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. ***.

THE MUMMY

THE MUMMY (1932). Director: Karl Freund.

Boris Karloff plays "Ardath Bey," actually a mummy (High Priest Im-ho-tep) who awakened after 3700 years and wants to be reunited with the reincarnation of his beloved, Princess Anck-es-en-Amon or Helen Grosvenor (Zita Johann). Aside from the first scene, Karloff is never seen in mummy wrappings, and doesn't stalk around -- he uses psychic powers to draw people to him or give them heart attacks. None of the modern-day characters ever ask this ancient figure a single question about his fascinating life centuries before; they only think of him as "evil" even before he kills anyone. [Im-ho-tep had committed sacrilege by trying to bring his beloved back to life and was buried alive.] Karloff gives an intense performance, and Zita Johann, while rather unusual-looking, is quite good as well. Edward Van Sloan and David Manners are about the same as ever. Universal gets credit for an interesting idea and a new "monster," but The Mummy is slow and unexciting. Atmospheric photography and music by Charles Stumar and James Dietrich respectively. Karl Freund was a famous German cinematographer before emigrating to America -- this was his first directorial assignment (after photographing the Bela Lugosi Dracula) and he wasn't up to the challenge.

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erdict: Classic, perhaps, but still not that great. **.