Universal Monsters Legacy Collection Ideas

[AxelGripp]

As you may know, in recent years, Universal has released several Universal Monster "Legacy" sets of their most iconic monsters, and have even bundled them together into a "complete" 30 movie (or 31 movie, if you count the Spanish Dracula) set. But for many of us whose idea of Universal Monsters are much broader, it's about 60 movies short of being really complete. My suggestion to really "round out" the collection (besides the public domain films (The Hunchback of Notre Dame & Phantom of the Opera 1925) and lost films(The Cat Creeps 1930 and its Spanish version)) would be to release six more reasonable sized Legacy sets.

These are the sets that exist today



Dracula:

Dracula
Dracula (Spanish)
Dracula's Daughter
Son of Dracula
House of Frankenstein
House of Dracula
Abbot and Costello Meet Dracula


Frankenstein:

Frankenstein
Bride of Frankenstein
Son of Frankenstein
The Ghost of Frankenstein
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
House of Frankenstein
House of Dracula
Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein


The Wolf-Man

The Wolf-Man
Werewolf of London
She-Wolf of London
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
House of Frankenstein
House of Dracula
Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein


The Mummy:

The Mummy
The Mummy's Hand
The Mummy's Tomb
The Mummy's Ghost
The Mummy's Curse
Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy


The Invisible Man:

The Invisible Man
The Invisible Man Returns
The Invisible Woman
Invisible Agent
The Invisible Man's Revenge
Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man


Creature from the Black Lagoon:

Creature from the Black Lagoon
Revenge of the Creature
The Creature Walks Among Us


The Phantom of the Opera:

The Phantom of the Opera (1943)



Here are my suggestions for new Legacy sets. I determined these based on name value and public consciousness and familiarity with each category, meaning there wouldn't be an Ape-Woman set because people don't really care that much about her. Making sure there wouldn't be too many other sets and the films are spread out well enough so there aren't much more than maybe 12 on each one as much as I could.



Silent

The Cat and the Canary
The Man Who Laughs
The Last Warning
The Last Performance


Cult Horror

Secret of the Blue Room
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Man Made Monster
Horror Island
The Mad Doctor of Market Street
The Strange Case of Doctor Rx
The Mystery of Marie Roget
Captive Wild Woman
The Mad Ghoul
Jungle Woman
The Jungle Captive
The Spider Woman Strikes Back
House of Horrors
The Cat Creeps (1946)
The Brute Man


50's Sci-Fi

It Came from Outer Space
This Island Earth
Tarantula
Cult of the Cobra
Curucu, Beast of the Amazon
The Mole People
The Incredible Shrinking Man
The Deadly Mantis
The Land Unknown
The Monolith Monsters
The Thing That Couldn't Die
Monsters on the Campus
Curse of the Undead
The Leech Woman


Bella Lugosi

Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Black Cat (1934)
The Raven
The Invisible Ray
The Phantom Creeps
Black Friday
The Black Cat (1941)
Night Monster


Boris Karloff

The Old Dark House
The Black Cat
The Raven
The Invisible Ray
Night Key
Tower of London
Black Friday
The Climax
Abbot and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff
The Strange Door
The Black Castle
Abbot and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde


Lon Chaney, Jr. Inner Sanctum Mysteries

Calling Dr. Death
Weird Woman
Dead Man's Eyes
The Frozen Ghost
Strange Confession
Pillow of Death



I am aware that Boris Karloff and Bella Lugosi sets have been released by Universal. I just don't think they are very complete or work with the Legacy collections standards. I am also aware that a very much complete Inner Sanctum set exists, maybe it could be incorporated. I also know that several films seem to repeat on the Karloff and Lugosi lists. Keep in mind that this is the case on the Legacy sets that exist today.

Its occurred to me that there may be too many films on the "Cult Horror", "50's Sci-Fi", and even possibly the Karloff set. In that case, I am for the idea of dividing certain sets into two volumes.

If 86 movies are too much to release on a single set, then another possibility would be to release the proposed sets as two more large sets the same as the current 30 disc set. Release the Silent, Cult Horror, and 50's Sci-Fi sets as a "genre set", and release the Karloff, Lugosi, and Chaney, Jr. Inner Sanctum sets as an "actor showcase set".

Think this could work?

[AxelGripp]

[AxelGripp]

I am so sorry about all this, I have no idea how to post pictures here.

[Mike Scott]

Those look great! Some of them are kinda whopper sets, though! 

I am so sorry about all this, I have no idea how to post pictures here.

