Bride of Frankenstein

Following up Universal's brilliant release onto DVD of "Frankenstein" the studio has released what many consider to be the best film of the Universal classics period, if not the greatest horror film of all time. You can open many film books and find this one called the best. The only other films that seem to give it a run for it's money are "The Exorcist" and "Night of the Living Dead". So how does the DVD fare? Well let's take a look

The film itself is without a doubt a masterpiece. The greatest of all time? Depends on your tastes. But there is no arguing how great this movie is. All aspects work. The slight comedy, the horror, the weird stuff (Dr. Pretorious and the tiny people, amazing I didn't laugh my ass off. If this had been Full Moon it would have sucked), and the drama, all work to a perfect mix. So full marks in that area.

The re mastering of this film is a bit confusing. For being the "pride and joy" of the Universal family, it sure didn't get that treatment. The rumors are true that this didn't get the great work-over awarded to it's counterpart "Frankenstein" did. But don't for a second think that this is a bad looking film. It looks as good as any previous print (maybe even a little better), and the sound is fine. It just doesn't cause one to "oooo" and "ahhhh" over it the way the "Frankenstein" DVD did. The one thing that has been mentioned is the seemingly cropped picture. There are times where it does appear to be cropped, but that may have been done to avoid marks on the edge of the print. The best picture they may have found may have had some edge wear, so they cropped off some of the edges. This is my guess. I can't see the reason to crop a full frame picture. But hey, I don't have any inside info, just guess work.

The documentary included is up to the greatness of the "Frankenstein" one. Somebody should give David J. Skal an award for the care he has been taking on these DVD's. The only question is, how long can he keep this up (I do have all the Universal DVD's up to this point, and I can tell you they all are brilliant in this aspect! The Dracula one is the best yet, but more on that later)?

The commentary track on this one is also a scripted track. This one is done by Scott MacQueen and is an attempt to capture the movie. By this I mean that he tries to cover every basis. He goes in-depth on the technical side, the story side and the discussion about the music score. There is hardly a second of silence. The track does sound like he is reading notes, but it is still very interesting.

The trailer is a trailer. If you enjoy the old style trailers (GASP! SCREAM!) then this is good for you.

The photo gallery is a nice touch with interesting pictures. So here again they succeed.

All in all, this is once again stellar work by Universal. While it is not as much of a shock to behold as the release of "Frankenstein" was, it is still a fine example of how a DVD should be done. Buy it for the greatness of the movie first, then get it for all the fun stuff.