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DVD Review HTF Review: Frankenstein - The Legacy Collection (Highly Recommended!) (1 Viewer)

Mark B

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I got the gift set today, with the three busts (very nice likenesses, by the way) and am very pleased. The new transfer of BRIDE was a welcomed surprise, and GHOST OF will be a first time viewing.

I just finished watching HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, and found an odd glitch in chapter 6, 24:15. Can someone do a check for me and see if it's my disc or all of them?

To me, these films are so representative of what movies are all about. Stylized sets, great lighting, in-camera special effects, strong atmosphere, complex characters... I get so "sucked in" by it all... Lon Chaney's Wolf Man and Karloff's Monster can both bring a tear to the eye. I suppose there's a bit of those characters in all of us.

Thanks, Universal.

Mark
 

Bryan Tuck

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Thanks for the review, Jason. Picked this up at our local Best Buy today. Still trying to decide if I want the other ones. I have the '99 Dracula disc, and that may be enough for me. We'll see.

I think it's great that they've packaged these films together in 2-disc sets that are about the same price as the previous single-film discs, and they've retained all the extra features as well.

Speaking of the previous releases, how does Universal get away with saying, "For the first time ever, the original Frankenstein (or Dracula or Wolf Man) film comes to DVD..." on the back of these sets? They did that also on promos for The Meaning of Life, even though it had previously been released by Image. Just curious.
 

William Miller

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Yes, there is a glitch there. And at 1:24 of House of Dracula. And the Abbott & Costello set is loaded with them and the Doris Day and Rock Hudson set and most of these horrible Universal bargain basement double-sided, double-layered pieces of junk.

I can't believe there is not more of an outrage on this forum about these releases. They are glitchy, buggy, freezy and junky.

It would be oh so nice if Universal would have released all of these great catalog titles individually with nice cover art and a nice normal one sided DVD at $9.98 or $14.98 list. I would gladly pay a little more to get DVD's that will work. These releases are just "fool's gold".

And there are many, many more on the way. I wish Universal would stop this madness now.
 

Mark B

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The "glitch" is: The image and sound jumps backward about 2 seconds and repeats a shot and the sound follows a bit late. Is it time for an uprising to get a replacement disc a la Kiss Me Kate, etc.?

Mark
 

Mark B

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Yes, there is a glitch there. And at 1:24 of House of Dracula. And the Abbott & Costello set is loaded with them and the Doris Day and Rock Hudson set and most of these horrible Universal bargain basement double-sided, double-layered pieces of junk.

I can't believe there is not more of an outrage on this forum about these releases. They are glitchy, buggy, freezy and junky.
---------------------------------------------------

How about the Ma and Pa Kettle set? I bought it, but haven't watched any of them yet.

Mark
 

Matt Stieg

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I can't believe it!

Mark, that exact SAME glitch occurred on the first DVD release as well! Yet another lazy-ass mistake by those bastards known as Universal! There is NO excuse for this glitch to still be there, that's ridiculous!

Also, in regards to the Dracula collection. I haven't gotten it yet but I've heard "The Road to Dracula" documentary is edited from its original version to make room for Philip Glass' piece of shit score. The Universal idiots have no clue, absolutely no clue. Freakin' pathetic.

I agree with William Miller, give me well done individual releases for $14.98 or $9.98. What I would really love is for them to bring back the old video art for the 91-94 releases. Some of the best cover art I've ever seen.

The fact that we get these double DVD sets with a total of 14 movies, only ONE of which hasn't been released on DVD before speaks volumes about these jackasses. The first releases were in 1999, by now we should have the likes of Murders in the Rue Morgue, Man Made Monster, The Black Cat, House of Horrors, The Invisible Man series, and others on DVD. But like I said earlier, these people are just clueless.
 

Craig Beam

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"Yes, there is a glitch there. And at 1:24 of House of Dracula."

Mark, I don't see anything amiss at 1:24 on House Of Dracula. What exactly are you seeing?

However, the 24:15 issue on House Of Frankenstein is a puzzler. It's precisely replicated on both DVD releases.... and yet, the chapter stops have been redone/relocated/retitled on the new edition. It might be a flaw in the actual source material. Does anyone have a VHS copy to check? I checked my local library, but they don't have it.
 

Bryan Tuck

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I don't know for sure, either, but I can't see why this would be the case. With the Spanish version being moved to Disc 2 of the Legacy Set, Disc 1 actually has less on it than the '99 Dracula. Jason says that the documentary on the Legacy set is about 35 minutes, which is about how long it was on the '99 disc.

And each to his own, but I kind of like Phillip Glass's score (and I'm not really a Glass fan). I'm glad, though that there is still the choice. I just hope the Legacy set restores the aforementioned music that was left off the "original" track on the '99 disc.

I'll have to check House of Frankenstein for the glitch. Perhaps it's player specific? That's not really an excuse, but it may be an explanation. At any rate, I've never seen Ghost and House. I'm not expecting much, but I'm sure they'll be fun, if nothing else. The original film, Bride, and Son were certainly worth $20, though.
 

