I stumbled across this piece of history in random watching on YouTube, namely watching trailers for our New Releases segment and when I saw the words Jamie Lee Curtis and Universal Monsters I just had to take some time to watch it, after all its only 55-minutes in length. A strong word of advice, as I looked to see some comments and dreaded one sentences some consider in-depth reviews, you must look at this through very early 1980 eyes, understanding that the VHS market was on the cusp of exploding, though not everyone would be in the market just yet and that many of these movies only show trailers without much other depth, it is fond trip down memory lane to see former backlots and buildings, likely no longer standing at Universal Studios.

John Landis was the overall director who used the film vaults of this legendary studio, which in a way served more of commercial sampler to introduce the new releases for their classic monster era to the home video market, producer Mick Garris to assist. The absolute favorites Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Wolf Man are presented here in full rich trailers, though the countless sequels don’t get the same treatment their versions are significantly chopped and hacked down, for no solid or understandable reasoning, except perhaps running time, but fans of these movies wouldn’t mind it. Therefore, with that lets begin, it starts with the trailer King Kong vs. Godzilla [1962], before a series of “Coming Soon” wording splashes across the screen  in various fonts; then Universal Studios Dracula castle with the famous Dracula theme music (i.e., Bach – Toccata and Fugue in D minor) playing the background, every time I hear it I harkened back to a similar castle in a small shore/beach town of Wildwood, NJ that had a spooky place like that (ah it was destroyed in a tragic fire by two vandals long ago) such heartbreak.

Jamie Lee Curtis appears on the screen and goes onto explain the point of trailers, and something she states and even the worst movie should have 2-3 minutes of good footage to use for trailer; face it even in today’s cinematic universe that holds very true, and we’ve all learned that fact. The first movie to grace the screen Curucu, Beast of the Amazon [1956] sadly there’s no build-up or introduction to the clip, nothing to inform the audiences, not even a year; therefore, I will be providing it and dropping other various tidbits to make this not just series of random images sprawling across the screen. Hence this first movie was directed and written by Curt Siodmak, often double billed with The Mole People [1956], then strangely the next brief trailer is an introduction from Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie [1964]. This of course should likely lead one to “huh?” the reasoning for presenting the trailer in this manner not clear, one would think a chronological order would work so much better. Onward to the next appearance which is William Castle for his film The Night Walker [1964] and then another glimpse of  Hitchcock stating a few words about Frenzy [1972], before returning to Curtis who hands the audience off to a screamfest, of multiple scenes of movies of primary actresses yelling in freight with a few men scatter into the mix, but hardly at the rate of the women. Next we find Curtis on the right side of the famous Psycho backlot area, I mention for another reason is it rarity to see the house from this direction, she notes her mother had an unpleasant experience here, well her character Marion surely made acquaintance with Mother; this all a set-up for likely one of the finest and notable trailers in movie history, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho [1960] which mixes morbid humor and Hitch giving a intimate tour of the grounds, as Bernard Herrmann’s classic Psycho theme quietly plays in the background.

Finally, we have some historical references namely Lon Chaney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame [1923] which was directed by William Worsley and then The Phantom of the Opera [1926] which established Chaney as the genre’s first horror icon and star, these two pictures still capture the attention of coinsurers of cinematic fans. Curtis standing on another backlot, informed of the 1930s and 1940s where monsters reign supreme, Universal’s golden era, thanks in part to Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, and Boris Karloff, and she states, “The Mummy, Frankenstein, Dracula, brides, sons, daughters”. This next series of trailers started with Frankenstein [1931], Dracula [1931], The Wolf Man [1941], and The Mummy [1932] these are true classics the stars, directors, writers of each are well-known, on horror lore, their contributions forever branded in the many minds, and the vast selection of the likely lead to our fascination with collecting various pieces of the memorabilia. He is noting how to keep the audiences to return but exploiting variations in the storyline, with The Bride of Frankenstein [1935] which has James Whale return as director Karloff reprising his role as the Monster. Then noting the rise of woman monsters, from She-Wolf of London [1946] that starred June Lockhart, from director Jean Yarbrough to name films about snake and cat women, Weird Woman [1944] which also starred Lon Chaney Jr.; and mention of The Invisible Woman [1940], and finally Captive Wild Woman [1943] which was about changing a female gorilla to a human, portrayed by b-movie starlet Acquanetta. In fact, of those films listed only last one has a full trailer the rest were extremely brief snippets, the actresses were once again short-changed on the screen time. A brief tease of warnings not to answer the phone, but it seems very lost in translation, the meaning of it likely didn’t connect then and won’t today unless associated the “Don’t” films, and even then a further dive is needed to explain them. This was then followed by a scene of Curtis sitting in shopping car trying to induce her smallness to the exploding and expanding wave of radiation, in part to Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic age bombings and the impact of cinema, leading to giant insects, spiders, monsters and a shrinking man. However, no reference to Godzilla [1954] or Them! [1954] as they were not a Universal creation, but the monsters are well-aware of their contributions to the genre. The trailers resume with Jack Arnold’s Tarantula [1955] which incorrectly identifies as an incest, but no matter then the goal was to get the seats filled with panic teenagers.

