Documentary about the horror pictures of Universal Studios made between the 2 world wars. It's focus is not only on Universal movies, but it also glances at other horror classics of the period like Dr. Caligari, Freaks and King Kong. There are many interviews with historians and those directly involved. Next to discussing the movies and how they where made there is a lot of attention on putting them into a social and historical context, which makes for interesting viewing. Narrated by Kenneth Branagh.
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Universal Horror is a documentary about the great era of classic monster movies that were made at Universal Studios during the 1930s. The era is generally agreed upon as beginning with the Bela Lugosi Dracula (1931) and the Boris Karloff Frankenstein (1931) - although the documentary traces the beginnings to much earlier with the Lon Chaney [Sr] versions of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925), as well as the Old Dark House classic The Cat and the Canary (1927). The documentary charts in depth the classics that came out at Universal under Carl Laemmle Jr during this era, covering the likes of Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), The Old Dark House (1932), The Mummy (1932), The Invisible Man (1933), The Black Cat (1934), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Dracula's Daughter (1936) and Son of Frankenstein (1939). Although one does feel that the title is somewhat of a misnomer. While the film tells a history of Universal Studios during this era and discusses the Laemmle family in detail, it does also move out beyond the mandate of strictly Universal horrors to discuss horror works from other studios such as MGM's The Unknown (1927), Paramount's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) and The Island of Lost Souls (1932), RKO's King Kong (1933) and Warner Brothers' Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) and even personalities who never made any Universal horrors such as Fritz Lang and Kong co-director Merian C. Cooper. One sneakingly suspects that the real title of the documentary should more accurately have been something like The Golden Age of Horror.
Perhaps one regret about the film, while it is impeccably researched, is just how few of the original players are left around for it to interview. In making the documentary some sixty years after the Golden Age passed, there are not that many of the talents that were present at the time still left alive. Brownlow manages to find a handful of actors and actresses who had minor parts in some of the Universal horrors - Turhan Bey, Gloria Jean, Gloria Stuart, Lupita Tovar - and merely a couple of people who had major roles - Fay Wray and The Wolf Man screenwriter Curt Siodmak. All the rest - certainly all those profiled - are sadly dead. The rest of the time Brownlow is left interviewing children of the principal players - Carla Laemmle, Sara Karloff, Arianne Ulmer - or else people that offer their childhood recall of the films such as Famous Monsters of Filmland (1958-82) editor Forrest J. Ackerman, genre writer Ray (The Martian Chronicles) Bradbury and actor James Karen, who are now septuagenarians and in Ackerman's case octogenarian. [The SF, Horror and Fantasy Review]
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