Hollywood Legends of Horror Collection (1932-1939)

The horror! The horror! The six films included in this 3-disc set represent some of the most legendary horror films from the early days of Hollywood. Each film boasts at least one huge star from this era: Bela Lugosi in "Mark of the Vampire" (1935), Boris Karloff and Myrna Loy in "Mask of Fu Manchu" (1932), Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray in "Doctor X" (1932), Humphrey Bogart in "Return of Doctor X" (1939), Peter Lorre in "Mad Love" (1935), and Lionel Barrymore and Maureen O'Sullivan in "The Devil Doll" (1936).

Universal ruled the monster movie in the 1930s, but this hugely enjoyable DVD set offers a counter-argument from MGM and Warners. Its half-dozen horror titles run the gamut from classic vampirism to baroque romanticism, and gather horror luminaries such as Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Peter Lorre.
The greatest film of the bunch is Mad Love (1935), a rich and oft-imitated bit of perversity with a deeply romantic streak. Concert pianist Colin Clive (from Frankenstein) has his hands wrecked, and his actress wife (Frances Drake) turns to the obsessive Dr. Gogol (Lorre), who has long worshipped her. But the doctor replaces the pianist's hands with those of a murderous circus knife-thrower! Superbly directed by Karl Freund (The Mummy), this eerie film is shaped by Lorre's subtle, uncannily sympathetic performance.

Karloff reigns in The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), which offers more minute-for-minute lurid action than any other movie in this set. Connoisseurs of horror will be well pleased by the roster: a crocodile pit, deadly snakes and spiders, poisons, various forms of torture including a man strapped beneath a giant reverberating bell, and Fu Manchu's sexy daughter (Myrna Loy). MGM designer Cedric Gibbons runs wild with a wonderfully daffy Deco-meets-Orientalism scheme. There are some undeniably racist epithets thrown in the direction of the evil Dr. Fu Manchu, but he gives as good as he gets, and the character is ultimately as irresistible as any evil mastermind. Karloff gives one of his juiciest performances ever.

Doctor X (1932) is presented in a recently-restored 2-strip Technicolor process (a lot of throbbing greens and oranges), which gives the movie an antique appeal. Doctor Xavier (Lionel Atwill) brings his colleagues together to figure out which of them might be the Full Moon Killer; daughter Fay Wray and reporter Lee Tracy (a typical fast-talking role for this fun actor) tag along. Michael Curtiz directed; he also did the similar Mystery of the Wax Museum, again with Atwill (available on the House of Wax disc). The Return of Doctor X (1939) is more of a curio than a full-fledged horror movie, as it has Humphrey Bogart, resplendent in a Bride of Frankenstein hair streak, in a rare supernatural outing.

The other two films are directed by Tod Browning. Mark of the Vampire (1935) is a clear example of MGM trying to ride the Dracula gravy train, with plenty of smoky graveyards, scuttling possums, and Lugosi in a tuxedo striding through giant spider webs. Lugosi is peripheral here, as Lionel Barrymore hunts down the blood-suckers. It's slow going, but the touches are wonderful and there's a spooky vampiress. Browning makes The Devil-Doll (1936) a memorably oddball thriller, with Barrymore a wronged man seeking revenge–and exploiting a device that allows people to be miniaturized. All the films have lively commentary tracks, except Devil-Doll. Overall this is a very neat package; even the inclusion of Return of Doctor X makes sense as a pairing with its original. MGM and Warners seemed embarrassed by the horror genre in the thirties, but these examples prove they could rise to Universal's game.
~ Robert Horton

DVDTalk

In 1932 MGM and Warner Bros. were quick to jump on Universal's Horror bandwagon, as did Paramount with their The Island of Lost Souls and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Metro bloodied its own nose with Freaks and with only a couple of exceptions stayed away from the genre, only to reappear in 1935 with fresh fright films just as the first horror wave at Universal was coming to a close. The Hollywood Legends of Horror Collection gathers three double bills of less-seen 1930's horror attractions from both MGM and Warner Bros.. Two or three are bona fide classics, the others are still good pictures, and all but one are given new authoritative commentary tracks. The set will make for fine viewing by horror fans of all persuasions.

