Karloff & Lugosi Horror Classics On DVD!

Out on DVD is: Karloff & Lugosi Horror Classics Thank God Warner Brothers is at least acknowledging Halloween with this four-movie salute to two of cinema’s horror giants- Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.
The Walking Dead (1936) is a Warner’s gangster film mixed with supernatural elements. Boris is railroaded for the murder of a judge by a bunch of crooks and goes to his death in the electric chair but is revived by scientist Edmund Gwenn (who would later play Santa Claus in A Miracle On 34th Street). The revived Karloff gets revenge on those who wronged him and somehow kills each without lifting a finger. This was directed by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca).

Frankenstein 1970 (1958) is about a TV crew filming at the castle of Frankenstein. Boris plays a face-scarred survivor of Nazi torture who is the blood relative of the famous Doctor Frankenstein and uses atomic power in his basement lab to bring a new monster to life. Boris is at his most hammy and there’s fun gruesome bits with a human heart and a spilled jar of eyeballs. Not to mention a beautiful widescreen transfer.

Zombies On Broadway (1945) stars the questionably funny comedy team of Wally Brown and Alan Carney (a D list Abbott & Costello) who head to the islands to find a real zombie for the opening of a gangster’s (Sheldon Leonard) New York nightclub called the Zombie Hut. They run into a mad scientist (Bela Lugosi) and he tries to turn the both of them into undead. The bug-eyed giant native from I Walked With A Zombie also stars in this stupid but fun flick.

In: You’ll Find Out (1940) the annoying Kay Keyser and his band take a bus to a remote gloomy mansion to play for the 21st birthday of an heiress. Meanwhile someone is trying to bump her off. Boris Karloff plays a creepy judge, Peter Lorre- a sinister professor and Bela Lugosi as a turban-wearing psychic all show up to pay their respects.