Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were one of the great comedy duos, and their career across stage, radio, and screen was a series of highs and lows.
One of their most successful collaborations was a franchise of crossover films with the Universal monsters. The film was followed by four "sequels" of varying quality, and now most of them are new to 4K UHD, thanks to KL Studio Classics.
Their first encounter with Universal's cadre of legendary monsters remains their best as Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. The pair play baggage clerks whose peculiar combination of carelessness, curiosity, and bad luck see them warned about delivering certain large crates by a Mr. Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.). Talbot's concerns are well-founded as Dracula (Bela Lugosi) is tucked away inside one while Frankenstein's monster rests within the second.
A mad scientist -- as if there are any other kind -- has plans to help Dracula make a smarter monster, and our hapless heroes are the only ones capable of stopping it. To be clear, they'd much rather run away, but they just can't help fumbling their way into the villains' lair, leading to hilarity and calamity alike.
There's a reason this movie lands atop many lists of the best horror/comedies -- it's very funny. Sure, it's never actually scary, but the presence of legit Universal monsters played by their legendary originators goes a long way in the horror bona fides department. It's just a lot of fun as Abbott and Costello bumble and bounce their way off our otherwise serious monsters.
Lugosi, Chaney Jr. and Glenn Strange (as the monster) all play their roles just as they did in Universal's more serious horror efforts, and that contrast adds to the fun of our lovable bozos trying to deal with them. The film ends on a sequel tease with our boys in a boat and surprised to hear the Invisible Man is there too. He's voiced by Vincent Price here, who unfortunately didn't return to the role for the actual follow-up film.
Kino's new 4K UHD looks incredible, offering up a sharp, detailed black & white picture that's crisp and vibrant. The extras are relegated to commentary tracks, but we get three new ones from a mix of film historians and critics. Their combined viewpoints offer up lots of insight into the production and the duo's history.
Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man was their third Universal monster adventure -- the second, Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff isn't part of Kino's releases -- and the sixth (and final) of Universal's original Invisible Man movie run. While the absence of Price is a let-down, the movie itself still finds some laughs with its tale of gangsters, formulas, and shenanigans.
This time around our heroes are newly-minted private eyes looking for a big case to crack. A boxer on the run from the law comes to them for help, but things grow complicated when he injects himself with an invisibility serum to help avoid the police. Unfortunately for him, the serum has a side effect of driving its users mad. Mad!
Again, this is a fun enough time, but it's lacking the expected horror atmosphere. Sinister, gothic vibes are replaced with some pedantic criminal antics, and while Abbott and Costello find the funny throughout, it never feels like a Universal monster crossover. Still, it's not a dealbreaker, as the movie is a good time.
Kino's new 4K UHD delivers another terrific transfer with a smart, sharp black & white image. The extras include two informative commentary tracks from journalists and historians.
Next up is Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and it's another fun time at the intersection between comedy and horror. The boys are American cops working the streets of London, because why not, who find themselves on the trail of a murderer. Could it be the mad scientist -- again, redundant, I know -- who's obsessed with a young woman and prone to shooting up with an unstable serum? Yup.
Abbott and Costello aren't the best cops, shockingly, but they know they're bound to be praised if they bring in the killer. Seems easy enough, but things get scary when they realize the murderer is a monster. Chases, misunderstandings, word play, and general goofiness ensue until a final confrontation. The action is upped a bit here, adding to the entertainment, and it ends on a fun final note.
By this point, you should know what to expect with Kino's new disc -- a sharp new transfer and two fact-filled commentaries.
Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy is both the duo's final Universal monsters film (and final Universal film, period) and the franchise's weakest entry. The pair play a couple stragglers waiting to get out of Cairo who get caught up in a conspiracy involving a recently discovered tomb and the mummy within. There's also a treasure, of course, that complicates things with authorities, thieves, and mummy cult enthusiasts alike.
The duo manage a handful of laughs here, but the mummy element is given the shaft throughout. Its appearances are limited, the wrap looks like pajamas, and the makeup itself underwhelms. The end result is a horror/comedy where both halves land with a whimper.
That said, and you're probably expecting this, Kino's new 4K UHD is another winning release with a strong new transfer and two engaging commentary tracks.
