5/5 Nice collection of Universal's B movies
  by William Armstrong (Pawtucket, RI, USA.)
My favorite of the Universal Horror Archive collection is CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN followed by MAN-MADE MONSTER and each film is enjoyable in the old-fashioned horror film fashion (no gore or slashers killing teenagers). Make no mistake these films are not Universal's finest moments and have nothing to do with Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolf Man or mummy films. They are from the B-movie division and are not as well known or as critically praised. These films are relatively short (about an hour or so long) and a good way to spend an evening when there is nothing worth watching on TV.

4/5 Hopefully the Tip of the Iceberg
  by G. Schneider (VA United States)
Universal Pictures, as fans of the horror genre well know, was the leader in this type of film. I grew up on their movies when "Shock Theatre" debuted on WCAU-TV in Philly back in the 50s when I was in high school. (The first two films they showed were FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA, two of my favorites to this day.) In this collection, there were only two films -- CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN and HORROR ISLAND -- that I'd never seen before, and some of the others I hadn't seen since the 50s. For fans of Universal, this set is highly recommended. And as my title for this review indicates, I hope this is just the first of many such collections. (I'd like to think that one day there will be a complete Boris Karloff set or a complete Bela Lugosi set. I'd like to hope there will never be a complete Lon Chaney, Jr., set, however!)

One thing puzzles me, though: The cover art for the inside DVD holder shows Boris Karloff from some movie in the 50s. Not only is whatever that film might be from the wrong era (the others all being from 1941-1943), but Karloff isn't even in any of the films in this set. How did this picture get included in the collage?

5/5 SOME OF THE BEST!!!!!
  by larryj1 (az)
This is the kind of set I've been waiting for. 5 great Universal horrors in one set. They look and sound great. Universal has a treasure trove of films like these, and they need to get on the ball and keep these sets coming.

5/5 A fun set of Universal B Horror films
  by calvinnme (Fredericksburg, Va)
This is a great set of B horror from Universal...that you previously couldn't find anywhere unless you paid some scalper who could care less about the films three times what it is was worth. The reason? Like the Ultimate Sci-Fi Collection, this was originally a Best Buy exclusive. Finally liberated from that status, these films will now be available in a general release for all to enjoy.

Every film in this set is a great B horror classic and the audio and video are very good, not unrestored like public domain packs. My favorite - "Captive Wild Woman". The title has it as "Captive Wild Women" indicating it is possibly some kind of prison film, and nothing could be further from the truth. Instead it seems to be borrowing from Val Lewton's themes about monsters and horror mirroring the human condition. Plus, Milburn Stone ("Doc" from Gunsmoke) is in the film! For those of you who didn't know, Stone toiled away in B horror films for years before he got his career role on TV in Gunsmoke. The Black Cat here is from 1941, not the 1934 classic scary old house tale with Karloff and Lugosi that is already on DVD, so you need not worry about double-dips on this one. Lugosi is in it, but he is more of a supporting character at this point.

Man Made Monster (1941) has Lon Chaney Jr. as the victim and Lionel Atwell as the mad scientist. I think Chaney gives one of his finest performances here - in my opinion, much better than in his "wolf man" films, and they weren't half bad. Horror Island is an OK film starring a bunch of people I never heard of, still the story is pretty good. Finally there is Night Monster (1942), another scary old house tale with Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill getting top billing yet a disappointing amount of screen time considering this. Buried in the credits you'll find Nils Asther as Agor Singh. It's a rather juicy role though Asther doesn't get much screentime. The sad part is that in the late silent era Asther had been a big star at MGM. However, his star fell far after the advent of sound films. He was born in Denmark and raised in Sweden, and his foreign accent was a hindrance in the talkies. By 1949 he was driving a truck.

5/5 FIVE MORE FROM THE UNIVERSAL VAULT! A COUPLE OF GEMS! LIMITED EDITION BUY IT NOW!
  by ! MR. KNOW IT ALL ;-b (TRI STATE AREA)
I bought this DVD set around Halloween 07, it was an exclusive Best Buy 2 disc DVD set and I am finally getting to it now. I've got so many horror films to catch up on! This DVD set contains five rare Universal films from the 40's. The prints are clean and there some trailers, but the best reason to buy this set is because all the films included are seeing their first DVD releases! If your a Universal fan it's a great set. I will review each film as I watch them, so I will be adding to this. The first film 'The Black Cat' is a film I had never seen. When I bought the set I thought it was the 1934 classic with Karloff and Lugosi....I'm glad it wasn't as I already have that film on the Bela Lugosi collection.......anyway..... 'The Black Cat' on this set is a murder/mystery/comedy from 1941. The film stars Basil Rathbone and Bela Lugosi in a fun supporting character. I did like this fun film full of secret passages and things that go bump in the night. The next film 'Man Made Monster' is a very good Lon Chaney Jr. film. The Third film 'Horror Island' is a misleading title as there isn't much horror going on, on this island! It's actually a mystery/comedy film that doesn't have much comedy in it either. This is the weakest of the five films on this set. I have reviewed these films on the individual release or VHS release. Please look for those releases.

The Black Cat(1941)3 1/2 Stars
Man Made Monster 4 1/4 Stars
Horror Island 2 1/4 Stars
Night Monster 4 Stars
Captive Wild Woman 3 Stars