Univeral Horror Collection Vol. 2 - Murder in the Zoo, The Mad Ghoul, The Mad Doctor of Market Street, The Strange Case of Doctor Rx
Director- Various
Cast- Various
Country of Origin- U.S.
Distributor - Scream Factory
Number of discs – 4
Reviewed by - Scott MacDonald
Date- 07/18/2019
Last month Shout! Factory unleashed a new collection of films through their Scream Factory banner. Universal Collection Vol. 1 was originally to be a Lugosi/Karloff collection, but had to have its name legally changed at the last moment. However, this is a solid decision for fans, as Universal has a decent amount of untapped horror content in their library, as the quickly issued Volume 2 will show. The second collection features none of the Lugosi/Karloff works that marked the first collection, but rather a series of lower tier Universal genre titles (some that only skew horror)including Murders in the Zoo, The Mad Doctor of Market Street, The Strange Case of Doctor Rx (Doctor Pharacist?) and the Mad Ghoul.
The first film in the set is a quite entertaining lead-off, the Lionel Atwill starring Murder in the Zoo. Atwill stars as Dr. Gorman, a man that travels the world to hunt. His oft-ignored wife played by Katherine Burke, keeps herself busy by sleeping with other men in his absence. Of course, he actually knows about the affairs and uses dangerous animals to kill them. The couple is invited to a fundraising event at a zoo, where Gorman plans his next murder. Murder in the Zoo is a fine little murder romp. It's quite reasonably violent for a film of this period. Also, Atwill basically owns his role of Dr. Gorman. This was my first time with Murder in the Zoo (actually all of these), and I found myself thoroughly entertained by the film as a whole.
The Mad Doctor of Market Street is another Lionel Atwill starring film. He plays the Mad Doctor of the title, who has been doing experiments that lead him abreast of the law. He leaves his Market Street home in San Francisco, and gets on a cruise to Australia. The ship wrecks, and the Doctor ends up on an island, full of natives that are hostile to him, until he shows off THE POWERS OF SCIENCE! He begins to formulate plans of world domination starting with the island. Mad Doctor of Market Street sees a solid turn from Atwill, and not much else. This film has some solid moments throughout, but tonally it's all over the place, and unfortunately cannot balance those various elements.
The Strange Case of Doctor Rx is another title that struck me, in the sense that I wasn't sure what I'd get with it. However, in this one Doctor Rx is a vigilante murderer who kills criminals who found ways to get out of their convictions. A private detective is assigned to the case, and begins to turn up more bodies, and other weirdness. This one skews a bit more horror than the last title. This one is a sci-fi-murder mystery-film noir-horror hybrid. It's not the best film in the set, but it manages to be a super fun one. There are also light comedic touches that actually work well with the horror here.
The 4th and best film in the set is the Mad Ghoul. This one is definitively horror. Dr. Morris is doing experiments with Poisonous Gases, and finds he can make zombie-like entities with it. Unfortunately, the effect of using the gas is rapid decomposition in the victim. Morris begins his experimentation, horror, weirdness, and fog machines happen. This one is the most purely horror film in the set, and because of how much I love black and white 1930's horror I ate this one up. It was a great set closer in the sense that it was the strongest film in the set, and left everything on a high note. It is highly atmospheric, with great classic horror sets, and a totally eerie tone. This one was truly great.
All 4 films in this set are presented 1:37:1 in 1080p AVC encoded transfer. These were not as well restored as the last batch, that being said they still look quite solid. That being said quality does range from film to film. Contrast is solid, detail is excellent, and each has a very film like presentation. Audio is handled by a DTS-HD MA 2.0 track in English, which offers solid sounds. Extras include commentaries on Murder in the Zoo, and Mad Ghoul a Lionel Atwill featurette on the Dr. Rx disc, and an image gallery and trailer on the Market Street Blu-ray. This set is for fans of classic Universal Horror, and are willing to take a chance on some more obscure films. RECOMMENDED.
