The returns diminish with the Blu-ray release of UNIVERAL HORROR COLLECTION VOLUME 3 but not for lack of trying on behalf of Scream Factory and the extras contributors.

TOWER OF LONDON: The setting is fifteenth-century London, and Edward IV (Ian Hunter, SYNCOPATION) has stolen he throne away from feeble King Henry VI (Miles Mander, MURDER MY SWEET) whose son Henry Tudor (Ralph Forbes, THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES) has been exiled to France. Edward is ambitious to build the wealth of his kingdom through marital unions, but he may have misplaced his trust in his brother the Richard, the Duke of Gloucester (Basil Rathbone, THE COMEDY OF TERRORS) who has already betrayed the recently-executed Lord DeVere who opposed Edward seizing the throne from Henry, and has fobbed off Edward's proposal that he marry the aged Dowager Duchess of Norfold onto John Wyatt (John Sutton, MY COUSIN RACHEL) who refuses because he wants to marry Lady Alice Barton (Nan Grey, THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS) and is only saved from losing his head and instead exiled to France because he is the cousin to Edward's wife Elyzabeth (Barbara O'Neil, GONE WITH THE WIND). While Tudor is reportedly amassing armies in France with plans to cross the ocean and seize back the kingdom, Edward is distracted while Richard engineers a nefarious plot with the help of devoted tower torturer Mord (Boris Karloff, BLACK SABBATH) to get rid of all those who stand between himself and the throne, including not only Edward and Henry but also his other brother the Duke of Clarence (Vincent Price, THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM), his young nephew (Donnie Dunagan, SON OF FRANKENSTEIN), and the Prince of Wales who stole away Richard's only love Ann Neville (Rose Hobart, DR. JEKLLY & MR. HYDE).

More of a lush historical epic than a Universal horror film – the initial thirties Universal horrors being more respectably budgeted than the next waves of the forties and fifties but still relatively low compared to this film – Rowland V. Lee's TOWER OF LONDON is well-acted and plotted and may impress more general audiences while boring horror fans despite iconic turns from Karloff and Rathbone as well as an early supporting bit from Price two decades before his own horror stardom. The surprise success of Lee's SON OF FRANKENSTEIN with which TOWER OF LONDON shares several cast and crew gave Lee the backdrop of detailed historical sets, costumes, and an epic scope as well as the opportunity to show off more of his visual stylization with the photography of Universal regular George Robinson (SON OF DRACULA) and some impressive matte paintings and opticals that combine sets and models into single compositions. Being one of the last of the original Universal horrors as production code and overseas censorship issues started discouraging the studio to offer more genre offerings, it is Karloff's performance more so than any details of the torture chambers that get the grisly chills across. The film was remade with Price as Richard in 1962 by Roger Corman, but as a black and white production for United Artists and Edward Small (JACK, THE GIANT KILLER) rather than a Technicolor, Cinemascope American International offering.

MAN-MADE MONSTER: When midway carnival performer Dan McCormick (Lon Chaney Jr., SON OF DRACULA) – also known as "Dynamo Dan, the Electrical Man" – is the sole survivor of a bus crash into a power line that electrocuted and killed five other passengers, electrobiologist Dr. John Lawrence (Samuel S. Hinds, THE RAVEN) invites McCormick to stay with him so he can try to figure out the cause of his immunity to electric shock. While Lawrence is off to a medical convention, however, his partner Dr. Paul Rigas (Lionel Atwill, MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM) uses McCormick to realize his own theories of electrobiology in which electrical impulses can subsume human will and create a new race of worker whose only need is electricity. Lawrence's niece June (Anne Nagel, BLACK FRIDAY) suspects that something is wrong when McCormick starts to become physically weaker but is not quite ready to accuse Rigas of anything based on the wisecracks of reporter suitor Mark Adams (Frank Albertson, PSYCHO) about Rigas' stereotypically sinister demeanor. When Lawrence discovers the truth however, Rigas orders a fully-charged McCormick to kill him and then confess to the crime. Although Rigas assures June that he will do everything to help McCormick at an examination to determine his sanity, he does the opposite and McCormick finds himself with a date with the electric chair… but how can you electrocute a being who lives on electricity?

Unmistakably a Universal B picture from its casting – although, to be fair, Chaney Jr. looks healthier and livelier here than in his later Universal outings – to its concept which seems at least a partial retread of the Karloff outing THE INVISIBLE RAY while also anticipating the considerably more impoverished fifties Chaney effort INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN, not to mention the late Universal effort THE MAD GHOUL in which Atwill used an ancient formula to remove the willpower of an unsuspecting subject to do his bidding. The concept is a bit more inflammatory here with Atwill's scientist describing his "shell of a man" creation as the "worker of the future controlled by superior intelligence." MAN-MADE MONSTER moves along rather predictably and maybe a bit too leisurely with the expected rampage contained to the last ten minutes of the film, with Chaney and Nagel eking a modicum of sympathy but being overshadowed by Corky the dog who is not only well-trained but pulls the heartstrings in the final scene with his fallen friend.

