Fay Wray Collection

Starring:Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Melvyn Douglas, Maude Eburne, George E. Stone, Dwight Frye, Robert Frazer, Rita Carlyle, Lionel Belmore, William V. Mong, Stella Adams, Harrison Greene, William Humphrey, Paul Weigel, Fern Emmett, Carl Stockdale, Joel McCrea, Leslie Banks, Robert Armstrong
Director: Frank R. Strayer, Ernest B. Schoedsack, Irving Pichel
Studio: Sling Shot
Product Type: DVD

Hollywood's Legends of Horror Collection (Doctor X / The Return of Doctor X / Mad Love / The Devil Doll / Mark of the Vampire / The Mask of Fu Manchu)

Average customer rating:

Pre-Hays Code Wildness, Camp and Hilarity!
Good collection of horror films at a great price
My kind of Entertainment...
Exciting Collection
THE DREAM TEAM FOR NIGHTMARES

Hollywood's Legends of Horror Collection (Doctor X / The Return of Doctor X / Mad Love / The Devil Doll / Mark of the Vampire / The Mask of Fu Manchu)
Starring: Lionel Atwill , Fay Wray , Lee Tracy , Preston Foster , and John Wray
Director: Michael Curtiz , Vincent Sherman , and Karl Freund
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000GRUQJW
Release Date: 2006-10-10

Amazon.com

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

Description

Doctor X/The Return of Dr. X Mark of the Vampire/The Mask of Fu Manchu Mad Love/The Devil Doll

Customer Reviews:

Pre-Hays Code Wildness, Camp and Hilarity!.......2007-06-27

These films are such gems, each of them, and the restored prints are so beautiful, that this collection should not be missed whether you are a seasoned archivist or just discovering the Universal Horror Canon. The bonus features are sparse, comprising mostly commentary tracks from film historians and critics (although one,The Return of Dr. X, which stars a very creepy Humphrey Bogart, has commentary that includes the 100-year-old director!) and sometimes the theatrical trailer. But The Mask of Fu Manchu alone is worth thet price of the set for the chance to see, uncut, its pre-code craziness, high camp and very overt erotic and sadomasochistic overtones!
Barrymore, Atwill, Karloff, Lugosi, Lorre, Myrna Loy, Fay Wray... the list goes on. Whatever they're asking for this delightful box set, it's a pittance. It doesn't get much better than this.The Boris Karloff Collection (Tower of London / The Black Castle / The Climax / The Strange Door / Night Key)The Bela Lugosi Collection (Murders in the Rue Morgue / The Black Cat / The Raven / The Invisible Ray / Black Friday)

Good collection of horror films at a great price.......2007-06-13

Rather than just focusing on a few horror franchises and milking them for all they were worth with five or six B quality sequels apiece as Universal did with Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy, and the Invisible Man, in the 30's and 40's Warner and MGM would usually take just one good idea and make just one good horror movie. This is a collection of six of Warner and MGM's better excursions into the horror genre during that era.

Everyone else has gone into the plots of these movies in detail, so I will not do the same. Let me point out, though, that "Return of Doctor X" is not really a sequel to "Doctor X" at all. The two stand alone. The only thing they have in common is the theme of a wise-cracking reporter on the trail of what turns out to be a mad doctor. As far as transfer quality, "Mad Love" has noticeable artifacts in the video, at least through the first half of the movie. It's nothing too distracting, though. With "Doctor X" you have to get used to the peculiarities of two-strip technicolor which includes occasional green skies and also green skin tones when people are shown in the dark. The rest of the films look quite good, and the audio quality is very good on all of the films. The extras that come with the films are as follows:

Special Features for Mark of the Vampire:
Commentary by genre historians Kim Newman and Steve Jones
Theatrical trailer

Special Features for The Mask of Fu Manchu:
Commentary by Greg Mank, author of Karloff and Lugosi: A Story of a Haunting Collaboration

Special Features for Doctor X:
Commentary by horror scholar Tom Weaver
Theatrical trailer

Special Features for The Return of Doctor X:
Commentary by director Vincent Sherman and Chronicles of Terror author Steve Haberman
Theatrical trailer

Special Features for Mad Love:
Commentary by Steve Haberman, author of Chronicles of Terror
Theatrical trailer

Special Features for The Devil Doll:
Theatrical trailer

Although not really a complaint, the packaging of this set somewhat surprised me. In particular, each DVD comes in a slim case rather than the thicker and sturdier keep case in which most of the DVDs in Warner DVD sets are packaged. At any rate, the set is a great deal for the money and I highly recommend it.

