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Universal Classic Monsters Collection, released in September 2015, was supposed to be the be-all and end-all of Universal’s classic monsters on Blu-ray. Well, not exactly. Although collectors were happy to have the eight greatest monster films from Universal’s vaults all in one Blu-ray collection, many were disappointed that Universal didn’t also upgrade the subsequent films in their Frankenstein, Dracula, The Invisible Man, The Mummy, The Wolf Man, and Creature from the Black Lagoon franchises.

The eight films in the initial Blu-ray collection were 1931’s Frankenstein and Dracula, 1933’s The Invisible Man and The Mummy, 1935’s The Bride of Frankenstein, 1941’s The Wolf Man, 1943’s The Phantom of the Opera, and 1954’s The Creature from the Black Lagoon. In September 2016, Universal released Frankenstein: Complete Legacy Collection and The Wolf Man: Complete Legacy Collection. Newly released are Dracula: Complete Legacy Collection and The Mummy: Complete Legacy Collection. Blu-ray releases of The Invisible Man and The Creature from the Black Lagoon complete legacies will presumably see forthcoming releases. 1943’s The Phantom of the Opera did not become an ongoing franchise, but it’s possible that we may see a combined Blu-ray release of the 1943 and 1962 versions of the classic tale combined in a future release, as both are owned by Universal.

While the original 1931 version of Frankenstein and its 1935 sequel, The Bride of Frankenstein, both directed by James Whale, remain the definitive films in the Frankenstein canon, other films in Frankenstein: Complete Legacy Collection are certainly worth revisiting. They include 1939’s Son of Frankenstein, 1942’s The Ghost of Frankenstein, 1943’s Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, 1944’s House of Frankenstein, 1945’s House of Dracula (featuring Frankenstein), and 1948’s Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

Dracula: Complete Legacy Collection adds 1936’s Dracula’s Daughter and 1943’s Son of Dracula to the original, along with duplicates of House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, each of them featuring Dracula, already available in the Frankenstein legacy collection.

With The Mummy: Complete Legacy Collection there are no repeats from other collections. In addition to the original 1933 version of the film, we get 1940’s The Mummy’s Hand, 1942’s The Mummy’s Tomb, 1944’s The Mummy’s Ghost and The Mummy’s Curse, and 1955’s Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy.

The Wolf Man: Complete Legacy Collection further duplicates Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein from previous collections and adds two unique to this collection, 1935’s Werewolf of London and 1946’s She-Wolf of London.

The standard DVD edition of The Invisible Man Legacy Collection also includes 1940’s The Invisible Man Returns and The Invisible Woman, 1942’s Invisible Agent, 1944’s Invisible Man’s Revenge, and 1951’s Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man. There’s no reason to think a Blu-ray upgrade would contain anything less.

The standard DVD edition of The Creature from the Black Lagoon Legacy Collection also includes 1955’s Revenge of the Creature and The Creature Walks Among Us.

The original 1971 version of Stephen Gilbert’s Ratman’s Notebooks, called Willard, and its 1972 sequel called Ben, have never been available on DVD in the U.S. Shout! Factory has remedied that with Blu-ray/standard DVD combo packs of both.

In Willard, the title character played by Bruce Davison, is a lonely young man living in a decrepit old mansion with his doddering mother (Elsa Lanchester), working for a mean boss (Ernest Borgnine), who befriends a rat named Ben. You can easily imagine what happens when Willard gets Ben and his friends to wreak vengeance on those who’ve done him wrong. It’s directed by Daniel Mann (Come Back, Little Sheba, The Rose Tattoo) with his usual attention to detail.

In Ben, best remembered for Michael Jackson’s hit recording of the title song, a new group of characters becomes involved with title character. Among them are Lee Montgomery, Joseph Campanella, Arthur O’Connell, and Rosemary Murphy. The sequel was directed by Phil Karlson (Kansas City Confidential, 99 River Street.

Willard features a new interview and commentary with Bruce Davison. Ben features the same with Lee Montgomery.

The 2003 remake of Willard starring Crispin Glover is available on standard DVD only.

Warner Archive has released a Blu-ray upgrade of Harold Becker’s 1985 film of Terry Davis’ novel Vision Quest. Becker (The Onion Field, Sea of Love) directs Matthew Modine in this tale of a high-school wrestler who finds it hard to concentrate on his goals when his father (Ronny Cox) takes in a young drifter (Linda Fiorentino) as a boarder. This was one of the best coming-of-age tales of the mid-1980s. Like all Warner Archive Blu-rays, this has been commercially pressed and is not a burned on-demand release as are the Archive’s standard DVD releases of classic films in their vast library.

This week’s new releases include Logan and Get Out.

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