75 of 79 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Frightful Indeed!!!!!!! Quality , that is!!!!!, September 8, 2006
Where, oh where to begin? This set is horrible, picture quality varies from bad to worse! Even the few films that are watchable have the Passport logo" Bela Lugosi Collection" in the right hand bottom corner. There are a couple of these films that look like historical pieces that you see on the history channel ....when i say bad, i mean reallllllllllly bad! Hard to believe they would even release a couple of these unwatchable gems(unwatchable because of picture quality) on dvd at all, i mean what was the point of releasing this garbage? I wish Lugosi Jr could get control of these films and do them right! For good Lugosi i recommend avoiding this and check out titles by Roan Group(they restore beautifully) or the Navarre Corporation who release Bela Lugosi Estate versions of the dvds.Taking a chance to see "if" it might be worthwhile, will only leave you with a box of coasters.
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35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Bargain?, September 12, 2006
This set could be an ideal way for the uninitiated to sample the films of Lugosi and decide if they want to commit to buying more, including better copies of ones presented here.
First I'll address the logo. I looked forward in dread after reading that Passport always puts logos on the screen in their releases. I expected a large brightly colored emblem, drawing my eye away from the films. In reality it's a rather small faint image that I completely forgot about after the first three movies. In fact, if I had to testify, I couldn't swear in court that it was on every single one, but it probably is. Nevertheless there's no reason for it to be there.
The first two discs are horrible. Midnight girl is pretty much the same quality you see on cheap editions of any silent film. White Zombie looks just like Platinum Disc's release in their Classic Horror collection. The Death Kiss is the worst of the first disc, with dozens of frame jumps and audio skips throughout. The Mysterious Mr. Wong looks okay, but the background hiss makes much of the dialogue difficult to make out. The pair of Chandu movies are easily the worst quality on the entire set. They look and sound like warmed over crap and that's all I'm going to say about the matter.
Starting off the third disc, The Dark Eyes of London looks a little better, but it sounded like the speakers on my tv were crammed with cotton. Not hiss this time, just plain muffled sound. The Devil Bat looks the best I've ever personally seen it, but I hope to find a better copy someday. The Corpse Vanishes looks wonderful except for that logo, and the sound is great too. I wouldn't expect to see a better copy anywhere.
The films on the fourth disc are all passable, although Scared To Death would probably look better if you turned the color on your tv all the way down, since it's main problem is that the colors fade and shimmer, and it's kind of distracting.
Ironically, the Ed Wood films are the best looking ones in this set, and they occupy the final disc.
I bought this set for a price that was less than a dollar per movie. Even at that price this wasn't a bargain for me because I had already seen most of these films, and now I'll still be buying them again to get the quality that I wanted. However, for those who are curious and have seen less than half of these movies, this is a good sampler of Lugosi in a variety of roles
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Original "Dark Eyes of London", March 6, 2008
After years of faded public-domain copies, we finally get a decent British print of the 1939 Bela Lugosi thriller "The Dark Eyes of London" (retitled "The Human Monster" for its 1940 American release). This video includes the uncut feature, followed by the Monogram theatrical trailer. Bela delivers one of his finest performances in this Edgar Wallace adaptation - memorably assisted by Wilfred Walter as the blind henchman. Surprisingly gruesome for Production Code standards, "The Dark Eyes of London" remains a classic Lugosi vehicle.
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