THE BLACK CAT: Old Henrietta Winslow (Cecilia Loftus, YOUNG SINNERS), and vultures include not only her family – daughter Myrna (Gladys Cooper, MY FAIR LADY) and her philandering husband Montague (Basil Rathbone, WOMAN IN GREEN) and his stepson Richard (Alan Ladd, SHANE), granddaughter Elaine (Anne Gwynne, HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN), grandson Stanley (John Eldredge, HIGH SIERRA), and niece Margaret (Claire Dodd, SECRET OF THE CHATEAU) who is in a love triangle with Montague and Richard – but also realtor Gil (Broderick Crawford, TERROR IN THE WAX MUSEUM) who wants to make a killing on selling the mansion and has brought along antiques dealer Mr. Penny (Hugh Herbert, BLONDIE IN THE DOUGH) who has a habit of aging antiques to make them seem more valuable by adding woodworm holes with a hand drill among other tricks. She is quite generous to her greedy relatives in her will which she reads aloud to them; however, she has added a shocking surprise in revealing that they cannot collect their inheritances until faithful housekeeper Abigail (Gale Sondergaard, THE SAVAGE INTRUDER) and all of Henrietta's beloved pet cats have died. Abigail is as much a suspect when Henrietta is stabbed with a knitting needle in an apparent accidental fall, but Gil has a difficult time convincing the family (including childhood crush Elaine) or even Abigail that the old woman was murdered and any one of them could be next; and even then, he is the only one who thinks that the killer is someone other than red herring gardener Eduardo (Bela Lugosi, DRACULA).

Coming just seven years after Edgar G. Ulmer's superior effort of the same title, Albert S. Rogell's THE BLACK CAT is a more traditional old dark house thriller – indeed, it bears more of a resemblance to THE CAT AND THE CANARY than Poe's story – that is rich in visuals and atmosphere but a severe waste of resources and an impressive cast. Crawford is neither convincing as a comic straight man to grating Herbert or as a romantic lead to the fetching Gwynne while Sondergaard and Lugosi are deployed rather than allowed to be suspicious any more than more likely suspects Rathbone and Ladd. Secret passages abound and hands reach in to clutch at Gwynne or steal the will from Crawford, the sleek cinematography of Stanley Cortez (SHOCK CORRIDOR) and the set design of the house – which includes a crematorium for the pet kitties – is striking, but everything feels as lazy and uninspired as the script (which it has been suggested may have been a rejected Abbott and Costello vehicle with them in the Gil and Penny roles).

HORROR ISLAND: Three months behind rent on his office and his boat Skiddoo, Princeton-educated wastrel Bill Martin (Dick Foran, FORT APACHE) and his long-suffering partner Stuff Oliver (Fuzzy Knight, BORDER WOLVES) are as knee deep in bills as they are in failing "get rich quick" schemes when an opportunity falls in their laps when they fish peg-legged sailor Tobias Clump (THE CISCO KID's Leo Carrillo) out of the water after he has been attacked by a man he calls "The Phantom" who gets half of a treasure map that posits the gold of pirate Sir Henry Morgan in a castle on Morgan's Island which just happens to be owned by Martin's family. He does not believe in Clump's story until his cousin George (John Eldredge, CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OLYMPICS) offers him twenty-thousand dollars for the island; whereupon, Bill hits upon the money-making scheme of a treasure-hunting weekend on the island charging fifty dollars per person. The suckers include historian Professor Jasper Quinley (Hobart Cavanaugh, A LETTER TO THREE WIVES) who is convinced the map is a fake but up for adventure, private detective Sergeant McGoon (Walter Catlett, MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN) who presents him with a cease and desist letter over his claims of a real haunting and is invited to disprove it, bickering couple Rod (Ralf Harolde, BEHIND LOCKED DOORS) and Arleen Grady (Iris Adrian, ROAD TO ZANZIBAR), along with Bill's well-heeled skeptical love interest Wendy (Peggy Moran, DRUMS OF THE CONGO) and her disinterested blue blooded suitor Thurman Coldwater (Lewis Howard, HELLZAPOPPIN'). While Bill and Stuff have rigged the castle with speakers, skulls in the beds, and pigeons in place of harder to source bats, The Phantom not only takes advantage of these tricks to his own devices but also seems know his way around the castle's secret passages. When he nearly frightens Wendy to death, she thinks it is another of Bill's tricks until someone starts murdering the treasure hunters? Is it truly The Phantom or is peg-legged Clump disappearing to do more than search for hollow walls?

