Everyone knows Im an uber Hammer fan, but before I became one, I was a total Universal geek. Of course, I was just a kid then, but still. And Im not going to get into another Hammer vs. Universal debate, which is nonsense made up by Tom Weaver on a day when he had no Republican candidate to vote for. Ive been watching a lot of Universal stuff lately, and the early horrors still hold up. My favorites include: the first twenty minutes of Brownings DRACULA, all of the Spanish DRACULA, Karloffs towering performance in FRANKENSTEIN (which trumps all the films continuity issues), THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN,THE MUMMY, SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE INVISIBLE MAN and THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS, and, perhaps my favorite of all, THE BLACK CAT, a deliriously decadent and artsy horror film that was way ahead of its time. Also, THE OLD DARK HOUSE, DRACULAS DAUGHTER, SON OF DRACULA, THE MUMMYS GHOST, THE MAD GHOUL, NIGHT MONSTER and, just for laughs, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN. As for the ones that dont work, theyre mostly the forties B-movies like HORROR ISLAND and CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN and its sequels. But the opening sequence of FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN is one of my favorite moments in the whole cycle. Their 1943 PHANTOM OF THE OPERA would have been a total bomb had it not been for Claude Rains quietly dignified performance and the lavish Technicolor visuals. The romantic subplot is cornball and dull and the movie on the whole is far too respectable for its own good....unlike the wonderful 1962 version from Hammer, but I promised I wouldnt get into that.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 16:46:08 +0000
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