Boris Karloff Horror Flicks Collection: The Black Room / The Man They Could Not Hang / Before I Hang / Boogie Man Will Get You (DVD)
APPROX. 0 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 0 - MPA RATING: NR
" If you've only seen Karloff as The Mummy or Frankenstein you really ought to check out his mad doctor films. They're a fun genre unto themselves.
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"The Black Room" (1935) is the kind of film that, depending upon your tastes, might be a favorite in this collection. I personally thought the 69-minute film was slow-moving and slow to develop, but fans of period horror/thrillers might react to this more favorably. Karloff plays twin brothers born to a Hungarian baron in the 19th century. The family came into power centuries ago with twins, one of them killing the other, and legend has it that the family will end with twins and the same end. But one brother has no interest in the family or the curse, and leaves . . . only to be called back years later by the brother who stayed. Baron Gregor rules over the village, but the peasants are as stirred up as if he were Dr. Frankenstein. Their women have been disappearing, one by one. Last seen talking about going to the castle, rumor has it that something has been happening to them inside the family fortress. They're about to revolt and kill the Baron when he proposes that his kindly brother, one who has a deformed and useless right arm, rule in his place and asks for time to gather his things and leave the country. Okay, they say. And that's when the action (and my interest) picks up. In dual roles, Karloff manages to juggle two personalities throughout a second- and third-act plot that involves identity switching, murder, and a "black room" of onyx that had been used by the family to torture and dispose of enemies . . . or annoyances.
There are some chilling moments in "The Black Room," and fans of Edgar Allan Poe will see similarities to Poe's short story, "A Cask of Amontillado," while also perhaps wondering why Roger Corman didn't remake this film using Vincent Price in the title role. With just a little tweaking, this subtle film could have been turned ultra-campy. It's a B-movie plot that has A-movie moments, with Roy William Neill directing this one in understated fashion.
"Before I Hang" (1940) is another of the mad doctor films that Karloff made for Columbia. This time he's Dr. Garth, a scientist who's hot on the trail of a youth serum that will reverse the aging process. As in the other mad doctor films, his experiment goes awry and the misunderstood genius is persecuted by the law as . . . well, a murderer. The real suspend-your-belief moments in this one come when the doctor asks the warden in prison if he can continue his experiments, and the warden sets up a laboratory for him, believing in the doctor's claims that he can cheat death. The trouble is, to concoct his serum the doctor needs the blood of a much younger person than himself or his assistants, and he decides to get his blood from a homicidal maniac. Oops. Bad move, and you don't have to hear another word from me to know what's going to happen next—and that's why this 62-minute film isn't as successful as the other three.
Video: Though there are flickers here and there and occasional emulsion problems, these are old, old films that really don't show their age all that much. There's nowhere near the amount of graininess that I expected, and only one or two sprocket jumps that would indicate a damaged frame. Overall, the quality is very good. As with other films from this period, the aspect ratio is 1.33:1. Widescreen TV owners will need a while for their eyes to adjust on a few of these, because the stretched picture produces enough distortion to where you might be tempted to change to widescreen mode. But, nope, it looks best on the stretched 1.33:1 option.
Audio: The audio is, as you might expect, nothing special. It's just an English Dolby Digital Mono with subtitles in French ("The Black Room," "Before I Hang," "The Boogie Man Will Get You") and English ("The Man They Could Not Hang"). There's nothing praiseworthy about it, and nothing to damn. It's just there.
Extras: There are no extras.
Bottom Line: Fans of old movies and Boris Karloff will like this collection, and if you've only seen Karloff as "The Mummy" or "Frankenstein" you really ought to check out his mad doctor films. They're a fun genre unto themselves.
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