Universal draws blood with more monster madness
By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service
Universal has tied the release of its "Legacy" editions of the unholy trinity of "Dracula," "Frankenstein" and "The Wolf Man" to the upcoming "Van Helsing," in which Dracula's nemesis is the central character, reuniting the famous monsters of film land.
But any excuse will do for these two-disc collections, which expand the previously released, remastered editions of these movies and their primary sequels with, well, more films and other features, and for a reduced price.
Universal horror fanatics will grab the 1931 original "Dracula" first. It's atmospheric, all right, to the point of tedium, but it is spiced up a bit by the Philip Glass score, performed by the Kronos Quartet, heard on an alternative audio track.
The real attraction here is the first DVD release of 1945's "House of Dracula," a sequel to "House of Frankenstein" (see below) that brought all three characters together for the second time.
Rounding out the program is 1936's "Dracula's Daughter" with Gloria Holden almost exclusively attracted to female victims, and 1943's "Son of Dracula," set in the American South, and probably the best of the original series.
Film for film, "Frankenstein" is the best buy, not only for James Whale's 1931 original take on Mary Shelley's gothic masterpiece, but for his delirious, even better sequel in 1935 with Elsa Lanchester as the manufactured mate ("Bride of Frankenstein"). Boris Karloff returned to the role for 1939's efficient "Son of Frankenstein" with Lugosi playing Ygor, and what is basically the first part of a story continued in 1942's "The Ghost of Frankenstein." With the next installment showing up on the "Wolf Man" set, the final entry here is 1944's "House of Frankenstein," the first all-star get- together.
From 1941, the brisk (only 70 minutes), beautiful and beastly "The Wolf Man" is considered by many Universal buffs the best of all the franchise starters, with Lon Chaney Jr. giving a truly fine performance as the accursed Larry Talbot. It was followed by 1943's "Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman" in which Talbot, seeking to be put out of his misery, goes looking for Dr. Frankenstein but hooks up with the monster instead.
These films were preceded by 1935's well-made "Werewolf of London" with Henry Hull playing the scientist who brings the curse of lycanthropy on himself, while 1946's completely unrelated "She-Wolf of London" stars June Lockhart as a young woman who begins to believe she could be responsible for a string of gruesome murders, although PETA should be happy to know she never sprouts fur.
Rich in characters
Moving to an even scarier subject, and last year's holiday theatrical releases, "Love Actually" (Universal) was one of those romantic comedies you either embraced or avoided for fear of commitment.
Its saving grace is a very funny script and characters, and a lot of the latter; weaving in and out of each other's lives and hearts are Hugh Grant (as England's new prime minster), Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, and maybe best of all, Bill Nighy as a Rod Stewart-ish pop star who inexplicably finds himself with a holiday hit on his hands.
"Stuck On You" (Fox) was a love story of an odder variety, as one might expect from the Farrelly brothers. They provide an amusing commentary to their tale of happily conjoined twins Greg Kinnear and Matt Damon, who leave their Martha's Vineyard restaurant because Kinnear wants to try his hand at being a movie star.
"Love Don't Cost a Thing" (Warner) was a remake of the 1987 teen movie "Can't Buy Me Love," with Nick Cannon ("Drumline") starring as a loveless high school senior who gets the coolest girl in school to pretend to be his girlfriend to improve his social status.
"Big Fish" (Columbia TriStar) did a little better at the box office than the previous two, but Tim Burton's adaptation of the touching novel of the same name was better than the book itself, a inventive and emotionally effective story of a man (Billy Crudup) who wants badly to find out who his tall-tale-telling father (Albert Finney) really was before he dies. The father's flights of fancy are wonderfully recalled in fanciful vignettes featuring Jessica Lange, Danny De Vito and Ewan McGregor, who plays the father when he was young. Any man who can hold back a tear at film's end is a better one than I.
"The Cooler" (Lion's Gate) was another late-season surprise, even racking up an Oscar nomination for Alec Baldwin as an old-school Vegas casino boss. He develops a large problem when long-time employee William H. Macy, a loser so unlucky he has the ability to "cool" any table where bettors are on a winning streak, loses his power at an inopportune time.
