- Features include: -MPAA Rating: UNRATED -Format: DVD-Runtime: 120 minutes
Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 07/24/2007 Run time: 145 minutes Rating: NrOver 10 years after first turning down the role, Bela Lugosi donned the neck bolts and platform boots to play Frankenstein's monster for the first and only time in
Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman. Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr., reprising his most famous role), killed at the end of
The Wolf Man, is inexplicably alive and searching for the brilliant Dr. Frankenstein but instead finds the Monster, frozen in ice beneath the castle, and an ambitious scientist (Patric Knowles) who revives the creature and promises to cure Larry. Lugosi is lurching and clumsy as the Monster, while Chaney is appropriately tortured as Larry but stiff and snarly as the Wolf Man, more man than wolf. Last-minute cuts by the studio renders much of th! e film incomprehensible: the monster was left blind and vocal at the end of
Ghost of Frankenstein, but all references to either were deleted (which partly accounts for Lugosi's performance) and he's now sighted but mute. Roy William Neill, a talented B-movie director best known for his Sherlock Holmes films with Basil Rathbone, can't do much with the perfunctory script, but he does deliver a highly entertaining conclusion: the Wolf Man battles the Monster while a spectacular disaster (accomplished with obvious but charming models) wipes the castle off the face of the earth... at least until
House of Frankenstein the next year.
--Sean AxmakerFor the first time ever, the original The Wolf Man film comes to DVD in this extraordinary Legacy Collection. Included in the collection is the original classic, starring the renowned Lon Chaney Jr., and three timeless sequels, featuring legendary actor Bela Lugosi and others. These are the landmark films that inspir! ed an entire genre of movies and continue to be major influenc! es on mo tion pictures to this day.Universal's first werewolf film falls in the shadow of the 1941 hit
The Wolf Man. You might say it's a different animal, as this version carries none of the now-familiar trappings of the wolf-man legend: no wolfsbane, no silver bullets, no gypsy curse. Dr. Wilfrid Glendon (Henry Hull) is a London botanist whose search for a rare flower takes him to a "cursed" valley in Tibet where he's mauled in the moonlight by a wolflike creature. Back in London he meets the mysterious Dr. Yogami (a marvelously melancholy performance by Warner Oland), who explains they met once before "in Tibet... in the dark" before asking for a flower from his botanical find, the only antidote for his curse. Glendon scoffs at his stories of werewolves--until he transforms into a hirsute killer under the effect of the full moon. Although leaner and edgier than the famous 1941 Lon Chaney classic,
The Werewolf of London stumbles with the corny Scotland Yard investigat! ion of the murder spree and gets sidetracked in the bizarre bickering of two old drunken cronies. But it takes flight in wonderfully imaginative and eerie scenes and striking action sequences, while a Jekyll-and-Hyde dynamic turns a jealous squabble between Glendon and his young wife Lisa (Valerie Hobson) into the tragic twist of the curse: "The werewolf instinctively kills the thing it loves best."
--Sean AxmakerABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN - DVD MovieUniversal Pictures made a great deal of money from its monster movies in the 1930s. In the early '40s, the burlesque team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello kept the studio's coffers full. When the two franchises were combined in 1948, the result was another windfall--despite the apparent oil-and-water mix of subject matter.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was the first of these summit meetings, although the title is a misnomer. Actually, Bud and Lou bump into most of the Universal heavy-hitters, includ! ing Count Dracula (played by Béla Lugosi himself), the Wolfma! n (Lon C haney Jr.), and the Frankenstein monster (veteran monster Glenn Strange). There's even a token appearance by the Invisible Man, whose disembodied voice is recognizable as that of Vincent Price. Sure enough, the film is funny, especially since it gives the portly Costello multiple opportunities to do his wide-eyed, quivering scaredy-cat routine. Audiences ate it up, and in future installments Bud and Lou would run into Boris Karloff, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Invisible Man, and the Mummy. But the first was the best.
--Robert Horton 2 fun-tastic adventures on one irresistible DVD!
Get ready for hilarious thrills and chills as everyone's favorite mischief-makers â" chipmunk brothers Alvin, Simon and Theodore â" bring timeless entertainment to the whole family in the Alvin and the Chipmunks Scare-riffic Double Feature! These two full-length, spooky adventures promise hours of song-filled, wacky fun and spook-tacular escapades. Join the world's most famous chipmun! ks as they uproariously collide with the legendary doctor and his creation in Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein. Race against the next full moon with the madcap brothers and their gal pal Chipettes as they howl with laughter in Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman. For high quality haunts and delightful antics, take home this must-own collection!
ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS MEET FRANKENSTEIN The mischievous brothers explore a popular theme park attraction, Frankenstein's Castle, that's been taken over by the real doctor and his beloved Monster!
ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS MEET THE WOLFMAN Monster-obsessed Alvin is sure that the mysterious new neighbor is a werewolf, but the fun and frights really begin when Theodore starts acting strangely, too!
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