My kind of Entertainment..........2007-02-05

I won't go into the plots of all of these fine films, but will say that I bought it because of "Devil Doll". Those special effects are amazing. None of the films could be considered "Horror", though they all involve some terrific mystery plots. I was especially impressed with "Mad Love", and Peter Lorre was a very underrated actor. (See "The Beast with 5 Fingers" to verify this.) Early experiments with color also enhanced "Doctor X". This is, indeed, an excellent mystery collection, and any aficianado of the genre should have this in their collection.

Exciting Collection.......2007-01-05

An exciting collection of horror films. "Vampire" and "Mad Love" are works of art, "Fu Manchu" and "Doctor X" are stylish and sadistic, and "Return" and "Devil Doll" are campy but still artistic. Educational and entertaining. Highly recommended.

THE DREAM TEAM FOR NIGHTMARES.......2006-12-07

This set has nice clean video, and of course you can't lose with the actors and titles. One of the most interesting to watch is MAD LOVE which was Peter Lorre's US film debut. The devotee of the old Universal Horror movies will see certain scene similarities to The Phantom of the Opera, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Mummy, and Dracula in Mad Love, and the commentary track picks up on some (not all) of this. Interesting when you consider this is an MGM work. The only downside to this set, and it is a minor point, is the commentary track for Mark of the Vampire, where two obnoxious brits talk over each other saying little of worth. (I've noticed that on DVD commentary tracks when you put brits together, they continually talk over eachother, and it's hard to understand what they're saying. Perhaps that's why we won the Revolutionary War).
Anyway, if you love old horror movies, if you remember Famous Monsters of Filmland, if you want to see the US film debut of the man who said "You deespize me Reek, don't you?" in Casablanca--buy this set.

The Most Dangerous Game - Criterion Collection

Average customer rating:

The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
Great Early Adventure/Action Film
Buy The Alpha
Not bad.
a product of an era much like our own

The Most Dangerous Game - Criterion Collection
Starring: Joel McCrea , Fay Wray , Leslie Banks , Robert Armstrong , and Noble Johnson
Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack , and Irving Pichel
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 0780022114
Release Date: 2001-04-03

Amazon.com

The Most Dangerous Game is a classic, one of the first talkies to get pictures moving after five very static years following the birth of sound. The plot finds resourceful hero Joel McCrea and heroine Fay Wray being hunted on the island of the insane Zaroff (Leslie Banks). One of the grandfathers of the summer blockbuster, the film's setup has been reworked many times since, notably in John Woo's Hard Target (1993). By modern standards it's technically primitive, though still gripping stuff, complete with the jungle set built as a test run for King Kong (1933) and graced by Max Steiner's prototype of all Hollywood action scores. --Gary S. Dalkin

Description

"One of the best and most literate movies from the great days of horror," The Most Dangerous Game stars Leslie Banks as a big game hunter with a taste for the world's most exotic prey-his houseguests, played by Fay Wray and Joel McCrea. Before making history with 1933's King Kong, filmmakers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack wowed audiences with their chilling adaptation of this Richard Connell short story. Criterion is proud to present the DVD premiere of The Most Dangerous Game in a new digital transfer.

Customer Reviews:

The Most Dangerous Game (1932).......2007-06-21

Made by RKO during Willis O'Brien's simultaneous production of "King Kong," and utilizing much of the same cast, crew, and sets, this thrilling adaptation of Richard S. Connell's short story about a man who waylays seafarers and then hunts them for sport wowed audiences in 1932. McCrea, playing a professional hunter journeying to Brazil when his ship strikes a reef, is suitably rugged, especially in a breathtaking, cliff-edge fight with one of the Count's vicious hounds. But Wray's woman-in-distress (honing her scream for "Kong," no doubt!) and Banks's slightly campy yet menacing count really drive the picture. Fabulous sets, cogent direction, and a diabolical concept all make this "Game" a visceral pleasure. Imitated many times, but never with as much vigor.

