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.
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.
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