The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection: Volume 1 (Tarantula / The Mole People / The Incredible Shrinking Man / The Monolith Monsters / Monster on the Campus) [DVD]

. Universal, justly famous for its monster movies of the 1930s like the original DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN, rose to prominence again in the 1950s with its science-fiction movies that often had a monstrous tinge. In THE CLASSIC SCI-FI ULTIMATE COLLECTION, it has given us a wonderful collection of five of their best from that decade. No bells, no whistles, but flawless print quality. In roughly descending order of quality (and allowing for differences in opinion), they are as follows: THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (1957). Genres come and go, but people will be watching this years into the future for its depiction of man in extremis. Grant Williams stars (and holds down the last half of the picture by himself) as a man exposed to a radioactive mist who begins shrinking beyond the ability of modern medicine to control. First he becomes a kind of freak, then shrinks so far his wife and brother cannot locate him. The special effects, that put Williams in his basement but smaller than a matchbox or a house spider, are wonderful. Instead of growing more horrific, the film ends on a note of transcendent grace. It must be seen to be believed. TARANTULA (1955). An excellent film among "creature features." A giant tarantula escapes the laboratory of an increasingly mad scientist (Leo G. Carroll), grows larger, and stalks and terrorizes a small town who are at wit's end to deal with its predations. Special effects are excellent and impressive even today, as is the supporting cast, which includes John Agar, Mara Corday and Hank Patterson. Look fast for a young Clint Eastwood as a jet fighter pilot. THE MONOLITH MONSTERS (1957). Really on the same level of quality as the above TARANTULA, this one deals with a "monster" in the form of minerals that fell to earth in a meteorite and grow when wet, threatening a small desert town. The human interactions are believable, and the “invading” crystals, for all their other-wordliness, are very well portrayed. The cast includes Grant Williams, Lola Albright and Les Tremayne. THE MOLE PEOPLE (1956). An extremely improbable scenario, yet still an absorbing movie. John Agar and Hugh Beaumont head up a cast of archaeologists who stumble across a hidden, and literally underground, remnant of ancient Sumerian civilization. With Cynthia Patrick as the outcast girl who is treated little better than a slave in that weird society. The acting, particularly by the Sumerians, cannot help but be a little stagey but the sets are well done and the plot, for all its improbability, holds together. MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS (1958). Arthur Franz heads up a solid cast as the college scientist who is bitten by an imported coelacanth with mysterious powers. Joanna Moore plays his terrified girlfriend. Essentially a high-tech variation on the Jekyll-and-Hyde myth, this is the closest to the campy fright-night special that so many people consider typical of Fifties movies. Troy Donahue has a small role as one of the rare undergraduates on this only-in-the-movies college campus. An enjoyable "bad movie." At this price -- and again, considering that print quality is pristine -- this collection is a very compelling buy. .

Outstanding! The movies are very high quality copies with sound. Best they could do when they were made. The artwork on the case and the DVD's themselves is excellent. Very impressed! Did I mention only $13. We need more of this kind of quality.

