Blu-Ray Review: The Mummy Complete Legacy Collection

 

Whenever I mention The Mummy to people around me, they automatically think of the Brendan Fraiser movies. While I enjoy those movies, I do wish that the old black and white Universal mummy movies got the same attention. The first of these films is a pure horror classic and one of the best Universal monster movies. While the mummy pictures that followed never quite reached the height of the original, they were often times fun for what they were. 

That is why I am so glad to own this 2017 Blu-Ray featuring all the classic black and white Universal Mummy movies. Each of these films has been restored and each of the restorations looks absolutely wonderful. I have never seen any of these films look anywhere near as good as they do here. Based on what I have seen in similar sets, I expected the first film to look great while the others would have a lesser quality to them. This was happily not the case here. I was also happy to see that the makers of this Blu-Ray set included Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955) along with the more typical mummy films. That movie marked the end of an era in multiple ways as not only the last entry in the Mummy series but also the last film Abbott and Costello made for Universal, the studio where they made their best and most popular movies. Though it does not have the best reputation among either comedy or horror fans, I have always had a real fondness for that movie. 

Most of the bonus features for this set are simply attached to the original movie (though the set includes the trailers for all the movies). While I wish there were bonus features relating to the other films on the set, the bonus features for the first film are truly excellent. They include two information filled and fun audio commentaries and various documentary shorts about the making of this movie and the Universal monster films in general. All of these bonus features are excellent and a real treat for any old movie or Universal monster fan.  

Now for my thoughts on the induvial movies themselves. 

  

The Mummy (1932): A horror masterpiece and one of the best Universal monster movies. Though this movie may not be actually scary by today's standards, it has a wonderful eerie atmosphere that is still incredibly effective today. Plus, Boris Karloff is incredible as the main character. 

The Mummy's Hand (1940): The second movie in this series is a delightful mixture of comedy and horror with the main heroes almost feeling like a straight man and comic comedy team. While they may not be Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello, they are still quite a bit of fun and got a few laughs out of me. The mummy here is also delightfully creepy. 

The Mummy's Tomb (1942): A darker, more sinister follow-up to The Mummy's Hand has a delightfully creepy feel to it. The large time jump feels completely unnecessary though. 

The Mummy's Ghost (1944): This is an enjoyable little horror movie but the previous entries in the series have done everything here before and done it better. 

The Mummy's Curse (1944): This fifth entry simply rehashes plot points from the previous films. This is true to the point that watching the movie for the first time, you still feel like you have seen the film before. The climax is quite atmospheric and creepy though. 

Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955): A delightful finale for both Abbott and Costello's great run at Universal and this series of Mummy movies. Though it may not contain as many laughs as earlier Abbott and Costello films, the comedy duo is delightful here. And even if there are less laughs than earlier A&C outings, there are still some pretty funny moments there. The movie also moves at a fast and fun pace. As with all this Abbott and Costello meet the monster movies, the storyline is quite good and could have even been a pretty good monster movie if played straight. A delight for both comedy and horror fans. 

The New Movie Magazine, 1933 

 

Blu-Ray Review: Creature from the Black Lagoon: Complete Legacy Collection

 

By the time, Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) came out it looked as if the Universal monster movies had reached their end. The Frankenstein Monster, Dracula and the Wolfman had all made their farewell Universal monster movie appearance in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) and The Invisible Man made his last appearance in these films in Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951). And it had been since House of Dracula (1945), that any of the Universal monsters had appeared without Abbott and Costello. By this time horror had been changed by the sci-fi craze with sci-fi B movies taking the place of a genre that had once been defined by the Universal monsters. It was unexpected that in this era a new Universal monster would appear and that this new monster would enjoy a similar popularity to the previous monsters.  

This 2018 Blu-Ray set contains all three entries in the original Creature from the Black Lagoon trilogy: Creature from the Black Lagoon, Revenge of the Creature (1955) and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956). The first two features were made during the 3-D craze of the 1950's and were shot in that process. This set includes both the 2D and 3D versions of these two films. Bonus features include audio commentaries on all three movies. Film historian and horror movie expert Tom Weaver provides the commentary alone on the first film. He is joined by Lori Nelson (the female lead) and film historian Bob Burns for the second movie and is joined by only Bob Burns on the third movie. These audio commentaries are extremely informative, and you have to listen to them more than once to get anywhere near all the information. Yet Tom Weaver is still just as entertaining as he is informative. Also included are a short documentary entitled Back to the Lagoon, production photographs and the original theatrical trailers. These may seem like basic Blu-Ray bonus features, but they are still delightful to film buffs. New HD restorations were made for all three movies. The first film looks amazing and allows one to truly appreciate the visual charm of this movie. This is especially seen during the great underwater scenes; the underwater photography was truly groundbreaking for 1954 and still looks great today. The second film however looks nowhere near as good. It does not look bad but there is an obvious drop in visual quality after watching the first film. The third film may not look as amazing as the first, but the visual quality is certainly an improvement over the second. 

Here are my opinions on all three movies themselves. 

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954): It is easy to see why this movie was so popular. It is a simple, straightforward but very effective monster flick. The creature's costume is fantastic and immediately memorable, the underwater scenes are still visually stunning, the creature is both creepy and endearing and the action scenes still hold up. The human characters may not be complex, but they do fulfill their jobs fairly well. Maybe not the masterpiece of Frankenstein (1931) or Dracula (1931), but still one of the better monster movies of the 1950's.

Revenge of the Creature (1955): This King Kong inspired story of the creature in captivity, is the weakest film of the trilogy. Though the creature is sympathetic, too much time is spent on incredibly bland human characters. This includes a romance that is so cliché and poorly written that is hard to care about. The film does pick up in the final act, where it becomes what it should have been all along. 

The Creature Walks Among Us (1956): This third movie is surprisingly strong. The premise of a scientist changing the creature from a sea creature to a land creature is actually pretty original idea. Not only is the premise strong but it is told quite well. It is easy to form a strong emotional attachment to the creature and there is some quite intelligent social commentary with the human characters. These are probably the strongest human characters in the trilogy. They are a bit more complex, and you can't always describe them in simple words like good or bad. The scares are also quite strong here with an even more eerie atmosphere than the previous films. This may actually be my favorite movie of the trilogy (maybe not the most popular opinion), and it is such an underrated gem of a monster movie. 

Motion Picture Exhibitor, 1954