CLASSIC MONSTERS spotlight vol.2 (dvd) *NEW* and 12 similar items

Brand new factory sealed set of 4 classic Universal monster movies, all are in B W except for 'Phantom' which is in color. This set is Out Of Print and no longer being manufactured. MUMMY: Cinematographer Karl Freund, who had worked on 'Metropolis' in Germany, made his directorial debut with this moody horror classic. Boris Karloff stars as Im-Ho-Tep, the 3,700-year-old priest buried alive for stealing a sacred scroll. A young archeologist (Bramwell Fletcher), unable to resist peeking into the newly unearthed mummy case he has been warned not to open, reads aloud from a parchment without realizing he is intoning an incantation for raising the dead. A single baleful eye flickers open, the hands stir, one of them seizes the fateful parchment, and a wisp of grave-soiled bandage (all we are shown of the shuffling mummy) slowly disappears through the doorway, leaving the terrified young man gibbering with insane laughter. He emerges from his mummy wrap and, disguised as Ardeth Bay (still played by Karloff), a "modern" Egyptian, he stalks Cairo for the English girl (Zita Johnson) he believes to be a reincarnation of the princess for whom he died. Some of the best scenes are flashbacks shown in his pool of remembrance. The statue of Isis also plays an important role. WOLF MAN: Lon Chaney Jr. stars as Lawrence Talbot, the good-natured son of a Welsh landowner who returns to his family castle after 18 years in America, upon the death of his brother. (A quick view of a family portrait indicates they may have been twins.) While helping his father, Sir John (Claude Rains), to install a telescope in the castle's observatory, Larry glimpses Gwen Conliffe (Evelyn Ankers) dressing for work and he likes what he sees. He visits her at her father's gift shop, where he buys a walking stick with a silver handle in the likeness of a wolf's head and pentagram, inviting the first of several recitations of screenwriter Curt Siodmack's most memorable verse: "Even a man who is pure in heart / and says his prayers by night / May become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms / And the autumn moon is bright." While escorting Gwen to a gypsy fair, Larry discovers her friend Jenny (Fay Helm) being attacked by a wolf, and is bitten by the creature before clubbing it to death with his cane. He later learns, through the wisdom of the old gypsy woman Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya who was actually in her fifties), that he was actually bitten by a werewolf--in fact her son Bela (Bela Lugosi)--and will now become a werewolf himself. INVISIBLE MAN: Out of the thick of a blizzard comes a stranger, his face swathed in bandages, his eyes hidden under blacked out goggles. This is scientist Dr. Jack Griffin (Claude Rains). Taking a room at the Lion's Head Inn, he gruffly demands that he be left alone. But the mysterious guest piques the inquisitive nature of the locals, whose persistent prying culminates in Griffin tearing off the gauze to reveal... nothing! The man beneath is completely invisible! His condition the result of a drug experiment gone awry, the now half-crazed Griffin goes on the rampage, an unseen force hell-bent on destruction. He becomes a scourge of the countryside, playing games with the police as he indulges in bank robbery for the sheer fun of it. John P. Fulton's invisibilty effects have, deservedly, been widely praised. PHANTOM of the OPERA (color): Shy, middle-aged violinist Enrique Claudin (Claude Rains) harbours a secret love for the Paris Opera's newest vocal discovery, Christine DuBois (Susanna Foster), but finds his dreams torn asunder when he loses his job and, in a fit of rage, murders a devious music publisher and receives a face-full of acid for his trouble. The scarred Enrique retires below the opera house, where he observes Christine's progress and the amorous advances of both dashing singer Anatole Garron (Nelson Eddy) and police inspector Raoul de Chagny (Edgar Barrier). Enrique becomes the dreaded phantom, who lurks in the shadows and uses his craftiness to dispose of those who stand in the way of Christine's happiness. Ultimately he whisks the young diva down to his lair, where she discovers the horrifying truth about her benefactor. The chandelier cutting is a particular highlight, Rain's excellant performance, lavish sets and Technicolor photography are some of the best ever captured on film.