Great Early Adventure/Action Film.......2007-03-20

As a fan of the great 1933 classic King Kong, I bought this DVD mainly out of curiosity, as the jungle sets built for it were used several months later in King Kong. The film is fairly predictable, but the hunt/chase sequence is truly nerve-rattling and well worth the price of admission. The scenes of Fay Wray (this time a brunette) running terrified through foggy jungle foliage anticipates her later work in Kong; indeed, sometimes it's hard to tell the difference!

However, Robert Armstrong (as Wray's brother) is completely wasted in this film (literally and cinematically, as you'll see). He's a rather foppish drunk throughout, and his character hardly resembles that in the later Kong. Wray's patented scream is well in evidence though, and I can see why the producers brought her in for Kong. Leslie Banks, as the sinister Zaroff, is a tad formulaic, especially when he's seen stroking his old head wound constantly, and his ultimate demise could have been better thought out.

There are no dinosaurs on this Skull Island, but a dozen or so large, vicious hunting dogs fill the bill adequately, particularly during the foggy chase scenes. The film's rear-projection work is cleverly done and very effective.

Joel McCrea's character is good, but the violent loss of the boat's entire crew in the beginning seems to have had little effect on him. As a big-game hunter, toward the end he reflects on what it's like to be frightened and hunted himself.

Overall, a very entertaining movie.

Buy The Alpha.......2007-03-14

I have both the criterion DVD and the Alpha, and I prefer the Alpha. The image and the sound are excellent. It's probably the best Alpha DVD ever made. Don't waste your money for the criterion if you are not an hardcore fan of this film. The differences between the Alpha and the criterion are :
1. no audio commentary in the Alpha. If, like me, you don't listen audio commentaries, it's not a problem.
2. NO LOGOS at the beginning of the film. At the beginning of the criterion version there's THREE LOGOS folks !! First the logo of criterion, second the logo of Janus films, third the classic RKO logo. Unfortunately the RKO logo is not in the Alpha. But the other two logos are too moderns for a film of this age.
3. No english subtitles in the Alpha. I'm french and like to watch movies at least with english subtitles, if there's not french subtitles. I don't lose very much because the sound is very clear and there's not too much dialogues.

So that's all ! Buy the Alpha !

Not bad........2007-02-28

The Most Dangerous Game (Irving Pichel, 1932)

I have an admission to make that's pretty embarrassing for a self-professed film snob-- I'm a big, big fan of Ernest Dickerson's star-studded 1994 flop Surviving the Game, the most recent (that I know of) adaptation of Richard Connell's infamous short story "The Most Dangerous Game." And I tend to compare all the other adaptations to it, and find they all fail. This one's no exception, though it's certainly better than most.

The 1932 film version The Most Dangerous Game will probably end up an historical footnote; much of the crew behind this movie-- co-director Ernest B. Schoedsack, screenwriter James Creelman, producers Merian C. Cooper and David O. Selznick, composer Max Steiner, and roughly half the cast-- would get together again the next year to film the classic King Kong. Kong, of course, is one of the much-beloved classics of the cinema, while The Most Dangerous Game languished in obscurity for decades. The reason? Well, there's not much to it.

In this adaptation, a yacht encounters a nasty storm, and ends up sunk near an island owned by eccentric Count Zaroff (Leslie Banks). Zaroff is a big-game hunter, as is one of the wreck's survivors, Bob Rainsford (These Three's Joel McCrea), and Zaroff promises Rainsford excellent hunting in the morning. Rainsford knows something suspicious is up, as does Eve Trowbridge (Fay Wray), a survivor from a wreck a few days before who's still at the mansion. They just can't figure out what until they're caught in it...