Next was The Incredible Shrinking Man [1957] another film from director Jack Arnold and featured a screenplay from Richard Matheson, who used the concept instead enlarging a person it minored them greatly to battle a world of new fears., this film is often associated to the comedy Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989). Soon enough Landis and Garris included the most ridiculous The Deadly Mantis [1957] a film for groans and sighs, and one that was director by Nathan Juran, a man who had won an Oscar for Best Art Director in 1942 thankfully not a full trailer which is the same for The Mole People [1956] many of this films were produced by William Alland. Finally, time for Creature from the Black Lagoon [1954], originally presented in 3D, and brought together once more Alland and Arnold to make the most successful film in 3D for universal and led to 2 sequels, as well as endless fanfare. Curtis begins providing some narration of the history of Universal monster mash-up and meet-ups with both House of Frankenstein [1944] and House of Dracula [1945] noting the inclusion of 5 monsters for the fans gush over greatly; with all over show those magnificent gothic sets of long ago. These the set into further exploration of The Mummy’s Hand [1940] and then The Mummy’s Tomb [1942] done to in an attempt to relive past glories of this slow-moving monster, resulting in mediocre returns, hence two sequels dropped in 1944.

Thankfully, they included one of the greatest horror-comedies of all time Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein [1948] which had Karloff passing on the title role of the Monster which Glenn Strange took the role, with Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr. both reprising their roles as Dracula and Wolf Man, respectively.

A side note Karloff, realizing his grave mistake pressure the studios for a chance to work with the comedic duo, first in Abbott and Costello Meet Killer, Boris Karloff [1949] and again in Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde [1953]. As Coming Soon nears the 50-minute mark with start another random slew of trailers thankfully  with titles, for those lesser creations such as Monster on Campus [1958], Son of Dracula [1943]; then the controversial of its time Dracula’s Daughter [1936] as it hinted to bisexuality and lastly The Brides of Dracula [1960] that starred the magnificent Peter Cushing; while produced by Hammer Studios it was universal’s name on the distributions listing..

Curtis speaks of the importance of explosion and how trailers will always include, and then series of quick editing slices and cuts shows a series; always remember when all else fails blow stuff up. Strangely but personally happily the Alfred Hithcock’s The Birds [1963] was tacked on, before thoroughly misplaced E.T. special which included both an interview with Steven Spielberg and behind the scenes/making of the film which shouldn’t have been added to documentary filled of movie trailers, namely horror theme. As comedic song plays for the final two minutes one is treated to random title cards of film titles and poster artwork, among The Sentinel [1977], The Car [1977], Halloween II [1981], and Halloween III [1982], The Thing [1982] all before Curtis appears one last time to sign off.

The overall film is purely for Universal properties, and rather uninformative (hence I hope you enjoyed my minor inclusions of details to give a richer meaningful review), than just random movie titles without any clarification. While this film might have been a splendid offering in 1982, but 40-years later it’s sadly very lame, there’s more interesting offerings in similar fashion that came from this same decade Creepy Classics [1987], hosted by Vincent Price (only 30-minutes in length) and a still stellar version called Terror in the Aisles [1984]. Oh, you did notice that in that show above it’s the orca from Jaws [1975], and if you like to see this rarity of documentaries then look below for the link to the full movie.

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• Scenes from 50 of Universal’s greatest Horror films. Narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122440/

IMDb Rating: 5.8/10

Baron’s Rating: 5.5/10