Mill Creek Entertainment has released a series of movie collections this summer, packed with little-seen Columbia Pictures releases licensed from Sony. On July 31, the label released 4 Movie Collection - Classic Horror, but that’s a misnomer. Only two of these films are genuine horror movies and it would be a stretch to call any of them real “classics.”
Here’s what you get in the two-disc set:
Five (1951, 91 minutes) - The longest film in the set was written, directed and produced by former radio personality Arch Oboler and is billed as one of the first films to deal with a post-apocalyptic world. It’s about a group of survivors of an atomic apocalypse and their attempts to live in a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house. There’s nothing that screams “horror” about it, especially because there are no monsters or big animals that pose any danger to the group. They are dangerous to themselves, so the movie is trying to make a statement on human nature... or something like that. Too bad there’s no big star in this to lead the cast. The film was previously released on DVD by itself in Sony’s Martini Movies line.
The Mad Magician (1954, 73 minutes) - John Brahm’s The Mad Magician is the “masterpiece” of this set, if only because seeing Vincent Price get excited about burning people in an oven is pure gold. Price plays a magician out for revenge after he finally realizes that nice guys always finish last. Even Eva Gabor can’t survive his revenge trip. This was actually shot as a 3D film and you can see some obvious 3D gags. It was previously released on Sony’s made-on-demand DVD-R line (for a whopping $15.99).
The Man Who Turned To Stone (1957, 72 minutes) - Probably the worst film in the set, this one stars Victory Jory as the leader of a group of a group of doctors who have kept themselves alive for hundreds of years by sucking the life force out of people. In the movie, they suck the life out of girls form an all-female penitentiary. If they can’t get their new life force, they turn to stone. Unfortunately for them, people get suspicious when the girls disappear in the middle of the night. What’s really frustrating is that Charlotte Austin’s character is the one who gets suspicious, but she needs her boyfriend to solve the mystery. It was previously released on Sony’s made-on-demand DVD-R line (for $15).
The Terror of the Tongs (1961, 77 minutes) - Before Christopher Lee began his cycle of Fu Manchu films at Hammer, he starred in the boring murder mystery The Terror of the Tongs. Here, he is also stuck in make-up as a Chinese gangster who terrorizes Hong Kong. But when the Red Dragon Tong messes with the wrong British guy (Geoffrey Tune), that’s when the gang has to start paying for thier crimes. This was previously available in another cheap Sony pack of Columbia-released Hammer movies called Adventure Collection.
The only advantage of this set is that it’s dirt cheap, plus all films are in their original aspect ratios. There’s no bonus material. If you like cheesy horror movies or are a Prince and Lee completist, this is probably worth picking up. Actually, it’s worth it for The Mad Magician alone.