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A creepy laboratory where eccentric doctors engage in bizarre experiments. An intrepid reporter & a beautiful young woman involving themselves in terrible danger. And a fiendish strangler who only strikes during the full moon…
DOCTOR X does have an absurd plot, but it is undeniably entertaining to watch. Much of the credit for this must go to the look of the film. Art Director Anton Grot designed some very spooky interior sets. The Max Factor make-up is striking. And both elements are enhanced because this was one of the first movies to be shot in two-strip Technicolor.
Lee Tracy, one of the most enjoyable actors of the early 1930's, plays another in his long line of fast-talking wise-crackers - this time a newspaperman out to get a big story. Fay Wray is lovely as always & gets to use her famous scream (a year before KING KONG). Lionel Atwill hams it up a bit as the instigator of many of the more unusual elements in the plot





Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Lee Tracy, Preston Foster, John Wray, Harry Beresford, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Leila Bennett, Robert Warwick, George Rosener, Willard Robertson, Thomas E. Jackson, Harry Holman, Mae Busch, Tom Dugan, Raoul Freeman, Selmer Jackson, Charles McMurphy, Ky Robinson

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This picture isn't bad at all, and is quite entertaining. It's problem is that it isn't very credible. In order to enjoy it one has to put oneself back into the spirit of the late thirties, as the nation was still reeling from the Depression and very much in need this sort of anodyne movie.
Basically it's a mad doctor movie mixed with the sort of breezy newspaper comedy (such as His Girl Friday) then popular. The story has little to do with the first Doctor X movie, which is quite different. Vincent Sherman directs his scenes for maximum suspense and energy, and makes a go at a contemporary horror film set in New York, with brownstones, hospitals and funeral parlors filling in for the usual old dark houses and castles. He succeeds very nicely.
The young leading players are likable but unexceptional. John Litel is, however, very fine as a sane doctor being manipulated by a mad one. The most notable casting is Humphrey Bogart as the resurrected Dr. X, and he is if nothing else visually striking, with his chalky face and hair with a white streak down the middle. He is altogether too familiar to be convincing in the role, which he handles competently.
Overall, I think it's fair to say the movie wasn't meant to be taken too seriously. It was made at a time when horror movies were made for fun as much as fright. Taken on its own terms it delivers the goods, and makes the Warners' standard issue New York streets look as spooky as a graveyard at Halloween





Director: Vincent Sherman
Cast: Wayne Morris, Rosemary Lane, Humphrey Bogart, Dennis Morgan, John Litel, Lya Lys, Huntz Hall, Charles C. Wilson, Vera Lewis, Howard C. Hickman, Olin Howland, Arthur Aylesworth, Cliff Saum, Creighton Hale, John Ridgely, Joseph Crehan, Glenn Langan, William Hopper, Nat Carr, Loia Cheaney, Eddie Graham, John Harron, Mike Lally, Frank Mayo, John 'Skins' Miller, Jack Mower, Paul Panzer, Frank Pharr, Gwen Seager, Claude Wisberg

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Excellent, morbid story of a brilliant sureon's (Lorre) obsessive, fetishistic love for a Grand Guignol style actress. The early scenes are perhaps the best film evocative of actual Grand Guignol sadefests. Lorre manages to procure a perfect waxen statue of his love object, thus introducing doppleganger horror, a relatively rare treat in American horror. The main plot focuses on Lorre's attempt to implicate Drake's husband in a series of murders by convincing him that the hands he grafted for him are acting of their own will as in "Hands of Orlac". Many subtle moments (which critics have not credited the film for), some garishly out-of-place slapstick humor is the only negative aspect. Fantastic photography.
This is Lorre's entry into classic horror stardom: Karloff has his Frankenstein monster, Lugosi has Dracula (forever, folks), Chaney Jr. has the wolfman, and Lorre's got this lesser-known but equally classic film to recommend him as one of the major horror stars of the classic era. This film represents MGM's entry into the early 30s horror film sweepstakes as well, and they did well to associate themselves with solid hands like Freund's and Lorre's. Hands….. hmmmmm unintended pun. Anyway, if anyone out there is a fan of classic horror films and has not yet seen this one, put it at the top of your list





Director: Karl Freund
Cast: Peter Lorre, Frances Drake, Colin Clive, Ted Healy, Sara Haden, Edward Brophy, Henry Kolker, Keye Luke, May Beatty, George Davis, Billy Dooley, Harold Huber, Isabel Jewell, Leo White, Sam Ash, Hooper Atchley, Agostino Borgato, Maurice Brierre, Mike Cantwell, Julie Carter, Harvey Clark, Cora Sue Collins, Nell Craig, Frank Darien, Kay English, Alphonse Ethier, Christian J. Frank, Billy Gilbert, Robert Graves, Roger Gray

