Hollywood Legends of Horror Collection (2006)

Devil Dolls and Bloody Palls

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Hollywood Legends of Horror Collection on DVD

Four old MGM horror films appeared together in a mid-1990s laserdisc box set and here they are again: Charles Brabin's The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), Karl Freund's Mad Love (1935), Tod Browning's Mark of the Vampire (1935) and Browning's The Devil-Doll (1936). Since MGM was never really interested in horror, the films all have histories of troubled productions. But nonetheless, they survive as genuinely wonderful classics. The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) -- shown here uncut for the first time, transferred from the camera negative -- stands alone as the weirdest, most subversive of the set. Boris Karloff stars as the famous supervillian, while Myrna Loy appears in an early role as his daughter. Peter Lorre stars in Mad Love as a surgeon who replaces a pianists' hands with those of a killer. Bela Lugosi has a non-speaking role in Mark of the Vampire (with its famous "twist" ending), also restored from the camera negative. Lionel Barrymore is excellent in both that and The Devil-Doll; the latter tells the story of an escaped convict who uses a shrinking technique to exact revenge on the bankers who used him as a patsy (the infamous Erich von Stroheim contributed to the screenplay). Warner Home Video -- which owns older titles from the MGM vaults -- has thrown in two more movies, Michael Curtiz's Doctor X and Vincent Sherman's The Return of Doctor X (1939). Five of the films come with fun, informative commentary tracks, including one by director Sherman, who died a few months ago, just weeks shy of his 100th birthday.

Starring: Boris Karloff, Myrna Loy, Peter Lorre, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan, Humphrey Bogart, Fay Wray, Karen Morley, Lionel Atwill, Jean Hersholt, Frances Drake, Colin Clive, Ted Healy, Keye Luke, etc.
Written by: Sax Rohmer, Irene Kuhn, Edgar Allan Woolf, John Willard, Guy Endore, Bernard Schubert, P.J. Wolfson, John L. Balderston, Garrett Fort, Erich von Stroheim, Tod Browning, Robert Tasker, Earl Baldwin, Lee Katz, William J. Makin, etc.
Directed by: Tod Browning, Karl Freund, Charles Brabin, Michael Curtiz, Vincent Sherman
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 400 minutes
Date: October 20, 2006