Another old dark house horror comedy in the set, HORROR ISLAND is not particularly horrific or even atmosphere but it manages to be less of a waste of time than THE BLACK CAT. For starters, Foran and Moran – who had appeared together in THE MUMMY'S HAND the year before – are both likable on their own and an engaging romantic comedy couple. The guests are obvious red herrings but provide the requisite comic relief in the broadest ways. The Phantom is not a particularly chilling figure, eliciting less suspense than the supposed bill collector (Emmett Vogan, THE CRIMSON GHOST) who Bill keeps giving the slip. While the deaths are not particularly grisly, that fact that a lightly comic horror film has no qualms about doing away with so many cast members is novel for this period. At just over an hour, you could do a lot worse (say, by watching THE BLACK CAT again).

TOWER OF LONDON was first released to DVD as part of THE BORIS KARLOFF COLLECTION with NIGHT KEY, THE CLIMAX, THE STRANGE DOOR, and THE BLACK CASTLE followed by an individual Universal Vault Series DVD-R. Scream Factory's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.33:1 pillarboxed fullscreen Blu-ray is the only one in the set to come from a new transfer, sourced from a 2K scan of a fine grain print, sporting deep blacks and detailed textures of costumes and hair in close-ups while some of the longer shots look softer (this does help with the matte and miniature shots though). The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track has some hiss but dialogue is always intelligible, although the SDH subtitles do mention some (indistinct) dialogue. MAN-MADE MONSTER, THE BLACK CAT, and HORROR ISLAND were first released to DVD as part of the UNIVERSAL HORROR CLASSIC MOVIE ARCHIVE in a two-disc set that also included NIGHT MONSTER and CAPTIVE WILD WOMEN. All three are sourced from the pre-existing HD masters used for the DVDs, with windowboxed credits and text insert shots. MAN-MADE MONSTER and HORROR ISLAND fare better than THE BLACK CAT in terms of sharpness and detail, but all three of the films could have used new scans if that would not have raised the cost of the set since Universal probably have no interest in exploiting these films beyond sublicensing what they already have to other companies. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono tracks are generally clean with light hiss and the only real defects occurring with the modest visual damage to the sources when scratches and fading effect the optical track. Optional English SDH subtitles are included for the films.

While the first Scream Factory UNIVERSAL HORROR COLLECTION volume of Edgar G. Ulmer's THE BLACK CAT, Lew Landers' THE RAVEN, Lambert Hillyer's THE INVISIBLE RAY, and Arthur Lubin's BLACK FRIDAY included commentaries (sometimes two per film), vintage featurettes, and documentary material, the second volume of MURDER IN THE ZOO, THE MAD DOCTOR OF MARKET STREET, THE STRANGE CASE OF DOCTOR RX, and THE MAD GHOUL felt barer with its two commentaries and single Atwill featurette. While the third volume is still light on extras, each film is accompanied by well-researched commentary tracks this time around. TOWER OF LONDON is accompanied by an audio commentary by author/film historian Steve Haberman who reveals that not only did the surprise success of SON OF FRANKENSTEIN make it possible for director Lee and his screenwriter brother Ronald N. Lee (CAPTAIN KIDD) to realize this dream project but also Universal's own desire to compete with RKO who were preparing a similar big budget period film in THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. He discusses the connections to the earlier film, including the rearrangement of Frank Skinner's score cues after Hans J. Salter's original medieval cues were rule not suitably exciting (though some of them remain in the film), and that the film owes less to Shakespeare and his three plays on Henry VI than on Lee's more rigorous historical research and biographical material on Richard III. The disc also includes a still gallery (3:06).

MAN-MADE MONSTER is accompanied by a commentary by film historians Tom Weaver and Constanine Nasr, in which Weaver reveals that the film had initially been considered during the first wave of Universal horrors in based on a story by Harry Essex which was announced in 1935 with Bela Lugosi in the lead and then in 1936 with Boris Karloff. As with Weaver's other commentaries, this one includes a couple "actor recreations" that are more distracting than anything else, but here we get the text of an article ostensibly penned by Karloff himself about his horror films in which he describes the future project with details that survived into the Chaney film. Nasr is recorded separately, suggesting that the idea could have been shelved after the release of THE INVISIBLE RAY and describes details of another planned 1938 production titled THE HUMAN ROBOT with a synopsis that shares even more similarities with MAN-MADE MONSTER that may have been dropped after concerns from the Production Code office. Their research into the subsequent production includes an article about the set design from when the film was in pre-production under the title THE MYSTERIOUS DOCTOR R. by which time Atwill and Chaney were confirmed. The disc also includes a still gallery (1:53).