Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

Does anyone here have that two disc Frankenstein set that came out a few years ago? It's the 75th anniversary version with the Gold packaging.

The reason I ask is my work has it for $7.50 and I was wondering if it's worth picking up? I have the Legacy (green packaging) set so I'm not in dire need of the film.

I bought a copy when Borders was on its way down. I think it is well worth it!

I don't recall if the green set was digitally remastered, but this copy certainly is! I've never seen it look better. It also restores the famous Colin Clive "God" line after seeing his creation come to life (previous versions always had that line drowned out by the lightning thunder).

Among the special features, there is a great new documentary about Karloff (with a special focus on Bela Lugosi). And there is also a new commentary by British film historian Christopher Frayling (which I thought was rather odd since his specialty is Leone and Spaghetti Westerns). But he actually does a good job here and I think his commentary is even better than the one provided by Rudy Belmer from the green set. Rudy is good, but sometimes he goes off on a tangent and not talk about certain important scenes that just passed by but rather going through a resume of a certain actor. Frayling, I thought did a better job in terms of explaining scenes.

I'm a little skeptical on this BD set personally. I just do not see how the movies can look any better than how they do in the Legacy Collections unless Universal went ahead and did full restorations with every movie on that set. Sure, it says they have, but that can mean anything these days. However, if they really did, then I will pick it up even though it is still missing some of the essentials like House of Frankensten and The Wolfman Meets Frankenstein (well, provided I can afford it after the uber expensive James Bond and Indiana Jones collections).

Well that is just it. I am not sure I can trust Universal's world about them giving the movies a full restoration like Criterion did with Godzilla. I'm going to let the reviews and my finances determine this one for me. I have preordered it on Amazon just in case though.

That still does not tell me why they are ommiting Son of Frankenstein (my favorite of them), The Wolfman Meets Frankenstein, Return of the Creature, The Mummy's Hand, and House of Frankenstein. I can kind of understand them skipping on the rest of the Karis movies, the third Gillman movie, but this set is juts missing too many movies and I am worried that if I buy it, I will have to rebuy them again because then they will do BD full restoration Legacy Collections.

If I recall, "The Invisible Man" was not fully restored unlike the other films. The one featured in the green set I always thought was of poor condition.

So I watched that video and I am kind of sold. Of course, as I said before, it will depend on how much money I have after I buy the James Bond collection.