Roy MilanoCritiques

A fine collection of beautiful black and white photographs and various essays from actors, writers and others associated with the pantheon of Universal monsters. The black and white photographs stunningly convey the menace and mystery of these horror movie superstars. The accompanying essays all make for pleasurable reads for the aficionado as all of the writers are obviously fanatics of these creations. Especially noteworthy I found were those by Bela Lugosi Jr. (who pens a very moving tribute to his father) and Jennifer Beals of the underrated The Bride (writing of her interest in the Bride of Frankenstein). The informational text is concise and offered some surprise factoids for me, but I question all of them after reading in one chapter that Dracula, the Wolfman and the Frankenstein monster all featured in Frankenstein meets the Wolfman. For a book of so few words to begin with, to feature such a glaring error I find inexcusable frankly.

Great behind the scenes and production photos. Essays written by people who knew and worked with the stars.

This is a really great pictorial of Universal Studios "monsters" through the years, including Dracula, Frankenstein, the Bride of Frankenstein, and the Wolfman, and many more. Although there are some editorials, I would have enjoyed the book even more if there were more descriptions and commentary throughout.

But it still works great as either a coffee table book or for just fun, informative reading (looking!).