Other Releases Available:

Releases Reviewed:

The Mad Monster, like so many of these old public domain movies, has a maddening number of releases to sort.

While there is little to distinguish one release from another, there are a couple that stand out if just barely. Retromedia's Drive-In Theater version offers a few extras, and the Alpha release lists a longer run time than the others. There are any number of other stand-alone releases and even more multi-movie packs with various numbers of other films.

I got my copy in a 50 pack of “Horror Classics.”

Video:

1.33: There is no widescreen version. The picture is messed up in several spots and the whole thing tends to skip a lot not to mention that it is very washed out with the typical trash and lines. This hurt my enjoyment of the movie substantially.

Audio:

1.0 mono: The audio is fine for the most part aside from the low quality that most of the old unrestored movies have, but it does become hard to make out in a few spots.

Packaging:

This particular disc is housed in a cardboard sleeve contained in a Velcro-fastened box (repackaged in plastic more recently). You can read about the set as a whole in great detail in the Horror Classics (50 pack) guide.

Extras:

There are no extras of any kind.

Other Editions:

Nearly all of the details for all of the releases list the same specs I've already described. None mention being remastered and few list any extras.

The exception is Retromedia's Drive-In Theater which offers an interview with Glenn Strange and a feature listed only as “The Black Raven.”

The Alpha release gives a run time of 90 minutes (vs. the 77 minute run of all the others). However, at least one review suggests that this is not right, and I have not found any talk of an actual 90 minute cut, so this very well could be just a mistake in the listing.

Final Thoughts:

While I can't promise that any other release is going to be any better, the Horror Classics 50 pack version I have is hard to watch. It wouldn't take much for one of those other versions to have a superior video quality even if it still isn't all that great. While I've been pleased overall with the big budget pack it's not a good choice if you're looking specifically for this movie. Retromedia's release might be worth it for the couple of extras it offers if you can find it at a reasonable asking price.