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Don't let the genre classification as "sci/fi & horror" mislead you. It's really an excellent suspense/mystery/melodrama with the superb Lionel Barrymore Mr Potter of "It's a Wonderful Life" and a young Maureen O'Sullivan. The sci/fi & fantasy elements - a mad scientist's ability to shrink people and control their actions - are exciting plot devices that allows Barrymore to exact revenge on the men who destroyed his life and family.
Director Tod Browning ("Freaks", the original "Dracula", and many Lon Chaney films) has created a great mix of suspense, action, light humor, & heart-tugging emotions in this tale of revenge and redemption.
The efx are (mostly) ahead of their time, and as good as the later shrunken-people sci-fi movies of the 40s and 50s, such as "Dr Cyclops", "Attack of the Puppet People", and "The Incredible Shrinking Man".
But the best part is the great acting of Barrymore. He plays a desperate escaped convict, who hides by masquerading as a kindly old woman, who in turn pretends to be maker of perfectly detailed dolls. As this character that's both humorous and murderous, obsessed and befuddled, he toys with the police and his betrayers who will be the targets of his army of living dolls. It's a tour de force of acting in this beautiful film





Director: Tod Browning
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan, Frank Lawton, Rafaela Ottiano, Robert Greig, Lucy Beaumont, Henry B. Walthall, Grace Ford, Pedro de Cordoba, Arthur Hohl, Juanita Quigley, Claire Du Brey, Rollo Lloyd, E. Alyn Warren, Jean Alden, King Baggot, Egon Brecher, Robert Du Couedic, Paul Foltz, Christian J. Frank, Billy Gilbert, Robert Graves, Sherry Hall, Mahlon Hamilton, Sydney Jarvis, Edward Keane, Gus Leonard, Wilfred Lucas, Eily Malyon, Frank Reicher

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This was one of the best vampire films of the classic black-and-white era. Essentially a composite remake of "Dracula" and an earlier film called "London After Midnight" with some bizarre twists, in terms of ghoulish settings and atmosphere, particularly the cemetery scenes, and Lugosi and Borland wandering in the night, this film is second to none. There is no doubt that Bela Lugosi was the classic Dracula of the early sound period. If I were to make a list of his best 10 films, this would be one of them along with the 1931 "Dracula", the 1943 "Return of the Vampire", the 1940 "The Devil Bat" and others. Carol Borland's role as "Luna"sets the standard for "Vampira" of the 1950s and "Elvira" of the 1980s as well as "Morticia" of the Addams Family on TV. She does an excellent job in the role of a "creature of the night". And of course, Bela Lugosi as Count Mora is without peer. The entire cast including Lionel Barrymore, Lionel Atwill, Elizabeth Allen, Jean Hersholt, and others do an excellent job





Director: Tod Browning
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, Jean Hersholt, Henry Wadsworth, Donald Meek, Jessie Ralph, Ivan F. Simpson, Franklyn Ardell, Leila Bennett, June Gittelson, Carroll Borland, Holmes Herbert, Michael Visaroff, Lionel Belmore, Robert Greig, Baron Hesse, Doris Lloyd, Eily Malyon, Torben Meyer, Henry Stephenson, Zeffie Tilbury, Guy Bellis, James Bradbury Jr., Egon Brecher, Louise Emmons, John George, Rosemary Glosz, Mrs. Lesovosky

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Dr. Fu Manchu(Boris Karloff) is a ruthless oriental who desires to obtain the ceremonial mask and sword of Genghis Khan. He believes if he secures these two sacred items, his leadership over the hordes of Asia will exterminate the white race so that he will rule the world. Professor Von Berg Jean Hersholt, radio veteran of "Poems That Touch the Heart" and Nayland Smith(Lewis Stone) of Scotland Yard try to prevent Fu Manchu from getting these important relics. These members are subject to murder and torture and are even sentenced to death in the crocodile pit. Fah Lo See Myrna Loy,wife of Wm. Powell in the "Thin Man Series" is a very sexual daughter of Fu Manchu who wants to make a young expedition member Terry Granville(Charles Starrett) to be her slave for life. Boris Karloff spoke for the first time in his second career in this film after " Frankenstein". Sax Rohmer who wrote the novel wanted Karloff because of his natural lisp to make it sound like a snake-like hissing in his hateful role as Fu Manchu. It is a must see film and a great film classic for all generations





Directors: Charles Brabin, Charles Vidor
Cast: Boris Karloff, Lewis Stone, Karen Morley, Charles Starrett, Myrna Loy, Jean Hersholt, Lawrence Grant, David Torrence, Herbert Bunston, Gertrude Michael, Everett Brown, Steve Clemente, Willie Fung, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Allen Jung, Tetsu Komai, James B. Leong, Oswald Marshall, Chris-Pin Martin, Lal Chand Mehra, Edward Peil Sr., Clinton Rosemond, C. Montague Shaw, E. Alyn Warren

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