Monday, August 19, 2019

VCI Entertainment Restores Bela Lugosi's The Phantom Creeps For Both Blu-ray And DVD Release On Oct. 29


DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey
A couple of weeks back news arrived from VCI Entertainment that a new 2K restoration of director Walter Summers’ The Human Monster, starring Bela Lugosi, would be ready as both newly-minted DVD and Blu-ray editions on Oct. 29.

There was a fascinating backstory associated with this particular film release.  Lugosi’s career was starting to sag and work was hard to come by in the late ‘30s, and then a summer of 1938 theatrical revival of Dracula and Frankenstein as a double-billed sparked a fire under Universal Pictures and he was suddenly back in favor with a new contract. 
  
To make it short, he filmed the 12-chapter sci-fi serial, The Phantom Creeps and then wrapped Son of Frankenstein (both under his new contract with Universal) and then sailed to England in early 1939, did an 11-day shoot of The Human Monster (originally titled The Dark Eyes of London) and then sailed back to the United States to film The Gorilla and Ninotchka just about the time that The Phantom Creeps, was beginning its theatrical run.   Busy!

Well, speaking of the directing team of Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind’s The Phantom Creeps, word arrived this week from VCI Entertainment that their exclusive non-theatrical distribution rights to the Universal Pictures library of serials will see its next film restoration bear fruits on Nov. 12 with both Blu-ray and DVD editions of … The Phantom Creeps!!

This cutting-edge (for 1939) sci-fi thriller stars Lugosi as Dr. Alex Zorka — a mad scientist/inventor — who has developed all sorts of amazing gizmos, including a high-tech robot and a belt that renders its wearer invisible.

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey
VCI Entertainment received the core elements of the serial from Universal Pictures only to discover that six of the 12 chapters were either missing or the original 35mm nitrate materials were “very badly” decomposed.   While disappointing, the entire serial has been carefully restored … six of the chapters were rendered with a 2K scan of the surviving 35mm nitrate fine grains, while the missing elements received 4K scans of the original 16mm prints that were prepared by Universal in 1952 for television distribution. 

The result is the best presentation of The Phantom Creeps ever!   And on Blu-ray … how can fans say no to that!!!

Wait, it gets better.  Bonus features include commentary from Bela Lugosi author and film historian Gary D. Rhodes and a newly-prepared documentary by Daniel Griffith on the serials of Bela Lugosi.

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey

   

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