Monster Mania

I happen to own a copy of this on tape,and it's simply an awesome documentary. It's a retrospective on the history of "Classic film monsters" such as Dracula,Frankenstein,The Wolf Man,Dr.Jeykel and Mr.Hyde,and more It's hosted by Jack Palance,whom is perfectly cast for this collage of classic clips. His delivery of lines is creepy and campy,but is perfectly suited for this type of special.

The clips are divided into each decade,from Edison's version of"Frankenstein", thru the classic "Universal Monsters",the "low-brow,low-tech" monsters of the 50's,a salute to Hammer films and more.

So if you have a chance check it out.

Monster Mania (1999)

*** (out of 4)

Jack Palance hosts and narrates this documentary that takes a look at monsters from the earliest days of cinema all the way up to the man made monsters like Norman Bates. At just under a hour this documentary really isn't going to teach the average fan anything that they don't already know. If you're not familiar with the genre then you'll probably enjoy this a lot more because it really does do a good job at starting with the earliest pictures and going through the decades and showing what they offered. This includes Edison's FRANKENSTEIN, the various versions of Jekyll and Hyde, Lon Chaney's rise to fame, the Universal monster movies of the 30s, the monster mash-ups of the 40s and the atomic age that would come in the 1950s. We also cover the likes of Hammer as well as the more psychological thrillers like PSYCHO. Again, there's nothing new vets are going to learn here but it's a very well produced documentary plus there are many great clips from the movies themselves. Plus, Palance really does a great job with the narration as that great voice is really put to good use.