Ulmer's inability to control his lustful passion for a married woman resulted in him being blackballed from Hollywood. Unable to get any work, he packed his bags and head to New York, where he soon began making low-budget ethnic films for the specialized Yiddish, Ukrainian, and African American audiences. Eventually, Ulmer returned to Hollywood, and became a key player at PRC, a lowbudget production company that churned out B-movies. Although his career was spent primarily working in what was then called "poverty row", Ulmer distinguished himself as a talented filmmaker capable of overcoming the financial and creative constraints that worked against him.

Edgar G. Ulmer: Archive collects five of the director's feature films, the television pilot for a 1958 series, and a short educational film. The first and best film of the collection is 1946's The Strange Woman, a solidly entertaining mix of melodramatic potboiler and film noir set in 19th century New England. The Strange Woman is one of Ulmer's few A-movies, starring Hedy Lamarr as a wanton, sadistic woman who uses her feminine charms to get what she wants. A study in contrasts, one moment Lamarr is a conniving tramp, seducing her stepson, the next moment she is forcing her rich husband to donate money to the church. Lamarr and Ulmer work great together, with her giving one of her best performances, and with him directing a very well-crafted film.

From 1945 comes Strange Illusion, starring James Lydon, Sally Eilers and Warren William in a modern thriller that bares more than a passing resemblance to Hamlet. The film starts out with promising, but I had to stop watching after a few minutes as there was a major technical problem with the transfer. After about fifteen minutes, the dialog became out of synch with the picture. Thinking this might be a problem with my player, I tried the disc on another player, and the same problem occurred. I don't know if it is a defect with the disc I have, or something that affected other discs as well. Whatever the cause, it made the film difficult to watch, let alone enjoy, and I finally gave up.

Bluebeard stars John Carradine as Gaston Morrell, a tortured artist living in 19th century Paris, who also happens to be a serial killer. The Parisian police are at a loss as to who the killer could be, but when someone notices that several of the victims were also the subject of one painter, they set a trap. For Carradine, whose career spanned 65 years and appeared in over 200 film and television roles, Bluebeard is a solid performance in a career defined by an overwhelming amount of ham and cheese. Like many of Ulmer's film, this 1944 production has a look and feel of something that would have come out almost ten years earlier. This is most likely due to the extreme financial and creative resources at Ulmer's disposal. But despite the limitations faced by the director, Bluebeard has several great elements, including a puppet show that recounts the tale of Faust, and Carrdine's performance that keeps from going over the top.

Daughter of Dr. Jekyll from 1957 is a great example of everything that was great and terrible about Ulmer's films. The story finds Janet Smith (Gloria Talbott) returning to her childhood homestead with her finance, George Hastings (John Agar). Poor Janet is shocked when her guardian, Dr. Lomas (Arthur Shields), informs her that her father was a mad scientist named Dr. Jekyll, who created a serum that causes him to become a werewolf. Janet is even further shocked when all fingers point to her after the werewolf reappears and starts killing. Of course, there's something sinister going on, and not everything is as it appears. The one that is as it appears is the movie itself, which is equal parts boring and silly. Ulmer delivers several stylish flourish that are his trademark – shining moments that seem out of place in an otherwise forgettable film. This is how it is with much of the director's work, films that are better than they should have been, because of director with more talent than he was ever able to effectively express.

The final film in the collection, and by far the worst of the bunch, is 1939's Moon Over Harlem, one of director's "ethnic" films – of which he made several – an all black-cast production that was played for the segregated audiences of the day. By the standards of many of these films, Moon Over Harlem, which only cost $8000 to produce and was made in something like a week, is a good film. Ulmer has a better understanding of filmmaking than many of the other directors who churned out this low-end fare; but considering the fact that a vast majority of the black-cast films of the 30s and 40s were pretty crappy, calling Moon Over Harlem good is a misnomer. The acting is abysmal, the script is bad, and the story convoluted. Only Ulmer seems to know what he's doing, but he has almost nothing to do it with.

Video:
The films in Edgar G. Ulmer: Archive are all presented full frame, except for Daughter of Dr. Jekyll, which is presented letterboxed in 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Since for many years the work of Ulmer was not given much consideration, most of his films were not stored under the best circumstances. That said, there is a varying range of picture quality not only from film to film, but often within the films themselves. Overall, the picture quality ranges from decent to very good.

Audio:
Edgar G. Ulmer: Archive is presented in Dolby Digital mono. The same issues that surround the picture of these films also come into play with the audio, with overall quality varying. In the case of Strange Illusion, my disc had an audio track out of synch with picture for most of the film, which made it extremely difficult to watch.

Extras:
Strange Woman features and audio commentary by David Kalat of Allday Entertainment, who provides an almost non-stop history lesson on both Ulmer and the film. Much of Kalat's commentary sounds scripted, but it is never boring or dry, and gives more information and insight than a vast majority of other commentary tracks out there. Of all the bonus features included in this collection, Kalat's commentary is the high point. Another highlight is the short documentary, King of PRC, which just begins to scratch the surface of Ulmer's career, and then ends too abruptly. Bluebeard Revealed offers and interesting look at the production of Bluebeard that goes fairly in depth on the puppet show that features prominently in the film. Other bonus material includes interviews with Ulmer's wife and daughter, an interview with Daughter of Dr. Jekyll star John Agar, still and artwork galleries, trailers. There is also a educational film from the 1940s (Goodbye, Mr. Germ), and the pilot for the 1958 television series, Swiss Family Robinson, which has the distinction of being laugh-out-loud terrible. The performances by the cast of Swiss Family Robinson are more closely related to wood than actual human beings.

Final Thoughts:
This a good collection of work for fans and students of Edgar G. Ulmer. Strange Woman is the only film out of the collection that warrants repeated viewing and, ultimately, the only film that I can recommend on its merits of being a solid piece of cinema. Likewise, the audio commentary that accompanies that particular film is the best of the bonus features. The problem with the rest of the collection is that the other films aren't all that great, and the extras are a bit limited. It almost seems as if this collection has been packaged for people who already know of Ulmer, whereas it would have been better if this archive went out of its way to educate a bit more. Ulmer is more interesting than most of the films he actually directed, and it would have been nice if the bonus material called more attention to that fact.