MONSTERS

MONSTERS: A Celebration of the Classics from Universal Studios. Text by Roy Milano. Del Rey Books; 2006.

This is an over-sized coffee table book celebrating all the great old Universal monsters and the films they appeared in: Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy, the Wolfman, the Invisible Man, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon trilogy. The film has a great many black and white photographs from the films, as well as many essays by people somehow associated with the genre. Of particular interest are the entries from the children of Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney and Bela Lugosi., not to mention Gloria Stuart’s memories of working with Claude Rains on The Invisible Man. [The essays by newer filmmakers such as John Landis and Stephen Sommers are less interesting.] There’s no real critical meat to the volume, but the book is attractive, well put together, and of definite interest to fans of these films.

Verdict: For fans of Franky and the rest. ***.