If you see anything on the page besides the image, then it's an HTML page. You need just the image file. If you right click on the image and click "copy", or save URL, or something and paste that into your message. Test it by pasting into your address bar and hit the "enter" key. If you just see the image and nothing else, you got it.

Copying the "Google" image file URL.

[YoungestMonsterKid]

wait you did a silent set that doesn't include The Phantom of the Opera and Hunchback of Notre Dame?
explain, please?

but definitely a set that include Phantom of the Opera both 1925 and 1929 versions and Hunchback plus some other movies too would be the set that I'd want

[Mike Scott]

wait you did a silent set that doesn't include The Phantom of the Opera and Hunchback of Notre Dame?
explain, please?

I think it's because Universal doesn't own them, which is why we didn't get a '25 Phantom in the POTO Legacy set (if you can call 1 movie a "set").

[AxelGripp]

Those look great! Some of them are kinda whopper sets, though! 

If you see anything on the page besides the image, then it's an HTML page. You need just the image file. If you right click on the image and click "copy", or save URL, or something and paste that into your message. Test it by pasting into your address bar and hit the "enter" key. If you just see the image and nothing else, you got it.

Copying the "Google" image file URL.

Thanks for all this man, I can't tell you how shocked and relived I was to see the images actually displaying properly, I had just created them on Photoshop you see. I also noticed the Lon Chaney, Jr. set image wasn't on there so I just took care of that.

[AxelGripp]

I think it's because Universal doesn't own them, which is why we didn't get a '25 Phantom in the POTO Legacy set (if you can call 1 movie a "set").

That's exactly right. As much as it frustrates me that Universal can't package the original Phantom in the Essential sets, I have to think realistically in proposing these potential sets.

I can't tell you how blistering mad I was that they put the 1943 remake in the essential 8-movie Blu-Ray collection instead of the Lon Chaney version. Since then though I've got a better idea on how film rights work.

[YoungestMonsterKid]

That's exactly right. As much as it frustrates me that Universal can't package the original Phantom in the Essential sets, I have to think realistically in proposing these potential sets.

I can't tell you how blistering mad I was that they put the 1943 remake in the essential 8-movie Blu-Ray collection instead of the Lon Chaney version. Since then though I've got a better idea on how film rights work.

That's what I thought but.... all of those they don't have the rights to either.

[Mike Scott]

I also noticed the Lon Chaney, Jr. set image wasn't on there so I just took care of that.

Oops! I must have missed that one. I thought all those messages were the same.

[AxelGripp]

Okay, turns out Man Made Monster and The Black Castle both feature Lon Chaney, Jr. So that's 14 films in the Cult Horror set and 8 films on Chaney, Jr.'s set

[aura of foreboding]

The films are PD, so Universal could package them if they wanted to.  They choose not to.  There's a difference. 

[Mike Scott]

The films are PD, so Universal could package them if they wanted to. 

It's partly because of the quality and the fact that anybody could copy and sell them.

[YoungestMonsterKid]

The films are PD, so Universal could package them if they wanted to.  They choose not to.  There's a difference.

the only reason I can think of is that only the poor scratched up copies are public domain
the nice cleaned up copies are owned by whoever cleaned them up

supposedly Universal is working on their own restoration of Phantom of the Opera but I doubt it
and either way it really shouldn't cost too much money to just pay one of the film restorers to let them use a certain copy

[dbone828]

In addition to The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925), which you already mentioned, I'm not sure if Universal still owns the distribution rights to the following films, as they have never been released on DVD by Universal (some have been released by other companies, such as Kino):

The Cat and the Canary
The Man Who Laughs
The Last Warning
The Last Performance
The Old Dark House
The Phantom Creeps
The Brute Man
Curucu, Beast of the Amazon
The Spider Woman Strikes Back
The Cat Creeps (1946)
Curse of the Undead - has only been released by Universal on VHS
The Jungle Captive - has only been released by Universal on VHS

I really do like the idea of releasing a box set of Universal Horror movies as a companion to the Universal Classic Monsters set, and the different themes you have within the set.

I also think that if they ever do decide to release a set along these lines, I wouldn't be surprised to see a few Paramount films that Universal has distribution rights.  Murders in the Zoo was included on the Cult Horror Collection set; Dr. Cyclops was included on the Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection Vol. 2; the Universal Vault Series included Supernatural, The Cat and the Canary (1939 version), and The Monster and the Girl; and Island of Lost Souls was previously released on Universal VHS (it is currently available on DVD through the Criterion Collection).