394-396 Columbia Horror

[MichaelB]

COLUMBIA HORROR
Release date: 21 October 2024
Limited Edition Blu-ray (World and UK Blu-ray premieres)

Pre-order here

BEHIND THE MASK (John Francis Dillon, 1932)
BLACK MOON (Roy William Neill, 1934)
AIR HAWKS (Albert S Rogell, 1935)
ISLAND OF DOOMED MEN (Charles Barton, 1940)
CRY OF THE WEREWOLF (Henry Levin, 1944)
THE SOUL OF A MONSTER (Will Jason, 1944)

Six bone-chilling tales from the vaults of Columbia Pictures, starring a host of the classic horror genre’s most celebrated names, including Ralph Bellamy (Lady on a Train), Nina Foch (Escape in the Fog), Rose Hobart (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), Jack Holt (Cat People), Boris Karloff (The Criminal Code), Peter Lorre (M), and Fay Wray (Thunderbolt).

In Behind the Mask, the dastardly Dr ‘X’ murders his patients and smuggles narcotics in their coffins. Black Moon sees a cursed daughter return to the island where her parents perished in a voodoo ceremony. In Air Hawks, pioneering aviators are tormented by rivals operating a horrifying death ray. Island of Doomed Men sees an undercover agent infiltrating a remote penal colony presided over by a madman. In Cry of the Werewolf, a beautiful female lycanthrope vows to murder those who discover her family’s secret. And, for those whose nerves are still intact, The Soul of a Monster tells the tale of a woman who makes a diabolical deal to save her husband’s life.

This essential three-disc collection marks the UK Blu-ray premiere of all six films, and features an array of fascinating contextualising extras, including newly recorded commentaries, critical appreciations, and rare archival short films, as well as a 100-page book containing new and archival writings. Strictly limited to 6,000 individually numbered units.


INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION 3 x BLU-RAY BOX SET SPECIAL FEATURES

• High Definition remasters of Behind the Mask, Black Moon, Air Hawks, Island of Doomed Men, Cry of the Werewolf, and The Soul of a Monster
• Tinted and black-and-white presentations of Black Moon
• Original mono audio
• Audio commentary with filmmaker and film historian Daniel Kremer on Behind the Mask (2024)
• Audio commentary with critics and authors Stephen Jones and Kim Newman on Black Moon (2024)
• Audio commentary with film historian Jeremy Arnold on Air Hawks (2024)
• Audio commentary with film historians Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson on Island of Doomed Men (2024)
• Audio commentary with academic and curator Eloise Ross on Cry of the Werewolf (2024)
• Audio commentary with critics and authors Stephen Jones and Kim Newman on The Soul of a Monster (2024)
• Sheldon Hall on Jack Holt (2024): the author and academic assesses the forgotten star of Behind the Mask and Black Moon
• Jonathan Rigby on Peter Lorre (2024): the author of American Gothic: Six Decades of Classic Horror Cinema looks at the iconic performer
• Tom Vincent on Burnett Guffey (2024): the archivist provides an overview of the prolific cinematographer’s award-winning career
• The BEHP Interview with Constance Cummings (1997): archival audio recording of the Behind the Mask actor in conversation with Roy Fowler
• New York to Berlin in Twenty-Six Hours (1933): documentary short on the exploits of aviator Wiley Post, who plays himself in Air Hawks
• Don’t Kill Your Friends (1943): World War II short film featuring Cry of the Werewolf star Nina Foch
• Image galleries: promotional and publicity materials
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Limited edition exclusive 100-page book with new essays by Bethan Roberts, Ellen Wright, Sergio Angelini, Paul Duane, Tim Snelson, and Jeff Billington; archival profiles of actors Boris Karloff, Fay Wray, and Rochelle Hudson; archival reports on the death of Air Hawks actor Wiley Post; extracts from Cry of the Werewolf’s pressbook; a new piece on actor Rose Hobart’s blacklisting; new writing on the short films; and film credits
• World and UK premieres on Blu-ray
• Limited edition box set of 6,000 individually numbered units for the UK
• All extras subject to change

#PHILE394B
BBFC cert: 12 TBC
REGION B
EAN: 5060697923810

[domino harvey]

Looks nice but I am skeptical of replay value here (and also strongly suspect we’ll see a $10 Mill Creek Blu ray port soon)— anyone want to make a case for these films?

I know the Lorre was just released by Imprint, so that’s probably why there’s some confusing UK and World Premiere language here

Also, interesting to see Wiley Post extras— he died in the same accident as Will Rogers and Oklahomans will recognize him for his namesake, as both airports in the OKC area are named after celebs who died in a plane crash!

[Maltic]

Fwiw, Eureka's Karloff at Columbia set was a lot of fun.

The extras look top notch. All of the commentarians have a high batting average.

[DeprongMori]

Looks nice but I am skeptical of replay value here (and also strongly suspect we’ll see a $10 Mill Creek Blu ray port soon)— anyone want to make a case for these films?

I watched Behind the Mask relatively recently on 16mm on a flatbed and found it thoroughly mediocre. It’s not a horror film, despite the presence of Karloff and Van Sloan, but rather a crime film — and not a particularly good one at that. Karloff is a support player in this and has a terrible time maintaining a consistent accent for his character. The script seems to have been cobbled together in an afternoon. Not one for the ages. Recommendation: Watch it on YouTube if you are a Karloff completist.

I hope the other films are several notches better than this one.

[MichaelB]

Final specs for Columbia Horror:



Disc 1: Behind the Mask + Black Moon



Disc 2: Air Hawks + Island of Doomed Men



Disc 3: Cry of the Werewolf + The Soul of a Monster

[MichaelB]

A wonderfully detailed review from CineSavant.

