The series of Universal Monsters on DVD that came out a few years ago...were they in Widescreen? Thanks all!

They were in OAR, which was 4:3. So the answer is no, but that's cuz they never were wide.

Thanks, Kitchen! I guess there's no need to wait for something better then!

Although, they could always restore them and make them look alot better than what was released before.

Good lord! I just checked at a few auction sites and these are selling for rates that are to be quite frank...insane! Why did Universal stop production on these? More hundreds of thousands of people each year go to DVD from VHS, which means more people (like myself) would buy certain titles if they were available. How much money are they missing out on by discontinuing these before millions of people get DVD players/recorders?

Where do I (or we) write to if we want to request these (or as ernestrp suggests, better versions) to go back into production?

Kinda sucks, doesn't it? I was amazed when Universal let these go under. These are films that I just expect to be available, at the very least, the big 4 or 5 of 'em, if not the sequels (Except Bride; that sequel is mandatory).

And when the heck are we gonna get the Invisible Man sequels, dagnabbit??

I have them all!

Besides the Mummy sequels, they are all excellent.

Bah. They're ALL excellent.

By the way, Kimiakane, widescreen wasn't in general use until 1953/1954, for your future reference.

Rumor still holds that Universal will put these back out next year. We'll see if it happens. I have a website that talks about these discs: http://shillpages.com/uscmc

I'm glad I picked these up when I did, they are in OAR and have very nice transfers (unless you expect perfection) and the extras are fantastic. I just don't understand why they stopped production on them either, hopefully Universal will be re-releasing in some way or another.

I have all of these except for one of the Double Features (MUMMY)
if you have doubts about the quality of the transfers look at the trailers featured on these discs and you can see the difference. They look and sound great considering the age of this work. Curious to see if UNIVERSAL re releases these or removes them off of moratorium when VAN HELSING is released.

I just checked ebay, while they are going for about twice of what one would normally pay, it wasn't as bad as i thought. Not nearly as bad as the criterion stuff or what Scarface was going for(i sold mine for about 5 times what i paid). I'm praying they will rerelease them here soon. I just wish i would have bought the boxset for 100 when i had the chance(reminds when i had the chance to buy the Star Wars Definitive Collection, unopened for 50.)

Actually the ones I see on e-bay are about 20 bucks a disc. That's about what my set cost me when I first got it. It was just shy of 200 shipped when I picked it up.

Universal has slipped the most of major movie studios concerning DVD's.The older horror titles are the one's that I am looking for the most.Maybe there older titles are a low priority right now.

This makes me wonder why people are suddenly buying them now, when back when they were in-print they were choking the shelves. Yeah they might not have had the money at the time to buy it, but now they suddenly have twice the money to buy it off of eBay? Do they realize that these won't be out of print forever and most likely will have better versions out one day? Yeah nothing's been officially announced, but there is no reason that Universal won't. The Universal Monsters are part of cinema history.

I have them all including the double features and really wish they would release more. I wonder if the fact AMC was changed from a classic movie channel to, well whatever it is now had anything to do with these staying out of print.

I noticed that the Universal monster films will all be on Turner Classic Movies this year. So at least I can use my DVD recorder to supplement my collection.

I'm thinking that Universal might be waiting until Van Helsing is released at theaters or on DVD to rerelease all of the Classic Monster films. Hopefully they will add more films to DVD if this happens.

This DVDs are available in some South American countries in a coffin shaped box. The only diference with the zone 1 discs is that "Dracula" doesnt have the spanish version of the movie.
The discs can be played in region 1 players without problem.

I bought the box in Chile (www.bazarvirtual.cl, you have to send and e-mail to get it) for 80 dollars or something, but I know that you can buy them in Brazil at a cheaper price.

IIRC the MSRP of these titles was $30 and most stores wanted close to that at time when I could get just about any dvd for $10 or less. I eventually bought several for < $10 each from CH. Even at that price they were disappointing, the quality was horrible. The only one I thought in reasonable shape was Creature. If Universal needs to see what a good restoration looks like they should watch Citizen Kane and get a clue. It isn't perfect but it is lightyears ahead of any of the Classic Monster films.

In my case, as well as many others I'm sure, we didn't have DVD players when these DVDs were first released. According to many sources, millions of first-time DVD consumers are being added to the fold every quarter.

None of the Universals sell anywhere near what Citizen Kane did...why should they invest so much $ into something they aren't going to get back?

I think all the transfers look TOO good...I like my Universal Monsters dirty and scratchy...gives them charcter.

Maybe Michael Bay will remake all of em in color with new nifty CGI FX, that way a whole new generation could enjoy them.

I went to Universal's DVD website and asked about the possible rerelase citing that millions of new DVD buyers are coming every year and many would want these in their collections. He said there were no plans to do so but he would forward my request to marketing. Yeah, that will help.

I've thought about buyin' all these and now I realize just how costly a venture it is goin' to be..Argh...Such is the life of a DVDtalker and collector.

If you can track them down they are more than worth the expense. I purchased all of them including the double feature Mummy/Dracula/Frankenstein issues.

Without a doubt EVERYONE of these discs LOOKS GREAT!! I've been a fan of classic Horror since my dad introduced me to these films over thirty years ago and each one of these discs more than exceeded my expectations.

The transfers are fine on each disc. The only one that may need a bit of cleaning up is the Bride of Frankenstein. Other than that they all look and sound wonderful.

I have all these discs.

DRACULA is transferred from a soft, muddy print. It's easily the worst of the lot. (The Spanish DRACULA looks much better.) There are problems with some of the other transfers, as well, notably BRIDE, which is cropped slightly left of center.

But in general these discs are acceptable to good and the best of them -- FRANKENSTEIN, THE WOLF MAN, CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON -- are spectacular. The extra features, on the discs that feature them, are excellent.

The most popular rumor is that many of these discs will be reissued when VAN HELSING reaches theaters next year, and that could be. But a more convincing rumor I heard was that Universal is dragging its feet about releasing more catalog titles until the Vivendi-Universal sale is complete. Another possible wrinkle I heard was that Vivendi may sell Universal's film library as a separate commodity from the studio itself, so the 2 go could to different buyers. In any case they want to leave this stuff up to the potential new owner(s).

Hate to bring up an old thread, but....

I went to Xploitedcinema.com and got the Chile box set for $65.00 dollars. It had all the classic monster movie's...
Inlcuded was..

Phantom of the Opera
Frakenstein
Bride of Frakenstein
Dracula
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Wolf Man
The Invisible Man
The Mummy

And I must say it was worth every cent. These are classics. No, the transfer's are not perfect - but considering the age of the film, I can live with it. The worse has to be 'Bride of Frakenstein', as I noticed quite abit of dirt and other problems with the movie. As a horror movie fan / DVD fan, I'm glad to have these in my collection. Now, I'll have to persue the rest of the series (The Mummy sequels / Daughter of Dracula / Son of Dracula / and etc).