Almost all the movies are good except the shrinking man

Tarantula (1955) Professor Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll) has been working on a special nutrient to help ease a predicted food shortage that is expected to come with the increase in human population. His experiments have been moderately successful but there have been some failures as a result. One day while he is gone, two of his colleagues inject themselves with the nutrient with disastrous results and die a few days later. One however goes mad and injects Deemer with the formula! During a struggle, a giant tarantula injected with the formula escapes its cage and grows even larger and starts to attack cattle as well as human beings. The Mole People (1956) So it starts out with an archaeological team in the 50's that stumbles upon this underground civilization of a lost dynasty of Sumerians, who have apparently failed to evolve over the past 5,000 years. The plot becomes a bit fuzzy here, but pretty much only three people survive. The albinos decide to sacrifice these three survivors, but they escape. One of them dies, but the other two Dr. Bentley (John Agar) and Dr. Bellamin (Hugh Beaumont) escape by shining a flashlight in the albinos and mole people's faces. Wait- who are these mole people? They are mutant humanoid mole-type creatures that are the mistreated slaves of the albinos and resemble the sand people from Star Wars. Just like the albinos, living underground has made them highly sensitive to light. The Sumerian Priest (Alan Napier) believes that the flashlight is the sacred fire of their goddess, Ishtar. They come to believe that Bentley and Bellamin are messengers of Ishtar. They give Bentley a slave, a beautiful woman named Adad (Cynthia Patrick) who is shunned by the albinos because of her tan skin. Of course, she and Bentley fall in love and he promises to take her with him when they escape. The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) Scott Carey (Grant Williams) and his wife Louise (Randy Stuart) are sunning themselves on their cabin cruiser. While his wife is below deck, a low mist passes over him. Scott, lying in the sun, is sprinkled with glittery particles that quickly evaporate. Later he is accidentally sprayed with an insecticide while driving and, in the next few days, he finds that he has begun to shrink. First just a few inches, so that his clothes no longer fit, then a little more. Soon he is only three feet tall, and a national curiosity. At six inches tall he can only live in a doll's house and even that becomes impossible when the cat breaks in! Scott flees to the cellar, his wife thinks he has been eaten by the cat and the door to the cellar is closed, trapping him in the littered room where, menaced by a giant spider, he struggles to survive. The most celebrated of director Jack Arnold's science fiction films and a VERY welcome addition to dvd! The Monolith Monsters (1957) A strange black meteor crashes near the town of San Angelo and litters the countryside with fragments. When a storm exposes these fragments to water, they grow into skyscraper-sized monoliths! Which then topple and shatter into thousands of pieces that grow into monoliths themselves and repeat the process. Any humans in the way are crushed or turned into human statues. The citizens of San Angelo desperately try to save themselves and the world from the spreading doom. Monster On The Campus (1958) A college professor acquires a newly discovered specimen of a prehistoric fish. While examining the find he is accidentally exposed to its blood, turning him into a murderous Neanderthal! And then begins to stalk the college campus, thus bringing us Monster on the Campus! Get the pop-corn, soft drinks, and maybe even a pizza for a night of classic b-movie fun as this awesome collection of `50's way-out sci-fi thrillers will take you back to the days of goofy gigantic spiders, weird eyed monsters, and lots of classic nostalgia! Highly recommended for collectors of classic sci-fi and `50's camp! I'm lovin' it! It's hard to believe that I got this set from [...] back in May for just under $[...] bucks and now it's discontinued and is being offered at prices ranging from $[...] and up! Talk about a fast seller!

This set is a B-movie marathon, so many cliche's in each feature, but at the time of these films, this was cutting edge. They didn't wow the audience on the scale of, say, the original "War Of The Worlds," but they were films which pushed the boundaries of what was considered to be normal. Disc One: "Tarantula," (1955) was directed by Jack Arnold, starring Leo G. Carrol. A story of a scientist who is looking down the road, at the future of the human race; the population is growing, and within fifty years there could very well be too many people to feed. Make your crops bigger, and you can feed more people. But as well, testing is being done on various animals, to see how different ones react to this agent - this way the farmers know what to do with their animals when this becomes commonplace. One of the creatures being tested is a tarantula...why you would want to supersize a spider is beyond me, but this is the case. During a fight which ensues (a byline in the story), the spider escapes, and since different creatures react differently, this little beast is the size of a dog when it escapes. In no time, it's bigger than a house, and everything is tried to kill, or at least, stop it. "The Mole People," (1955) directed by Virgil Vogel, is one of the absolute CHEESIEST films of all time; a race of people who live underground, and have, as their slaves, creatures which resemble humans, but have no human features to their faces. They have large clawed hands and hump-backs. They clearly look like costumes, and the people who enslave them look like Star Wars - Dungeons And Dragons rejects. Bad acting and a confusing ending make it a low-budget treat. Disc Two: "The Incredible Shrinking Man" (1956) also directed by Jack Arnold. A somewhat tall, strapping man, due to accidentally inhaling a strange substance, combined with his own body chemistry, causes him to gradually shrink. Soon, he is living in a doll house his wife had to buy so he could sleep safely, as the cat is now seeing him as prey. Even though it's slightly comical, it is a very good script, exceptionally well-written, and very philosophical in nature. When the leading man is believed to be dead by his wife (she thinks the cat killed him), he is actually trapped in the basement, the size of an insect, reduced to trying to take the bait from a mouse trap to avoid starving to death. After winning a death battle with a spider, he shrinks to microscopic, and eventually atomic size, and we wonder just what happens to him after. But the narration talks of all this in the past tense, so just what happens to him? "The Monolith Monsters," (1956) directed by John Sherwood, is probably the most credible of these stories. A strange stone-like substance drops from the sky, and very quickly grows when exposed to water. These stones grow into giant pillars and tumble to the ground, shattering and the pieces grow into new ones. As they grow, they fall over and crush and destroy everything around them. So the town's officials have to band together and figure how to stop this before it destroys their home town. "Monster On Campus" (1957) is another Jack Arnold film, the least original of the five featured films, simply a variation on the Jekyll/Hyde story. Nobody knows the main character's alter ego, they just want to know who has been attacking everyone in town. Eventually his secret is discovered at the film's conclusion. I have appeared to give the stories away, but in films this cheesy, knowing the outcomes still doesn't spoil them. They are for the B-movie afficinados who enjoy cheap monster movies. But, as a real plus, all of these films, without exception, are beautifully restored to pristine quality. The original Godzilla film ("Gojira" 1954), as an example, looks like it was filmed during a blizzard, with all the white blotches all over the place. The films in this set are completely devoid of this flaw. They are of the highest quality, with nice, clear sound as well. This is a fairly inexpensive movie marathon for those nights when there isn't much to do. Get some junk food and sit back.