[MichaelB]

Columbeaver Horror.

[domino harvey]

Behind the Mask: I agree with DeprongMori that this is a gangster film and not a horror. I actually doubt anyone would dispute that, even Indicator-- I imagine it helps to sell sets with "Horror" in the title if you can advertise Karloff is in one of them. Because there is unambiguously not a single horror element here. But I found it more agreeable than DM did, even though I didn't realize until watching this that the Secret Service used to handle drug cases before the creation of the DEA!

Black Moon: Masterpiece. One of the best (if not the best) horror films I've seen from this period. Perfect tension from beginning to end, and legit eeriness abounds with all of the rhymthmic humming, chanting, and tom-tom thumping. Superior use of making the most with a minuscule budget. Jack Holt here is, as he was in the previous film, a non-entity, but it doesn't matter, and his Preston Foster Lite presence works here, at least. Great, surprisingly hearty supporting turn from Clarence Muse as a character that this film's detractors would be better off celebrating for evading so many of the plot cliches of roles for colored actors in this era (or as much as any black character could). The film is also the beneficiary of one of the worst, most miserable Letterboxd commentary sections I've ever seen... the collective reviews being all on the wrong side of 3.0 in the spread says it all, cinephilia is now just an exercise in only digesting material that does not challenge one's own beliefs.

[MichaelB]

Because there is unambiguously not a single horror element here.

"Few people are able to see an operation performed upon them, but you will be able to see every detail of it. It will be too bad, of course, that you will not be able to talk about it afterward. [...] The pain, when I am going through the layers of skin, will not be unendurable. It is only when I begin to cut on the inside that you will realise that you are having an experience. Wasn't it Nietzsche who said that unendurable pain merges into ecstasy? We shall find out whether that was an epigram or a fact. For my part, I know it will be ecstasy."

[domino harvey]

I get your point, but a creative threat of violence is still not horror to my eyes (and by this logic, is Jack Reacher a horror film because Werner Herzog tells an unfortunate victim that he’ll spare his life if the guy bites off all of his own fingers?)

Honestly, one of the characters flipping the x-ray machine onto himself on and off like a toy is the scariest thing here!

[domino harvey]

This set went downhill fast!

Air Hawks: Also not a horror, this is a mildly sci-fi-infused film of unfair business competition taken to diabolical lengths as competing airliners hire a mad German doctor to shoot down Ralph Bellamy's mail plane fleet with a death ray. That sentence makes this sound more interesting than it is, and part of the film's flaws is explained by its release date of 1935. Hollywood struggled the most in the years following the implementation of the Code, and it's dreck like this that shows how well they overcame it later by highlighting how this wasn't a foregone conclusion. I can only assume someone at Indicator loves early aviation and wanted to include Wiley Post material in this release (he is third billed and on screen for approximately a minute, as himself). On the plus side, between this and Behind the Mask, I learned "bail/bale" (as in bail out) is an American/UK spelling difference I wasn't aware of

Island of Doomed Men: Also also not a horror, unless I Am A Fugitive From a Chain Gang! is a horror film now. Peter Lorre needed to be reigned in to be used to his fullest slimy potential, and he is unfortunately given free reign here to gesticulate and emote wildly in this laughably awful "island" adventure film with a secret agent purposely getting sent to Lorre's secluded "parole island." Zero redeeming qualities.

Cry of the Werewolf: Actually a horror movie. Not a good one, but it is one. I liked bits and pieces of this variation on "the Cat's Paw" folk tale as an occult museum curator is murdered by the gypsy daughter of a famous werewolf, but it doesn't add up to much. Exceptionally little care was taken in depicting the transformation scenes. Stephen Crane makes Jack Holt look like Frederic March.

[domino harvey]

the Soul of a Monster: Saving the worst for last, this is an annoyingly moralistic cheapie that doesn't even have the courage of clear convictions, just a general "Devil Bad, God Good" understanding of faith. What's sad is that the basic story here could be compelling with almost no effort: a dying charitable doctor is saved by an agent of the Devil, only for the doctor to turn "bad" after he recovers. Think of every scenario that might depict a good man becoming bad. List three hundred. Keep going. Whatever you then write down for 301-305, that's what this film gives us. That said, I can see two types of audiences enjoying this. The first is those who are obsessed with proto-slasher trappings in movies of this nature, as there is a long passage involving an icepick that anticipates the Stalk and Slash format decades before it was popularized. The second is the kind of audience who likes their bad films to be LOUDLY, OUTRAGEOUSLY bad. The kind of viewer who enjoyed Decoy, for instance. They'll probably have a ball with this.

Black Moon was released on Blu-ray by Imprint by itself. My advice: buy that or wait for the disc with it to be separated from its box set kin after this sells out, if this sells out...

[therewillbeblus]

Black Moon was released on Blu-ray by Imprint by itself. My advice: buy that or wait for the disc with it to be separated from its box set kin after this sells out, if this sells out...

Too bad the Imprint is completely barebones - the film deserves more

[Finch]

Apart from being more expensive, the Imprint doesn't appear to have the tinted version of Black Moon which looks really striking as well as no commentary or the interview about Jack Holt. Have Indicator ever not released a standard edition of their box set titles? (I'd honestly be more worried that they might not issue the John Ford at Columbia films again given that the set is still in print. This horror set is probably going to sell out at a faster pace by comparison)

[swo17]

The Imprint disc does include both B&W and tinted versions

[reaky]

In the Jonathan Rigby piece on Peter Lorre included on the Island of Doomed Men disc, there are a few clips from The Face Behind the Mask, which I don’t think Indicator have released yet. I wonder if it’ll be part of another box - I don’t think there’s enough for another Columbia Horror set.