Universal Cult Horrors Collection 10/15/2009 - Page 2

Out of the 5 titles included in this rumored set, I had 4 and, after reading this announcement just now, I initiated "proceedings" to get the one I was missing - THE MAD GHOUL (1943) - and it should be here in a matter of hours. 

In any case, I was already planning to watch THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. RX (1942) and HOUSE OF HORRORS (1946; which I just got last week in the same fashion I inferred above) for the upcoming Halloween marathon and, thankfully, these will now be joined by THE MAD GHOUL, too.

There was a time, a couple of years back, when I would have jumped on such a collection likes flies on shit but, perhaps sensibly, I've cut down on my reckless DVD purchasing habit and transferred that "fix" to another format!  

The same applies to the new Warners "Karloff & Lugosi" set: I 've had all 4 movies therein for a few years now and, although I will miss the 2 Audio Commetaries, it's also true that I haven't listened to one in years! 
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by ahollis 

I still have the Island of Lost Souls LD and it was and is still one bad transfer.  I would guess that a lot of work is needed on the print.  I also would surmise that the original negative does not exist.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Larry Sutliff 

From what I've read, the film elements are in really sad shape.
 

This is how Glenn Erickson explained the situation of the pre-1948 Paramount sound films in his review of The Marx Bros. Silver Screen Collection:

"The story I was told, by a frustrated Universal film transfer producer, is that Paramount simply hired an outside company to make new duplicate negatives for all the features to go to Universal. For each nitrate title in their library, a couple of new printing negatives were made in a process not far removed from a "one setting fits all" assembly line. The sources for the new safety negatives weren't carefully chosen.
 

In most cases these cheap dupes are all that has survived. All the printing materials that might have existed, including alternate versions, odds and ends and copies that might be in better condition, were destroyed in a massive house-cleaning, recycled for the cellulose nitrate or just dumped.
 

For the average Paramount picture, attempts at restoration can be stymied when the only existing dupe negative has flaws, or is just too dark, or the audio sounds distorted or dupey. And there's nothing else. Hard digital work can pep these materials up for video presentations, but an awful lot of these films just can't be reconstructed for decent theatrical showings."

So unless there is a nitrate print sitting on a shelf in some archive, IoLS may never look as good as it did originally.

I'm glad I recorded it off of AMC back in the early '90s, and transferred it to DVD-R last year.  I even managed to catch the trailer before the film. 

It's disheartening to think that, barring the discovery of better elements, what we got back in the '80s may be it for this film.

Do all of the arguments regarding lost elements and whatnot for ISLAND OF LOST SOULS also apply to THE UNINVITED, the other of the most of-requested classic Universal horrors?

If those two could be released, plus CAT AND THE CANARY (1939, Bob Hope) and FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO, I would personally consider my Universal classics collection complete.

So close, yet so far away....