The Mad Monster

Rating:
Summary: I found this dvd, despite poor quality, a lot of fun
Review: "The Mad Monster" is a bad movie. George Zucco hams it up a lot. But it is a lot of fun, and is atmospheric despite the usual trappings (i.e. old dark house on sawmp). The second bonus feature "The Black Raven" is another fun little PRC flicker with Glenn Strange in comedy releif! Both of these films make a fitting double-bill. The bonus materials are cool also, including an excellent audio interveiw with Glenn Strange, and the original theatrical trailer for "The Mad Monster". Completely worth the buy.

Rating:
Summary: I found this dvd, despite poor quality, a lot of fun
Review: "The Mad Monster" is a bad movie. George Zucco hams it up a lot. But it is a lot of fun, and is atmospheric despite the usual trappings (i.e. old dark house on sawmp). The second bonus feature "The Black Raven" is another fun little PRC flicker with Glenn Strange in comedy releif! Both of these films make a fitting double-bill. The bonus materials are cool also, including an excellent audio interveiw with Glenn Strange, and the original theatrical trailer for "The Mad Monster". Completely worth the buy.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Idea, but rather poorly executed
Review: I couldn't wait for the release of this George Zucco classic (The Mad Monster). I had recorded it off TV about 10 years ago and couldn't wait to see a good copy of the film. Retromedia bragged that it had combined two prints of the film for the best possible copy. Yikes! Putting together two poor copies still makes a poor copy. Alas, I was disappointed.

In case you don't know the plot, Mad Scientist George Zucco has been shunned by the scientific world because of his theories of creating a great army of wolfmen. Now George is plotting his revenge by ... Zucco is priceless too as he weaves his revenge... But this film and sound quality of this version is not worth the [$$].

EXTRAS - This DVD does have some extras. It has an excellent copy of the trailer (from 35 mm). There is also an abbreviated audio interview with Glenn Strange. This is part of the same audio interview that appears on another DVD, but this one has been edited to include Strange's comments on his horror film performance. So, it is excellent. The last extra is the movie the Black Raven, an old Dark House mystery. The quality is much better than the Mad Monster, but still not great. It looks really good in comparison to the other film, but I suspect I would be complaining if I had watched it first. It's a fun little mystery and has some good comic effects by Glenn Strange.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Idea, but rather poorly executed
Review: I couldn't wait for the release of this George Zucco classic (The Mad Monster). I had recorded it off TV about 10 years ago and couldn't wait to see a good copy of the film. Retromedia bragged that it had combined two prints of the film for the best possible copy. Yikes! Putting together two poor copies still makes a poor copy. Alas, I was disappointed.

In case you don't know the plot, Mad Scientist George Zucco has been shunned by the scientific world because of his theories of creating a great army of wolfmen. Now George is plotting his revenge by ... Zucco is priceless too as he weaves his revenge... But this film and sound quality of this version is not worth the [$$].

EXTRAS - This DVD does have some extras. It has an excellent copy of the trailer (from 35 mm). There is also an abbreviated audio interview with Glenn Strange. This is part of the same audio interview that appears on another DVD, but this one has been edited to include Strange's comments on his horror film performance. So, it is excellent. The last extra is the movie the Black Raven, an old Dark House mystery. The quality is much better than the Mad Monster, but still not great. It looks really good in comparison to the other film, but I suspect I would be complaining if I had watched it first. It's a fun little mystery and has some good comic effects by Glenn Strange.

Rating:
Summary: Don't Buy This DVD - There Is A Glitch!
Review: Please don't buy this DVD as at 8:32 into the movie the disc freezes. The only way to get past it is to skip to the next chapter and rewind to that point. Fast-forward will do no good, as it's doesn't work. I had two copies sent and they were both the same.

By the way: The quality of the print is just awful.

To be clear I want to explain that I'm talking about the more expensive Ventura Distribution edition. I doubt the less expensive disc freezes, but would bet the quality is even worse (if that's possible).

If you buy it after reading this warning, remember I tried to say you some annoyance and you just didn't listen.