypso singer Sir Lancelot. For fans of the terror titans, a respectable set, even if the chills are scarce. --Robert Horton
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
"Karloff & Lugosi Horror Classics" is a rather strange DVD collection. Boris and Bela only appear together (with Peter Lorre added for good measure) in the 1940 comedy "You'll Find Out" - a missed opportunity that showcases Kay Kyser and his Kollege of Musical Knowledge. The genuine classic in this two-disc set is Karloff's "The Walking Dead" (1936), an effective Warner Bros. gangster thriller directed by the great Michael Curtiz. "Frankenstein 1970" (a 1958 disaster from Allied Artists) receives the widescreen treatment, yet remains a dreadful Karloff vehicle. Decidedly better is "Zombies on Broadway" (1945) - a curious spoof of "I Walked With a Zombie" featuring Bela in memorable form as a mad scientist. Lugosi fans will be disappointed with these mediocre RKO efforts, but Karloff devotees finally get "The Walking Dead" (which includes an excellent commentary track by film historian Gregory Mank).
Rating:  -
For French buyers: it's not written on this site or on the box set, but THERE ARE French subtitles, of very good quality, available on these DVDs for all four films.
Enjoy 4 films of varying quality, every one of them worth watching (FRANKENSTEIN 1970 was a nice surprise), with crystal clear sound and picture, with the exception of THE WALKING DEAD which is a bit fuzzy around the edges, well it is also the older of the lot so it's very acceptable. No reviews of the films here, many users have done that and very well so! I enjoyed it all.
Rating: -
I urge you to buy this collection for the movie "You'll find Out".
One dark and stormy night... there was this gorgous 40's horror-comedy.
WHO: A beautiful young heiress. A few classic "who-done-it" guests. Plus, swinging "Kay Kyser and his collage of musical knowledge."
WHERE: A huge spooky mansion cramed full of attractive young girl friends, stuffed tigers, african tribal masks, and looming tikis.
WHEN: A dark stormy night, and (of course) the only bridge leading to town, is blown up, or "...struck by lighting" as Boris explains. They are trapped.
THEN: introduce the Unholy Three: the greatest villains of the 40's era silver screen - Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Peter Lorre.
Lightning! Thunder! flickering Lights! Musical numbers! Spooky high camp fun.
Boris Karloff lurks from the shadows in his distinguished suave menacing best.
Lorre: ultra cool-creepy sleepy-eyed chain-smoking dangerously purrs and doubts the supernatural powers of Lugosi. So, what happens then?
WHAT? A Seance!
Bela: "Very well. For you I will do it. But, I must warn you... for those who scoff at their exsistance, the spirits consider no punishment too drastic!"
The seance is the show stopper scene of the film. Lugosi commands elaborate props, floating objects, the "fires of death", evil spirits! Wonderful!
A beautiful transfer. Some great sets, costumes, and 40's effects. I dare you to watch the seance scene and not smile: Lugosi goes into a trance while Kyser conducts his band with a glowing baton. Before "rock and roll" there was "big band" music. Kay Kyser was big on stage antics. He was the Kiss of the 40's. Karloff glares. Lorre smokes and plays detective. The art direction and "Kitch" factor are well off the scale on this one. Primo stuff for retro-film buffs.
The other big find in this collection is a rousing commentary for "Frankenstein 1970" by Bob Burns, Charlotte Austin, and Tom Weaver. What a delightful special feature! Lot's of behind the scenes stories, Hollywood memories, and even a discussion of the heart pounding "1952 Armed Forces Radio" Halloween "gag-that-almost-went-too-far" that was the core idea for this film. Very interesting stuff!
Well worth the money for these vintage treasures!
Buy it. Watch it. Love it.
Rating: -
As others have pointed out, what you're really buying this set for is "The Walking Dead," a very nice little film (66 minutes)from 1936 starring Boris Karloff at the height of his horror-icon fame. The best of the many Karloff-back-from-the-dead revenge films,"The Walking Dead" is actually more of a supernatural mobster movie then a horror vehicle. But it's nicely photographed and is directed by Warner's any-genre ace Michael Curtiz, who later helmed "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and "Casablanca." Karloff gives a heartfelt performance and there are several familiar faces from the Warner stable in supporting roles. It's this film in this 2-disc set, that rates the 4 stars. "Frankenstein 1970" is a low-budget chiller from 1958(don't try to make sense of it)that is actually much better then I had remembered, thanks to a genuinely creepy opening scene and the presence of Karloff in the role of a Frankenstein descendent. The print, like all the prints in this set, is crisp and clean and as a bonus we get it in a striking widescreen version. "You'll Find Out" is essentially a Kay Kaiser comedy that gets a cred lift from the three horror heavies. You don't have to be smarter then Ish Kabibble to figure out who the bad guys turn out to be in this "Cat and the Canary"-ish mystery, but Karloff, Lugosi and Lorre each play it straight and that along with a pretty good seance scene makes it worth your time. "Zombies On Boadway" is like a poor man's version of an Abbott & Costello-meet-a-monster movie. If you like this kind of stuff then you won't be sorry you bought it. Happy Halloween
Rating: -
I agree with those who feel that this two disc collection of four films featuring the two horror greats Karloff and Lugosi should NOT be subtitled "Horror Classics." None of the films are true "classics" and only two qualify as strictly "horror" and even that is debatable.
Having said that, these movies are fun! "The Walking Dead" directed by the versatile and famous Michael Curtiz is the best of the bunch and is a moody, thoughtful, quiet probing of the mysteries of Life and Death and Vengeance wherein the vengeance is quite Biblical in that the film actually fulfills the "Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord" maxim. A greatly acted, paced, filmed, scored film. A quasi-classic.
The much-maligned "Frankenstein 1970" is due for another look-see - and we have it here, in pristine widescreen. Karloff doesn't walk through this one, as many people claim. I think his performance is extremely forceful and by turns frightening and tragic. (His soliloquy in the Frankenstein tomb is magnificent to watch being acted and paced and gesticulated perfectly by the horror Maestro.) The film, sadly, has a lousy, ridiculous monster....but the pluses outweigh the minues: the music score is terrific, the sets are filled with atmosphere and the beginning of this movie is arguably the scariest beginning to ANY horror film ever made. I won't spoil it for those who have not seen it: but suffice it to say, it is scaringly scored, atmospherically set and paced and the camera angles set the heart pounding. It is too bad that the film's frightening opening did not continue throughout the rest of the movie.
The other two films are comedies, more or less. Not side-splittingly funny, but the plotlines are interesting and the settings, again, are perfectly Halloweenish (especially in "You'll Find Out") and there are creepy moments in both films. The seance in "You'll Find Out" is quite weird, indeed. Karloff, Lugosi and Lorre play their parts to perfection and play them straight against the comedy of Kay Kyser and others. The zombies in "Zombies on Broadway" are also weird and could give youngsters nightmares!
Anyway - Halloween is at hand. Buy this set and you won't be disappointed. And these are movies that the whole family can enjoy. Trick or treat? Well, this dual DVD is much more treat than trick!
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