Boo (1932)

To say Boo! is an oddity is an understatement in itself. This is a perfect example of something that is so bad it is good as it pokes fun at Frankenstein and Dracula(Nosferatu). It is true that Boo! is cheesy and lame somewhat, the pacing is rather rushed, the editing dated and the reference to woman automobile drivers rather on the sexist side, not to mention the enthusiastic if rather overdone narration. Nonetheless, it is a curious watch for the final line "you can milk a cow but a lobster is very ticklish", the so-bad-it-was-funny type of jokes and the corny haunting music. Plus it was nice to see archive footage of Frankenstein(hooray for Karloff!) and Nosferatu. Overall, by all means worth watching, but not something I would recommend highly. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Boo (1932) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Mildly entertaining short from Universal shows a man eating lobster, drinking milk and reading Stoker's Dracula before going to bed so that he can have a nightmare. Once the nightmare starts we see him visit various monsters with scenes taking from the movies NOSFERATU, FRANKENSTEIN and THE CAT CREEPS. The scenes are all given comic tones as we get a narrator adding all sorts of attempted jokes including the "look" of Nosferatu. Fans of these classics will certainly enjoy some of the humor here, although the main reason to view this film is for the few clips from THE CAT CREEPS. That film is sadly lost so the footage in this short is all there is to see. Considering this is a Universal film, I'm really not sure why they'd use clips from NOSFERATU instead of their very own Dracula.

This nice and unusual little vintage Universal comedy short goes out of its way to throw in footage of the golden b/w horror films; "Nosferatu", "Frankenstein" and "The Cat Creeps". The clips ranging from these three films are strung along by a mockery-laced narration. There's no harm here, even if it can be lame and downright pointless, but its hard not get a cackle from some of the noteworthy scenes and rapturously smarting remarks. It only goes for about 10 minutes, so it pretty much breezes by with well-etch editing and the likable humour gladly doesn't overstay its welcome. Corny maybe, but that's just due to the times. This is definitely an interesting and enjoyable supplement, which is provided on Universal's Frankenstein DVD.

I've just come across Boo as an extra on the DVD of Frankenstein (1931) and, due to the fact I was watching it at well past midnight, I found it as strange as it was funny. It starts off with a bearded man with a strange expression on his face emerging from a jack-in-the-box and holding up the film's title, which is a weirdly disconcerting effect, particularly as I have no idea who this man was. The narration is rather outdated, not so much because it was recorded in 1932, but because of what is said (the reference to woman automobile drivers is ever so slightly sexist), but what I don't get is, while Universal included footage from its movies 'Frankenstein' and 'The Cat Creeps', the Dracula segments actually come from F.W Murnau's 'Nosferatu'. This seems strange, because I would have thought the studio would want to publicise its own, then-recent, Dracula movie (the one with Bela Lugosi). To conclude, Boo is an oddity that you probably won't find yourself watching unless you get the Frankenstein DVD, which you ought to own anyway