Pleasantly surprised at the clean, sharp, flawless versions of these classic & vintage Sci-Fi movies, free from scratches, blips or missing frames. It is also fun to see some of these actors so early in their careers. Lola Albright before starring in Peter Gunn, Joanna Moore before starring with Elvis or Andy Griffith, Alan Napier before becoming Bruce Wayne's butler on Batman, Hugh Beaumont before becoming a dad to Beaver Cleaver, a young Troy Donahue being a teen and Oscar winning director of photography Russell Metty showing he could do it on a low budget film. This is a great buy & a lot of fun!

I got this DVD primarily for the classic film “the incredible shrinking man. “This movie is faithful to the book and can be interpreted on many levels. As the main character begins to shrink, it could be argued that his world is enlarging. In someways he has to die to himself to achieve the metaphysical ending. In doing this he has to battle his own demons and attachments, ego. It can also be enjoyed just as a classic science-fiction film that is very well done. “Tarantula“ is another classic science-fiction film and is very well done. “The monolith monsters“ is perhaps the most original plot and it’s some thing of a cult classic.“The mole people” is quite good, with something of a nod towards the story of journey to the center of the earth. The last film, “monster on the campus“ was surprisingly good. Never heard of it and with a title like that I had low expectations. However it was much better than expected. Watch for a young Troy Donahue in an early role. This collection is a must for classic science fiction fans, but recommended to anyone who enjoys movies from this period ., Especially at the price offered.

Love these old sci-fi movies! They made these with what they had to work with. No computer generated special effects.

Entrega rápida, en excelentes condiciones

Universal pone a la venta este paquete con cinco clásicos de la ciencia ficción cincuentera, separadas en 3 discos. Cada DVD tiene un pequeño menu al inicio que deja seleccionar cada película, solo eso, la presentación es austera pero para ser películas de serie b la verdad es que la imagen no esta nada mal, no contiene extras y el audio es solo en ingles sin subtítulos al español. Todas los discos estan en region 1 por lo que deberán tener un reproductor compatible para reproducirlos. La entrega llego antes de lo previsto y sin ningún problema.

Estas películas las vi en mi juventud, y mucho las disfrute, ahora las vuelvo a gozar. excelente audio y video, muy buena imagen. muy buenos títulos, para los aficionados a la fantasia y ciencia ficción, muy recomedables. Ojalá las programaran con subtitulos en español, pues únicamente contienen subtitulos en inglés, aunque se le entiden bien