Much of the problem with The Most Dangerous Game is that Creelman took what is at its heart an action story and tried to make a suspense movie out of it. The first half of this surprisingly short (sixty-three minutes) film is spent in drawing rooms talking, rather than focusing on the action, as the story does. Now, this sort of thing has been done very well many times, of course, but not here. First, because there's just not a great deal of suspense built up, but second (and more important) because the source material is so well-known that the audience already knows what's coming. It probably doesn't help that Pichel was a first-time director; even with Schoedsack's input (Schoedsack was responsible for four films previous to this, with the most famous being 1929's The Four Feathers), there are still pacing and camerawork issues that mark this as a first film. And for a first film, it's a very good one, especially once the hunt begins. As an enduring classic of the silver screen, however, it seems a bit lacking. ***

a product of an era much like our own.......2007-01-18

Previously considered a dress rehearsal for Cooper and Schoedsack's history-making King Kong (released the following year) or, truth be told, not at all (it was a lost film until prints were discovered in the 1970s), The Most Dangerous Game has undergone a critical makeover of sorts in recent years. It's not hard to see why. Adapted from Richard Connell's acclaimed short story of the same name, Game is deeply a product of an era echoed by our own - a people still coming to grips with the assembly-line slaughter of the first world war while standing on the precipice of a second.

Celebrity big game hunter Bob Rainsford (Joel McCrea) is on his way to yet another safari - we meet on him on the deck of a yacht, regaling those around him with his intrinsically Darwinian philosophy of life: "The world is divided into two kinds of people in life, the hunter and the hunted." Ah, but how easily one becomes the other when the yacht is shipwrecked off the shore of a nearby island and the passengers are eaten by sharks. Rainsford luckily is able to swim to shore, but it is here where the story really begins as he becomes the target of a maniacal "Cossack" Count Zaroff (Leslie Banks, his own face scarred by war, here exaggerated with makeup), bored with traditional hunting but consumed by a different kind of "game."

The double meaning of the title (Game refers both to the pastime and the prey, this being man) becomes quite clear in the film's artfully directed climactic chase sequence when tables are turned once more. The villain Zaroff is an artifact of an older, dying world of brick castles, dungeons, and crossbows. Gentlemen hunt each other (read: war) out of boredom and call it sport, initiated after brandy and cigars in the study.

Alas, even for an aristocrat like Zaroff, there's no chivalry to be had in death - is it no accident that the Cossack, with his affinity for rustic weaponry, ultimately sees his henchman done in with a pistol. As he himself lay dying, Zaroff can only watch helplessly from his little island as Rainsford and love interest (Fay Wray) jet off in a gas-powered motorboat. It's a direct affront to the villain's spoken axiom that lust for flesh is best fulfilled after lust for blood, and indeed, one of the earliest cinematic expressions of "Make Love, Not War." While only preceding King Kong (and its overt anti-hunting themes) by a few months, it predates (in its own charmingly unsuspecting way) the 1960s hippie movement by a good thirty years.

Interesting footnote: If you think Zaroff's isolated stretch of land looks an awful like Skull Island, you wouldn't be wrong. Both Game and Cooper and Schoedsack's follow-up, King Kong, were shot using the same sets at the very same time - Game was photographed at night while Kong was filmed during the day. The Most Dangerous Game was later remade by Robert Wise as 1945's A Game of Death. Emphasizing the war parallels, "Count Zaroff" the Cossack was converted into "Erich Kreiger" the Nazi.

The Lost Films of Laurel & Hardy: The Complete Collection, Vol. 4

Average customer rating:

STUNNING!
Solid compilation
Some solid laughs from the end of the silent era
gems....
Lost Films of Laurel & Hardy 4

The Lost Films of Laurel & Hardy: The Complete Collection, Vol. 4
Starring: Sammy Brooks , Kathleen Collins , Clyde Cook , William Gillespie , and Helen Gilmore
Director: James Parrott , and Jess Robbins
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00003ETPD
Release Date: 2000-01-04

Description

Mastered from the original 35mm material, this fourth volume of lost films from the great comedy team of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy includes: "They Go Boom!" (1929, 20 min.), "Their Purple Moment" (1928, 21 min., silent), "Bacon Grabbers" (1929, 20 min., silent), "Unaccustomed As We Are" (1929, 18 min.) in an alternate silent version of their first sound short, the Clyde Cook/Oliver Hardy short "Should Sailors Marry?" (1925, 22 min., silent), plus the Charley Chase short "On the Wrong Trek" (1936, 19 min.) featuring a cameo by Laurel & Hardy.

Customer Reviews:

STUNNING!.......2005-03-16

I will not go into a synopsis of the material as that is readily available but will comment on the series itself having viewed them all.

This is a stunning collection of the early work of the `boys` and is presented from restored 35mm material much of which is taken from the original surviving negatives. Several of the titles in the series, have until fairly recently, been considered lost forever.

