Eureka Video charts KARLOFF AT COLUMBIA (review)

Karloff followed up his monster career at Universal with a mad doctor stint at Columbia Pictures.  In THE BLACK ROOM, Karloff plays a good twin and an evil twin, one destined to murder the other in a gothic torture chamber.  In THE MAN THEY COULD NOT HANG, a doctor wrongfully executed for murder is brought back to life with his own invention and seeks revenge on the judge, district attorney, detective, nurse, and jury who convicted him.  In THE MAN WITH NINE LIVES, a scientist frozen for ten years is revived and will stop at nothing to rediscover the formula that kept him alive in ice.  In BEFORE I HANG, Karloff is a doctor on death row working on a blood rejuvenating serum.  The serum works on him, however, the blood of an executed strangler used for it gives him killer urges.  In THE DEVIL COMMANDS, Karloff is a doctor experimenting with brainwaves who starts to believe that he can communicate with his wife from beyond the grave through his machine.  Finally, in THE BOOGIE MAN WILL GET YOU, Karloff as a dotty old scientist who has a habit of inadvertently killing his human test subjects may be the last thing a woman has to worry about when she buys a historic inn populated by ghosts, murderers, and mad bombers.

REVIEW LINK: Eureka Video (UK) Region B Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

KARLOFF AT COLUMBIA Blu-ray specs: 

• DISC ONE:
• The Black Room (1935)
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.37:1 Pillarboxed Fullscreen
• English LPCM 2.0 Mono 
• Optional English HoH Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by film historians Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby
  
• The Man They Could Not Hang (1939):
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.37:1 Pillarboxed Fullscreen
• English LPCM 2.0 Mono
• Optional English HoH Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by author Stephen Jones and author/critic Kim Newman
  
• The Man With Nine Lives (1940):
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.37:1 Pillarboxed Fullscreen
• English LPCM 2.0 Mono
• Optional English HoH Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by author Stephen Jones and author/critic Kim Newman
  
• "Karloff on the Radio" two episodes from INNER SANCTUM
  
• DISC TWO:
• Before I Hang (1940):
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.37:1 Pillarboxed Fullscreen
• English LPCM 2.0 Mono
• Optional English HoH Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by film historians Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby
  
• The Devil Commands (1941):
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.37:1 Pillarboxed Fullscreen
• English LPCM 2.0 Mono
• Optional English HoH Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by author Stephen Jones and author/critic Kim Newman
  
• The Boogie Man Will Get You (1942):
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.37:1 Pillarboxed Fullscreen
• English LPCM 2.0 Mono
• Optional English HoH Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by film historians Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby
  
• "Karloff on the Radio" two episodes from INNER SANCTUM
• The first 3,000 copies come with a limited edition O-Card slipcase and a collector’s booklet featuring writing on all six films by Karloff expert Stephen Jacobs (author of Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster); film critic and author Jon Towlson; and film scholar Craig Ian Mann.