NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

NOTE: The Masters of Cinema Blu-ray package of Three Edgar Allan Poe Adaptations Starring Bela Lugosi includes Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), The Black Cat (1934) and The Raven (1935) is reviewed and compared HERE!

NOTE: The Invisible Ray and Black Friday are compared on Blu-ray to these transfers in Eureka's Maniacal Mayhem Blu-ray package HERE

ADDITION: Shout! Factory Blu-ray (June 2019): Shout! Factory have transferred four early Universal Horrors onto their own Blu-ray disc in a new package entitled the 'Universal Horror Collection: Vol.1'. This collection includes The Black Cat, The Raven, The Invisible Ray and Black Friday. Only missing from the 2005 Universal Bela Lugosi DVD set (reviewed HERE) is Murders in the Rue Morgue (which is on French Blu-ray with an augmented score. (reviewed HERE.) The source condition of these films is exceptional, as were the DVDs, and the transfers are on their own dual-layered disc with max'ed out bitrates for all 4 films. Grain texture is beautiful and there are slight surface scratches. The Raven looks poor for the first 10-minutes or so before it shifts to be as strong as the rest of the set. There is only minor contrast flickering and I saw one, outlier, instance of macro-blocking but it may have been a function of my capture software. Overall, these look amazing and extremely film-like with rich black levels (impressive source density) on my system. With all but The Black Cat as cited as being new 2K Scans from the original film elements.   

NOTE: We have added 32 more large resolution Shout! Factory Blu-ray captures for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE.

On their Blu-ray, Shout! Factory use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel mono tracks (24-bit) in the original English language. They are at the mercy of the original production technology and there can be imperfections and slight hiss. The scores are dramatic and wonderful by Franz Waxman (Untamed, Rebecca, Dark Passage, Bride of Frankenstein, Rear Window, Sunset Boulevard), Clifford Vaughan, Heinz Roemheld (I, Jane Doe, Ruby Gentry, Dangerous, The Monster that Challenged The World, The Land Unknown, The Mole People, 1933's The Invisible Man), Hans J. Salter (The Killer that Stalked New York, The Strange Door, Cover Up, Man Without a Star, Scarlet Street, The Land Unknown, The War Lord, The Mole People) and Frank Skinner (The Appaloosa, Madame X, Magnificent Obsession, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, All That Heaven Allows, and The Naked City). There is minor depth but the scores augment atmosphere. Shout! Factory offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray (despite being from Universal -which are always Region FREE.)

The extras are abundant. On The Black Cat Blu-ray, there are two new commentaries with Gregory William Mank (author of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff: The Expanded Story of a Haunting Collaboration, with a Complete Filmography of Their Films Together) and a second with Steve Haberman (author of Silent Screams: The History of the Silent Horror Film). They fill the film with so much detail about the actors, the production, crew, producers, cast - and they are all generally fun. Haberman does another for The Raven, where there is a second one by Gary D. Rhodes (Bela Lugosi and the Monogram Nine) - another excellent one on The Invisible Ray by Tom Weaver And Randall Larson and a thoroughly enchanting one on Black Friday by Constantine Nasr. These are very valuable supplements. On the video extras front we get the documentary A Good Game: Karloff And Lugosi At Universal directed by Constantine Nasr with one part for each film. The total running time is almost 1.5-hours and is excellent with input from Mank, Rhodes and others. Included on The Black Cat Blu-ray is the the 56-minute Dreams Within A Dream: The Classic Cinema Of Edgar Allan Poe narrated By Doug Bradley and also direct by Nasr. It is said that the films really represent a trio - Lugosi, Karloff and Poe. There is some vintage footage of children bringing their black cats for an audition for the film with Lugosi and Karloff greeting them. There are stills galleries for each film, re-release trailers for The Invisible Ray and a beat-up on for Black Friday, and we get audio recordings of both Lugosi and Karloff reading “The Tell-Tale Heart”.

These are all some of the most re-watchable horrors from this (or any) era. I am so pleased with all the extras on the Universal Horror Collection: Vol.1 Blu-ray. as well as the impressive video. Our highest recommendation!

Gary Tooze