NOTE: The Shout! Factory Blu-ray of Shadow of the Cat is compared to the Indicator Blu-ray HERE

NOTE: The Eureka Blu-ray of The Black Castle is compared to this Blu-ray HERE

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

ADDITION: Shout! Factory Blu-ray (April 2020): Shout! Factory have transferred Universal Horror Collection: Volume 6 to four separate Blu-rays which include The Black Castle (1952), Cult of the Cobra (1955), The Thing That Couldn't Die (1958) and The Shadow of the Cat (1961). They are all cited as being from a "NEW 2K Scan From A Fine Grain Film Element". We have previously viewed "Universal Horror Collection: Vol. 1" HERE, Vol. 2 HERE, Vol. 3 HERE and Volume 4 HERE. From Volume 5 we individually reviewed; The Monster and the Girl, Captive Wild Woman, Jungle Woman and The Jungle Captive.

Each image has a max'ed out, flat-line, bitrates. They all look quite strong - no damage and some impressive close-up detail, especially, in Cult of the Cobra and The Black Castle. I don't have much to add to simply viewing the full-res screen captures; they look good in 1080P, no digitization, appreciated film textures. We compared both Cult of the Cobra and The Shadow of the Cat to the respective DVDs (UK Pal Shadow covered HERE) and it is 'nessun contesto'. The Thing That Couldn't Die looks the weakest, but its wholly watchable. 

NOTE: We have added 120 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Shout! Factory use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit) track in the original English language. In The Black Castle some may recognize Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik [K.525]. In Cult of the Cobra it's, uncredited, score is from Irving Gertz (Plunder Road, It Came From Outer Space, Blonde Ice and The Deadly Mantis among others), William Lava (Moonrise, S.O.S. Tidal Wave, War Arrow, The Night Riders, Retreat, Hell!), Lou Maury and Stanley Wilson who composed for many 40's and 50's westerns like Ride a Crooked Trail,, Woman They Almost Lynched and as well as Republic serials Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe, The Invisible Monster and Flying Disc Man from Mars. On The Thing That Couldn't Die, I definitely recognized the theme from This Island Earth in the opening but the score is credited to Henry Mancini (Days of Wine and Roses, Oklahoma Crude, Wait Until Dark, Operation Petticoat, Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation, Experiment in Terror, Charade). On The Shadow of the Cat the score is by Mikis Theodorakis (Iphigenia, State of Siege, Zorba the Greek, Serpico, Z). Many seem to be sampling of previous generic horror, sci-fi scores. They sound solid and clean if not dynamically deep. Shout! Factory offer optional gaudy yellow English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-rays.

The Shout! Factory Blu-ray offers a new commentaries by film historians Tom Weaver on The Black Castle - Tom Weaver, Steve Kronenberg, David Schecter, and Robert J. Kiss on Cult of the Cobra - Tom Weaver And C. Courtney Joyner on The Thing That Couldn't Die and Bruce G. Hallenbeck (author Poe Pictures: The Film Legacy of Edgar Allan Poe) on The Shadow of the Cat. I've only sampled them focusing more on my favorite Cult of the Cobra with Weaver making a loose but interesting case that Rico's Bowling Alley sequences is the counterpart of Cat People's swimming pool scene - nice observation! Briefly included are Steve Kronenberg (lauds the film - I agree), David Schecter for 10-minutes (music score expert), and Robert J. Kiss - cult TV stars in the film including Richard Long (The Big Valley), Jack Kelly (Maverick), David Janssen (The Fugitive), Edward Platt (Get Smart) etc. I liked the 1/4 hour Universal Horror Strikes Back! – a look at Universal Horror in the 40s - on The Black Castle Blu-ray. Also is a new 25-minute program - In The Shadow Of Shelley – an Interview with 88-year old Barbara Shelley (Beth Venable.) This is found on The Shadow of the Cat Blu-ray disc. There are stills galleries, theatrical trailers, and double-feature TV Spots for REVENGE OF THE CREATURE / CULT OF THE COBRA and THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF / THE SHADOW OF THE CAT.

I wasn't very keen on Universal Horror Collection Volume 5 but I loved Volume 6. I was always big on Cult of the Cobra for Faith Domergue and brief David Janssen. The Thing That Couldn't Die certainly evokes 1961's Tormented with the severed heads. The Black Castle has Boris Karloff, Rita Corday and, briefly, Lon Chaney Jr. - great shadows! Also I have always loved this description of Shadow of the Cat; "A normally placid pussy turns into a ferocious feline hell-bent for revenge against the treacherous trio who murdered her mistress in this interesting horror film." Lovely. So the Shout! Factory package of four Blu-rays is absolutely recommended - weak films totally embraceable. Nostalgia value through the roof. Fans of these gems shouldn't hesitate. Very rewatchable for this reviewer.

Gary Tooze