John Hodson

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Here, here. I have seen Ghost and House and they are great fun, but that's all they are. This is not Chaplin, Welles or Bergman, these are great vintage scary movies. And at a little over $4 per film, plus all the extras, I'm not going to get myself wound up too much over the odd glitch.

---
So many films, so little time...
 

Jeff_HR

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Nice review, but I'm satisfied with the originals. No sale unless Bride is sold as a stand alone DVD. Too bad about having the "Van Helsing" short included.
 

Nelson Au

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Bryon Tuck, re: the description on the box that "for the first time ever on DVD..." if you read further, it goes on to say that it's the first time that all these films are on DVD together as a collection, be it Frankenstein or the others.

I had thought that Costco was going to have the Monssters Legacy set, but they had the individual Collections of Frankenstein, Dracula and Wolfman. I think this will be okay for me, as I can get the Frankenstein and Wolfman Collections. Even though I have the '99 Frankenstein and Bride, and Dracula, I just wanted to be able to now own all the Frankenstein films for the first time for me. I never got them the last time.
 

Matt Stieg

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With all due respect to Stephen Sommers, I personally don't give a crap what he thinks of these movies. Instead of wasting time interviewing him, why couldn't we have gotten interviews or featurettes with surving cast and crew? Elena Verdugo from House of Frankenstein is still alive, Donnie Dunagan (who also did the voice for Bambi) is around as well, and I'm sure there's others. And if Universal gets around to The Mummy, Elyse Knox (mother of Marc Harmon) and Turhan Bey from The Mummy's Tomb are still alive as well. These people aren't going to be around forever, and it would be nice to have had their memories of these films recorded. But instead we get nothing more than Universal promoting crap, and sadly Van Helsing is the only reason we have these sets.

Of course, interviews with surviving cast and crew would've been something worthwhile...no wonder Universal didn't do it.
 

Mark B

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Mark, I don't see anything amiss at 1:24 on House Of Dracula. What exactly are you seeing?
--------------------------------------------

That was posted by William Miller, not me. I only clipped his post into mine. I checked my disc, and don't see anything amiss at 1:24, which is the bat flying to the window.

I had to laugh at myself last night while watching GHOST OF for the first time. When I caught a glimpse of the monster embedded in sulfur I audibly gasped with excitement. What a nerd.

Mark:b
 

Paul_Scott

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since i never got around to picking up any of the other Franky films besides Bride, i'll definitely sang this set at some point (tho most likely from Columbia House).
if the bride transfer is a noticeable improvment, thats worth it enough for me.
 

Ruz-El

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I'm having all sort of problems with the flippers
on Frankenstein and Dracula.

When I select Son Of Frankenstien and go to Play Movie, my pplayer stops. If I hit enter, the movie well play. If I hit menue, It goes to The ghost of frnkenstein menue. If I select Ghost Of Frankenstein and selct Play Movie from the menue, the player again stops. If I hit Enter, Son Of Frankenstein starts. The only way I can get ghost to start is if I select it through chaptor stops.

Side 2 is much the same way.

On Dracula, Teh same thing happens on one side, and the trailers are all glitched.

Wolfman is fine.

Anyone else having problems?
 

Bryan Tuck

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Russell--What model is your player? I haven't had any of those problems on the Frankenstein discs. Mine is a Hitachi DV-P305.

I did check on the glitch on House, and it really does seem to be a print defect. It's annoying and shouldn't have happened, but, I think I can live with it. For a 60-year-old movie that probably hasn't always been kept in the best shape to begin with, the film still looks pretty good.

At least Bride was fixed up a bit.

And I really don't mind the Van Helsing promo. It takes up 6 minutes of space, and no one has to watch it if they don't want to. And Matt is correct. Van Helsing is pretty much the main reason we have these sets, but I don't find that sad at all. I'm glad that they've been released, whatever the motivation. I'm actually looking forward to seeing VH; it looks like a fun homage to the classic monsters, and doesn't seem to be intended to be anything else.

Anyway, I'm sure more could have been done, and it is disappointing to hear about the Skal documentaries that were cancelled (that may have been in another thread). Sometimes I question the thinking at Universal, but for the most part I'm quite satisfied with the Frankenstein set, and I hope to get the others eventually.

Someday, it would be nice to see an expansive documentary on the whole '30s-'40s Universal horror movie run; I just hope we don't have to wait until Return of the Son of Van Helsing III.
 

Matt Stieg

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It isn't a print defect, I have the old VHS and the glitch doesn't happen. Even if it was a print defect, it could be easily remedied by simply cutting the extra shot and matching the soundtrack. Other than, HOF is among the best looking monster flicks on DVD, excellent print.
 

Larry Sutliff

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The music that was missing from the first DVD release of DRACULA has been restored(the Schubert symphony music right after the Count gives his "There are far worse things awaiting man..." speech), and BRIDE looks much, much better than the original DVD. Also, I'm happy that the "cleaned up" sound on FRANKENSTEIN has been replaced with the original ambient soundtrack.

For this price, there isn't too much to complain about, IMHO. These sets aren't perfect, but they're pretty darn good. And I like the packaging.
 

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