Blu-ray Review Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection Blu-ray Review - Recommended (1 Viewer)

[Ken Volok]

Noticed that all the films (inc. Spanish "Dracula) but except CfBL are now being rleased solo on Oct. 23 by a company called Ais.. they look to have all features ect.. I am not familiar with that company (Ais).. is it a Euro wing of Universal?

 

[gomezfan69]

I no longer have the original Dracula DVD, so I don't remember if she did an introduction. I also don't have the US version of this set.
I do know Carla Laemmle (now aged 102) is a major part of the Road To Dracula extra that was included on prior releases, and is on the UK set. She does do an 'introduction' to the film at the start of that extra.
David

There is no introduction by Carla Laemmle on either the Legacy Collection or the 75th Anniversary Edition. Looking at reviews of the original DVD there was not one there either.

 

[Ruz-El]

Originally Posted by gomezfan69 /t/324286/universal-classic-monsters-the-essential-collection-blu-ray-review-recommended/60#post_3989158
There is no introduction by Carla Laemmle on either the Legacy Collection or the 75th Anniversary Edition. Looking at reviews of the original DVD there was not one there either.

This matches my admittedly terrible memory.

 

[Kevin EK]

The introduction by Carla Laemmle is only on The Road to Dracula. She begins the piece, and she ends it with the words from the lost Edward Van Sloan epilogue that "there really are such things!"

 

[WadeM]

Does anyone else here have a Panasonic DMP-BD30 blu-ray player? The Mummy disc first said "copyright violation" when I was at firmware 2.9. When I've seen that message before, I just updated my firmware to clear the problem. Now, I updated to the latest firmware 3.1 and it just won't play that disc at all. Maybe it's just a bad disc?

 

[John Sparks]

Does anyone else here have a Panasonic DMP-BD30 blu-ray player? The Mummy disc first said "copyright violation" when I was at firmware 2.9. When I've seen that message before, I just updated my firmware to clear the problem. Now, I updated to the latest firmware 3.1 and it just won't play that disc at all. Maybe it's just a bad disc?

Yes, I have a BD30 with the latest 3.1 FW and it played fine.

 

[WadeM]

Yes, I have a BD30 with the latest 3.1 FW and it played fine.

Thanks. I just saw elsewhere that some copies of the UK pressing of The Mummy disc are defective. The damage is visible by looking at the bottom of the disc--there's a visible spot. I happened to receive a defective one.

 

[Sgt Pepper]

So far i have watched Dracula and Frankenstein and i am astounded by the shear quality of these discs.

 

[Steven Good]

Made some custom covers for these discs. Are these great? No. But they serve my needs, combining the available blu discs from the Universal Monster set just released, with the DVD legacy releases of the sequels...
Creature from the Black Lagoon set
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21643749@N02/8125105002/
The Mummy set
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21643749@N02/8125105430/
The Invisible Man set
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21643749@N02/8125086527/
Frankenstein + Bride of Frankenstein set
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21643749@N02/8125106578/
The Wolf Man set
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21643749@N02/8125087935/
Dracula set
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21643749@N02/8125088801/

 

[Johnny Angell]

Those custom covers seem more appropriate for the legacy sets than for the blu-ray set.

 

[Ruz-El]

Nice job on the covers. As some one conscious of shelf space I get where you're coming from! Better than my plan on sticking the Legacy set discs into static disc sleeves and sliding them into the coffin packaging I got for the UK set. I think they'll all fit in there until they get a bluray version with nicer packaging.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Guess I didn't look close enough. A combo package, a good idea.

 

[Steven Good]

Guess I didn't look close enough. A combo package, a good idea.

Thanks. Anyone who wants them, PM me.

 

[Spottedfeather]

Kevin, I just asked Universal and they said that the 4:3 movies will show black bars on the sides but not the top or bottom. The movies aren't letterboxed.

 

"Bride of Frankenstein" has been altered. There were two shots of the monster approaching the hermit's hut. The shots were similar, but the first showed the entire monster walking, then the shot cut to a more zoomed in shot. The blu-ray is different...the first shot has been zoomed in, cropping about 30% of the picture (left, right, and bottom) to better match the second shot.

 

[Kevin EK]

I'll take your word for it regarding the zooming. I didn't notice the difference when checking that sequence. But I'm not an expert on this film, and it's something I wouldn't have been looking for. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[Nelson Au]

Thats an interesting find, I'll check to see if the earlier DVD version is zoomed or not.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by Kevin EK /t/324286/universal-classic-monsters-the-essential-collection-blu-ray-review-recommended/90#post_3995209
I'll take your word for it regarding the zooming. I didn't notice the difference when checking that sequence. But I'm not an expert on this film, and it's something I wouldn't have been looking for. Thanks for pointing it out.

Nobody else did either and it doesn't take away my enjoyment of this release.







Crawdaddy

 

It doesn't take away from my enjoyment either. I was just letting you guys know.














Source:http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/46058/BRIDE-OF-FRANKENSTEIN-on-Blu-Ray-1935

 

[Johnny Angell]

It does beg the question: why would they decide to briefly re-direct the movie? The original framing looks fine to me. This isn't something that happened due to carelessness, someone had to decide to crop the movie.