UNIVERSAL HORROR (1998) B/W & C 96m documentary

From the TCM Viewer's Guide, Now Playing: "Universal, the studio most identified with the classic horror film, dominated this genre from the movies' earliest days. Universal's way with mystery and terror is examined in a new documentary, Universal Horror (1998). This film traces the history of the studio's reputation as a producer of riveting tales of terror, beginning in the silent era with two splendid Lon Chaney vehicles, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925). These films introduced American moviegoers to the European literary Gothic tradition. In the 1930s Universal continued the tradition with a series of beautifully crafted horror films starring illustrious actors Boris Karloff in Frankenstein (1931) and The Mummy (1932), Bela Lugosi in Dracula (1931) and Claude Rains in The Invisible Man (1933). Each of these actors had a gift for creating screen monsters who, despite their strangeness or malevolence, retained their human qualities and engaged audiences' empathy."