Around the same time that the American comedians first started meeting Universal monsters, a British studio known for making comedies released a horror anthology that's still beloved eight decades later. Dead of Night collects five tales of the supernatural, and you'd be a dummy to discount it because of its age.
Walter is an architect called out to a country home by a man named Elliot, but what was meant as a relaxing afternoon instead takes an eerie turn when Walter realizes he's dreamed about Elliot and his other house guests. The conversation turns to their individual encounters with the weird and the supernatural, and five stories come to life.
Each of the five tales highlight an unexplained event from a guest's life, and each is argued by the resident psychologist as coincidence, delusion, or some other rational excuse. The first sees a man forewarned about a disaster, and the second involves a girl's encounter with a ghost. Both are slight entertainments, but the third raises the pulse with its story of a haunted mirror driving its owner to a possessed act of attempted murder. The fourth, a tale of two golfers in love with the same woman, finds an interesting angle on a ghostly presence.
It's the fifth story that secures Dead of Night its place in genre history, though. Michael Redgrave plays a ventriloquist who's a bit too close with his dummy, to the point that being apart drives him to murder. The dummy antics are suitably creepy, but it's Redgrave's stark performance that takes hold of the viewer -- is he mad, or his dummy actually alive somehow? It's a spooky gem and a fine lead-in to the film's fun capper.
Kino's new 4K release showcases a sharp new scan of the black & white negative, capturing detail and shadow. The extras include a commentary by the always reliable Tim Lucas and a feature-length documentary called "Remembering Dead of Night" [1:15:36] that features several genre/film history experts talking about the movie's creation and legacy.
1970's Scars of Night may not be top tier among Christopher Lee's reign as Dracula, but it's a fun enough time for fans of Christopher Lee and the franchise as a whole.
Dracula is dead, long live Dracula. A large bat vomits onto the vampire's corpse, and soon he's restored to life as an undead rogue in desperate need of blood. News of his resurrection reaches the nearby village, but as the men head out to burn down the castle, those pesky bats proceed to slaughter the women and children in the church where they're hiding. Soon, two brothers and the woman they love will be drawn into the count's unfolding nightmare of blood and lust.
Baker, a genuine horror talent with an impressively entertaining resume, can't quite keep the energy of that opening throughout the rest of the film. Part of the problem is how excessively chatty Dracula is this time around, and the film's brother protagonists are fairly dull, but the overuse of the goofy-looking bats is arguably a straw too many. Still, it's bloody, and the shot of Dracula scaling the castle wall is undeniably cool.
The film is a colorful delight, though, and Kino's new 4K scan (along with the addition of HDR and Dolby Vision) result in a glorious picture that pops. Extras include two commentaries, one by Tim Lucas that delivers plenty of details on the film's production, and an older one featuring Baker, Lee, and Hammer Films historian Marcus Hearn. The track is a good one for fans of these genre titans and general anecdotes. Finally, "Blood Rites: Inside Scars of Dracula" [18:04] offers up a brief look at Hammer's condition as they went into production on the film.
The oldest film we're looking at today is a new 4K restoration of 1927's The Cat and the Canary. It's the tale of a spooky old house, a bunch of greedy people, and something scary lurking in the shadows.
A family's patriarch, an insular and suspicious old man, has finally died. Relatives come from near and far in the hopes of landing an inheritance, but the dead man gives it all to the youngest among them -- with one stipulation. Young Annabelle must be judged sane by a doctor before the following morning, and that diagnosis is called into question when she starts claiming that a long-fingered madman is hiding in the walls. Is a monster about, or is a relative simply auditioning for a role on Scooby Doo?
The answer won't surprise you, but it should entertain genre fans, as many of the favorite tropes find a likely origin in Paul Leni's feature. The old, dark house combined with the horrors fueled by greed are staples now, and it's fun seeing them find life in the days of silent cinema. James Whale's The Old, Dark House would arrive just five years later.
The 1927 feature gets a new 4K restoration from its original nitrate prints. Kino's new release features two commentary tracks, one by film historian David Del Valle and silent film expert Randy Haberkamp, and the second by film historian Anthony Slide. Also included is a short film from director Paul Leni called "Rebus-Film No. 1" [15:25].