Each disc has detailed information on the titles and every film is presented with either the original vitaphone sound on disc (again recently discovered) synchronised with the picture or with a composite vitaphone soundtrack.

Even for those who don`t normally view `silent` movies these are astounding prints of what is now the historic formation of one the most inventive and forever lasting comedy teams ever to grace the silver screen.

Each disc deserves five stars for content, quality and value.

Solid compilation.......2005-02-14

I wish the films in this series had been put out in chronological order on the discs instead of having shorts from different years rammed together, but even for being assembled in a less than ideal fashion, this is fine material. The package also contains information about and synopses of the films presented, including information about films which were on the verge of decomposition or, like some of the films on this volume, which hadn't been heard with the proper soundtracks in decades.

Apparently a number of people dislike 'They Go Boom!,' but I love this short. That might be because it's been years since I've had the opportunity to see any of their sound shorts which are new to me, since AMC no longer shows them and I've been making do of a tape with five of their sound shorts on it for too many years now (when are we American fans going to get real DVD treatment of all of their sound shorts like the Brits have?!); still, I find this short hilarious. They often recycled elements of past shorts and movies; in this movie I recognised one of the gags in the later 'Busy Bodies,' the nail in the wall going right into a waterpipe, with predictable results. Elements of 'Bacon Grabbers' (another great short presented here) also resurface in 'The Music Box.' The other strongest work on here comes from 'Their Purple Moment' and 'On the Wrong Trek'; I love the L&H cameo appearance in the latter Charley Chase short!

'Should Sailors Marry?' is enjoyable and funny, but overall doesn't seem quite as strong as the rest of the shorts, and really only seems to have been included because Oliver Hardy appears as a doctor, a bit more than halfway through the piece. 'Unaccustomed As We Are' is funny, but should have stayed a talkie. This picture does not work as a silent film. At all. There are some bits of it that are great silent comedy, but they're cancelled out by the most intertitles in any L&H short. The humour in this piece derived from a combination of speech and slapstick, but there are just WAY too many intertitles explaining what's going on and what's being said to get as much humour out of it as there is in the original talking version. It's in the same vein as how some late silent pictures were later rereleased with sound dubbed onto them--it took away from how the story was being conveyed, and clearly UAWA was specifically built to be a sound comedy, not a silent comedy.

Some solid laughs from the end of the silent era.......2004-10-12

This collection, featuring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, as well as other stars from the Hal Roach Studio, will be an essential addition to loyal fans of the comic duo, who will be easily convinced to buy this, as well as the other volumes in the series. For those with a broader interest in silent screen comedy, but who are not necessarily die-hard L&H fans, this collection is as good a representation of the best of the duo's silent and early sound output as any others in the series, but no better.

L&H may not have been the first silent comic team, but they were the first to illustrate the potential of two funny men who became funnier as the result of the ability to play off the personality of the other. However, "They Go Boom", which starts the volume, is a very weak early sound film, offering mostly crude physical humor based on accidentally inflicted pain and discomfort, combined with a weak dialogue. "Their Purple Moment", a silent from 1928, offers a stark contrast, and is the best of this volume. It is light, energetic, perfectly paced, and full of refined visual humor about two husbands trying to escape the wives and paint the town. In general, the best of their silent films, including this one, seem to be those with future great directors Leo McCarey and George Stevens (as photographer) in the credits. McCarey and Stevens also supervised "Bacon Grabbers", one of their last silent films. This one also has a number of clever scenes, as in the opening. They play "repo agents" and they've received their assignment. The difficulty they have just leaving their office with the papers to serve in their hands and their hats on their heads aptly illustrates the extent of their comic grace.

The other L&H film in this volume includes "Unaccustomed As We Are", a silent version of their first talkie; it is, however, too overloaded with dialogue titles to make a good silent film. The other two selections, starring Clyde Cook in one and Charlie Chase in the other, are forgettable.

gems...........2004-07-23

The lost films of laurel and hardy collection are my proudest possessions as far as dvds go,,,this is a must have for any fans laurel and hardy or fans of old time comedy,or silent films,these are just as good as their talkies,which is rare for that time period.........

Lost Films of Laurel & Hardy 4.......2002-07-04

This item has no spoken dialogue. Disappointed....

