Kevin Brownlow is an important film historian and has made some truly amazing and complete documentaries about such topics as European cinema between the wars, the work of various silent comics as well as Mary Pickford. For his very hard work, the Academy gave him an honorary Oscar a few years ago. So, this being a Brownlow film, I KNEW I had to see it....and for the first time I was rather disappointed.
For me, calling the film "Universal Horror" was a HUGE mistake. While about 90% of the picture does concern the horror movies made by Universal Studios...many of them weren't and it seemed odd to have films like "King Kong", "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" and many others featured in the documentary. It really was NOT about Universal...at least not completely. Additionally, MANY of the great Universal Horror films were never even mentioned--such as the Mummy series of the 1940s, the Creeper, Freaks and many other important movies. Woefully incomplete and NOT an exhaustive or even close to complete look at the subject in hand. Sad...but still enjoyable...though WHY did the film keep asking James Karen what he thought about these films?! He seemed to have nothing to do with horror films...so why him?
For me, calling the film "Universal Horror" was a HUGE mistake. While about 90% of the picture does concern the horror movies made by Universal Studios...many of them weren't and it seemed odd to have films like "King Kong", "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" and many others featured in the documentary. It really was NOT about Universal...at least not completely. Additionally, MANY of the great Universal Horror films were never even mentioned--such as the Mummy series of the 1940s, the Creeper, Freaks and many other important movies. Woefully incomplete and NOT an exhaustive or even close to complete look at the subject in hand. Sad...but still enjoyable...though WHY did the film keep asking James Karen what he thought about these films?! He seemed to have nothing to do with horror films...so why him?