Universal has just launched a new website, appropriately titled – Universal Monster Legacy.
The site features a detailed catalog of the studio’s groundbreaking, defining and immortal horror content from 1923 (with Lon Chaney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame) through 1956 (with the final Gill-Man film, The Creature Walks Among Us).
The focus is on the Universal (or can we call it Comcast-Uni now?) stable of classic monsters that include Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Wolf Man, the Creature from the Black Lagoon and so on. Largely excluded are the studio’s non-monster horror outings of the same period, but the emphasis on the monster films is not only welcome but explicitly intentional, so it’s hard to call foul.
Each featured film has a page including a synopsis, as well as art, photo and video galleries.
But best of all, the site features several cues of the soundtracks by legendary composers such as Franz Waxman, Herman Stein, Bernard Kaun, Hans J. Salter and more.
The whole site would seem to be part of the marketing push for U’s troubled but promising looking remake of The Wolfman, starring Benicio Del Toro and slated for release on February 12th, 2010.
It’s a fun, respectful and attractively designed treat for monster fans! Visit the site via the link below:
To bad they left out the Rondo Hatton Creeper and Brute Man flicks.
I like the site, but I did notice one minor error right away. They wrote “Evelyn Ankers, who played Kay in this film, starred opposite Chaney in James Whale’s The Wolf Man in 1941.” James Whale didn’t direct The Wolf Man, but George Waggner did.
Still, I love what they did with the site.
This is a great site! I love it! I just want to point out that the poster used on the site for Universal’s 1923 version of the Hunchback of Notre Dame with Lon Chaney, is from RKO’s 1939 version with Charles Laughton. Is this an over site from Universal? Again, I love the site.