Great Adaptations - Criterion Collection (Great Expectations / Lord of the Flies / The Most Dangerous Game / Oliver Twist)

Average customer rating:

Great Adaptations - Criterion Collection (Great Expectations / Lord of the Flies / The Most Dangerous Game / Oliver Twist)
Starring: Joel McCrea , Fay Wray , Leslie Banks , Robert Armstrong , and Noble Johnson
Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack , Irving Pichel , and David Lean
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B0002JELNQ
Release Date: 2004-09-07

Description

Great Expectations: One of the great translations of literature into film, David Lean's, Great Expectations brings Charles Dickens' masterpiece to robust onscreen life. Pip, Magwitch, Miss Havisham, and Estella populate Lean's magnificent miniature, beautifully photographed by Guy Green and designed by John Bryan. Lord of the Flies: Lord of the Flies is famed theater director Peter Brook's daring translation of William Golding's brilliant novel. The story of 30 English schoolboys stranded on an uncharted island at the start of the "next" war, Lord of the Flies is a seminal film of the New American Cinema and a fascinating anti-Hollywood experiment in location filmmaking. As the cast relived Golding's frightening fable, Brook found the cinematic "evidence" of the author's terrifying thesis: there is a beast in us all. The Most Dangerous Game: "One of the best and most literate movies from the great days of horror," The Most Dangerous Game stars Leslie Banks as a big game hunter with a taste for the world's most exotic prey—his houseguests, played by Fay Wray and Joel McCrea. Before making history with 1933's King Kong, filmmakers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack wowed audiences with their chilling adaptation of this Richard Connell short story. Criterion is proud to present the DVD premiere of The Most Dangerous Game in a new digital transfer. Oliver Twist: Expressionistic noir photography suffuses David Lean's Oliver Twist with a nightmarish quality, fitting its bleak, industrial setting. In Dickens' classic tale, an orphan wends his way from cruel apprenticeship to den of thieves in search of a true home.

Average customer rating:

For what its worth...
Good movies, but substandard quality
Good Films. Nice Price. So What's The Catch ?
Substandard Materials Make for the Worst-Looking DVD Yet!
Fay Wray double feature on DVD

Fay Wray Collection
Starring: Lionel Atwill , Fay Wray , Melvyn Douglas , Maude Eburne , and George E. Stone
Director: Frank R. Strayer , Ernest B. Schoedsack , and Irving Pichel
Manufacturer: Sling Shot
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

Hollywood's Legends of Horror Collection (Doctor X / The Return of Doctor X / Mad Love / The Devil Doll / Mark of the Vampire / The Mask of Fu Manchu)

ASIN: B00003ETQ4
Release Date: 2000-06-27

Customer Reviews:

For what its worth..........2001-01-06

I actually think there is a lot to like about this collection of 2 Fay Wray classics, especially if you know what you are getting from the start. What you are getting are 2 films, mastered from some pretty tired source material, on one DVD. The digital mastering is rather "so so" for these films, with some only a few minor artifacts not eminating from the original film source (lines, pixlation, etc). With these techinical weaknesses in mind, I think most veiwers will find a lot to enjoy here.

I first saw "The Vampire Bat" when I was 9 years old on TV. It certainly made an impression on me. What starts out to be a creepy, standard vampire flick, actually turns into a diverting murder mystery. Fay Wray is naturally luminous and Melvyn Douglas is at his leading man sexiest. Sure, there are some formulaic elements to the film: the squeemish spinster, the vengeful townfolk, lots of talk about vampire and werewolf lore (and even a wasted appearance by Dwight Frye, who seems lost in his Renfield role from DRACULA 2 years before). All these formulaic elements add up to a great hour of entertainment. This particular print of the THE VAMPIRE BAT is weak, but certainly not awful.

THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME is an exciting predcesor to THE VAMPIRE BAT on this disc. A popular short story turned into movie, THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME is an intelligently written and wonderfully atmospheric film. Joel McRae is oh so macho as a man washed ashore from a sunken ship onto an island where he is not alone. An eecentric millionaire snare wayfaring travelers to his island, only to hunt them down for sport. This ghastly concept has not lost a bit of its punch. Fay Wray is actually given a role with some substance and plays it with lots of conviction. The beautfiul photography makes this a visual feast. Unfortunately, the print for this film has a very soft image almost throughout. This takes a little getting used to at first, but soon you are so caught up in the story, you forget.

