Classic Horror and Sci-Fi in the Video Age

[Memphremagog]

I think that probably everyone here of a certain age was privy to the classic films of the 1930's to 1970 on television through a creature feature show or maybe shown in the cinemas back in the day, however there seem to be many films that were not available to the public after their cinema or television airings for many decades. I know that there were a lot of classics that I had seen articles and pictures of in monster magazines and books devoted to the subject of horror/sci-fi cinema, but until the coming of the VCR, then DVD and now Blu-ray, I had not seen until this time.

Do you have memories of particular films that eluded you until seeing them on home video for the first time? What were they? 

[Memphremagog]

In my case, I had seen a lot of the classic Universals, but not all, some Hammers and a good deal of AIP stuff, however, there were some films  that just were not played on local tv around my area and I didnt see them until the video era.

Universal's that I missed:
The Old Dark House(1932)
Secret Of the Blue Room(1933)
Night Key(1937)
Son Of Frankenstein(1939)
Tower Of London(1939)
House Of Seven Gables(1940)
Horror Island(1941)
The Black Cat(1941)
Invisible Agent(1942)
Calling Dr.Death(1943)
Weird Woman(1944)
Pillow Of Death(1945)
Jungle Woman(1944)
Murder In the Blue Room(1944)
The Climax(1944)
Jungle Captive(1945)
The Spider Woman Strikes Back(1946)
The Cat Creeps(1946)
The Strange Door(1951)
The Black Castle(1952)
The Land Unknown(1957)
The Thing That Couldnt Die(1958)
Curse Of the Undead(1959)

As for the silent Universal's I managed to see both Hunchback Of Notre Dame and Phantom Of the Opera on PBS but had to wait ages to  finally see The Cat and the Canary and The Man Who Laughs..

[horrorhunter]

For me it was the R-Rated Horror films of the early '70s, especially the sexy Hammer fare from that period. I remember seeing stills from those films and reading about them in monster mags and books on Horror films in the '70s. When VHS tape rental stores made most of them available in the '80s I was happy to finally get to see the forbidden fruit I was denied a few years earlier. The Karnstein Trilogy: The Vampire Lovers, Lust For A Vampire, and Twins Of Evil were at the top of my must-see list, and I got to see the first two on rented VHS in the mid '80s. It would be years later that I finally saw Twins Of Evil on a boot. They were more tame than I imagined but it was still wonderful to finally get to see them. I still love those films and revisit them often.

There are many more for me that fit the criteria of this thread but I'll leave those for another time.

[Memphremagog]

It took me ages to see a lot of Hammer stuff..

I saw Horror Of Dracula, The Mummy, Curse Of the Werewolf, Evil Of Frankenstein, Fanatic, The Gorgon, Quatermass & the Pit, One Million Years B.C., She, Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, Scars Of Dracula, Dracula AD 1972(in the movies), Brides Of Dracula, Kiss Of the Vampire and The Nanny.

However most of the Frankensteins, the Karnstein films, mummies and early Quatermass stuff was unavailable for years..

[horrorhunter]

I remember the thrill of visiting video rental stores for the first few times in the '80s. It was the first time we could actually choose which movies we wanted to see at home conveniently (not counting 8mm which was a different animal). I used to hang around in there perusing those garish VHS boxes for an hour at a time before finally settling on 2 or 3 movies to rent. I would usually watch them at least a couple of times and religiously return them before there was a late fee. I was always sure to rewind the tapes as well, "Be Kind, Rewind". We had to be sure to adjust the tracking (later VCRs had "auto tracking") and use the head cleaner tape periodically to clean all the grunge out of the VCR. God, those rental tapes were filthy (and not just the porn). We had one VCR ruined by rental tape gunk in the late '90s. By then they had gotten pretty cheap so we ended up throwing it away rather than pay to get it fixed.

I ordered a few expensive bootleg tapes back in the day. They were usually around 20 bucks each and quality was not that great most of the time. Some of them were 3rd or 4th generation copies (or worse) and the image was so soft and blurred and glitchy it was like watching the flick through a thick fog with distortion lines intruding periodically. Sometimes the image would roll for awhile and sometimes it would fade out altogether for a few seconds at a time. I knew film buffs who spent a small fortune on boots. Now most of them are worthless except as keepsakes from a different time, and many of them won't even play at all anymore. It's a different world for home video now. We can have a whole library of our favorite movies at our fingertips very affordably that will probably last most of our lifetimes with special features galore on DVD/BDs that are cool collectibles in and of themselves. Film fans are truly blessed these days. Still, there are fond memories of the bad old VHS days.

[Lunkenstein]

Great posts, guys. I sure remember the early VHS Era and how exciting it was. I recall renting THE MUMMY (1932) and thinking how cool it would be to actually own the tape. Then I asked the purchase price and it was $32.00. I had to wait and just record it off cable instead.

There were many films I finally got to see thanks to home video. So many, it will take time to recall. One that really sticks in my mind is the Fredrick March version of DR. JEKYLL AND  MR. HYDE (1932). I had seen pics of it in monster mags my whole life and to finally see it was a great experience. Another was MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL (1957). Funny thing about that one is that it ran at a couple Saturday matinees I was unable to attend and it never played on our local channels. It was fun seeing, just to catch a little stop motion I'd missed.

[Memphremagog]

Great posts, guys. I sure remember the early VHS Era and how exciting it was. I recall renting THE MUMMY (1932) and thinking how cool it would be to actually own the tape. Then I asked the purchase price and it was $32.00. I had to wait and just record it off cable instead.

There were many films I finally got to see thanks to home video. So many, it will take time to recall. One that really sticks in my mind is the Fredrick March version of DR. JEKYLL AND  MR. HYDE (1932). I had seen pics of it in monster mags my whole life and to finally see it was a great experience. Another was MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL (1957). Funny thing about that one is that it ran at a couple Saturday matinees I was unable to attend and it never played on our local channels. It was fun seeing, just to catch a little stop motion I'd missed.

I had to wait until the video era for March's version of JEKYLL & HYDE as well..saw so many pictures of it and heard so much over the years and this only heightened my desire to view it more.  Another one for me was WHITE ZOMBIE..now both are favorites amongst my collection.