If you are looking for pristine images of these films, this is not the disc for you. But considering the age of the films and the nominal price, you will not be disappointed. Criterion Collection has released THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME on one of their deluxe editions. For a little less you get an ok copy, plus the wonderful THE VAMPIRE BAT added on on this two-on-one DVD from Slingshot (a better value in my mind).

Good movies, but substandard quality.......2000-09-06

Both movies are a very good addition to any classic or horror movie collection. This disk, however, is not! The video transfer is supposedly "restored", but you would never know it. The Most Dangerous Game was watchable, but certain scenes were very washed out with lots of dirt and scratches. I had even worse success with The Vampire Bat. The movie started ok, but my DVD player actually had trouble reading the disk about mid-way through. It got so bad, that I had to stop watching the movie. If your main interest in this disk is, The Most Dangerous Game (by far the superior of the two films), then I suggest the Criterion release.

Good Films. Nice Price. So What's The Catch ?.......2000-07-25

Well, if there is a catch, it's the picture quality. Althoughthe DVD states that the films have been 'digitally remastered fromsources provided by National Film Museum', all that really proves is that the prints held by National Film Museum aren't that good. They picture quality is what you might charitably describe as 'mediocre' - not awful, not great, merely OK. The print for 'The Most Dangerous Game' is a bit grainy with slightly too much contrast and on-screen motion appears blurred instead of crisp. 'The Vampire Bat' is shown in a sort of greyish / light blue tint. As this is the first version I've seen, I can't say if it's supposed to be like this. What I do know is that my Leonard Maltin Movie Guide bills 'The Vampire Bat' as lasting 71 minutes with the warning 'beware of shorter prints'. Guess what folks? This version only lasts 61 minutes...so I assume this is one of the shorter prints Leonard Maltin refers to.

So why have I given the DVD three stars? Well, despite the shortcomings and a lack of special features, this is still over two hours worth of the wonderful Fay Wray. Both films provide cracking entertainment - especially 'The Most Dangerous Game' - at a fairly reasonable price. The sound quality is fine and like I say, the picture quality is not completely terrible.

Finally, in case you didn't already know, 'The Most Dangerous Game' is also available on the 'Criterion' range of DVDs. For a few dollars more you'll find a much better print of the film and their DVD also features a movie commentary. So, if you're only interested in 'The Most Dangerous Game', I strongly recommend you check out the Criterion DVD instead.

Substandard Materials Make for the Worst-Looking DVD Yet!.......2000-07-08

These two golden age horror films are done a gross disservice by E-Biz's DVD pressing. Ostensibly struck from 35mm original elements from The National Museum (whoever they are!), what we are given in reality is a scratchy, overly-bright and, most unforgiveably, OUT OF FOCUS, copy of "Most Dangerous Game"! My public domain Beta copy from 15 years ago looks better than this! The soundtrack is equally poor, filled with loud hiss. "The Vampire Bat" fares slightly better; this copy looks no worse than the old pd-videotape copies. At least it's in focus throughout. But this print is NOT complete. My old tape copy runs almost three-minutes longer. My advice is to avoid this disc. "Game" is also available on Criterion, so that's the one to buy. This is "Bat's" DVD debut, so stick with any of the numerous acceptable tape copies until somebody gets it right on DVD.

Fay Wray double feature on DVD.......2000-07-04

If you like Fay Wray then you will like these. The 1st film "Most dangerous game" is not bad. A madman hunts people down like animals on his Island and Fay Wray becomes one of the hunted. The only bad thing is that the picture quality is not the best but probobly due to the orig print. Also, the madman (hunter) character is a little campy. The 2nd movie i actually enjoyed more. The story is not as strong but the actors are good. The Vampire Bat!! This movie is complete with decent atmosphere and the townsfolk running scared of so called Vampires or something. It turns out its Lionel Atwill playing a mad doctor taking the blood of the people for his experiments. Fay Wray is in typical good form as always. The picture quality is clearer in this movie but it has some junk in the picture but that was expected since these are 1930's films. Enjoy!

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