Before I Hang Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Before I Hang Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 7, 2021

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as a part of Karloff at Columbia.

Boris Karloff has one of the more amazing filmographies in the annals of show business history, with the IMDb listing over 200 (!) acting credits for the venerable performer. One of the kind of interesting if at times kind of weirdly unstated aspects of that success is the fact that Karloff managed his career in at least some of the 1930s and 1940s without the traditional “seven year contract” that was regularly doled by the major Hollywood studios in the Golden Age of filmmaking. In fact, many online biographies of Karloff don’t even mention any contracts, though the fact that a 1931 contract Karloff signed with Universal fetched over eleven thousand dollars in an auction is certainly more than enough evidence that (of course) some kind of contract was signed for various appearances. That said, Karloff at Columbia provides clear separate evidence that Karloff, unlike many other major stars of that same general period, was never officially tied down to one particular studio (many film fans almost automatically associate Karloff with Universal during this period), at least for any extended period of time. The fact that Karloff was also a guiding light behind the then nascent Screen Actors Guild may give credence to the hunch that Karloff was eerily prescient in being able to see that a studio’s contractual “hold” over a performer was something to be avoided, not chased, in an awareness that arguably came years before such heavyweights (and, notably, women) as Olivia de Havilland and Bette Davis started actual legal proceedings to chip away at the “seven year indentured servitude” that studios often required of their stars. Eureka Entertainment has now assembled six of Karloff's Columbia features made between 1935 and 1942 (the same period when Karloff was also appearing in films bearing the studio imprimaturs of everyone from Universal to Monogram to RKO) in an appealing set that may not include any outright masterpieces, but which show quite clearly just how versatile an actor Karloff was.

The first two of the so-called Mad Doctor films Columbia offered starring Boris Karloff, The Man They Could Not Hang and The Man with Nine Lives, featured Karloff playing doctors who had a knack for resurrection of one sort or another. In Before I Hang, Karloff essays the role of Dr. John Garth, who begins the story as a kind of quasi-Kevorkian offering euthanasia, though his real interest is in a formula which will reverse the effects of aging. Suffice it to say that Garth, like some of the other "mad doctors" in this set, ends up on trial and is sentenced to die. There are two plot elements at work in the film that are perhaps at cross purposes with each other, with Garth finding out his anti-aging serum actually works (he tries it on himself), but with Garth also falling prey to a psychopathic murderer's blood which has perhaps been unwisely added to the formula. There are some interesting twists and turns this film takes, with Garth actually getting released, but with a lot of unexplained elements kind of annoyingly hanging around the edges of the story. The result is largely predictable, but Before I Hang has some angst ridden moments nonetheless, and it's fun to see Karloff reunited with his Frankenstein co-star Edward Van Sloan, here playing a prison doctor who perhaps shouldn't have given the go ahead for Garth to try out his "fountain of youth".

Before I Hang Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Before I Hang is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka! Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. This is another totally watchable but occasionally problematic presentation that does show quite a bit of age related wear and tear, albeit often minimal in the forms of nicks, flecks, blemishes and what almost looks at times like slight print through. You can see good examples of the kind of recurrent if minor damage in both the opening credits and the first scene in the courtroom, and some of the later material, like a sequence taking place in some fog shrouded streets, can look pretty rough and has brightness fluctuations and flicker. Still, detail levels are often relatively impressive, as in the nice precise rendering of the texture of the fabric on Karloff's prison jacket, to cite just one example. Grain is quite heavy and can look fairly rough at times, especially in the darker material.

Before I Hang Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Before I Hang features an LPCM 2.0 Mono track that again shows a bit of brittleness in some scenes, but which has adequate support for a sometimes bombastic score. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly and there are no real signs of major damage. Optional English subtitles are available.

Before I Hang Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby


• Stills Gallery: Production Stills (HD)


• Stills Gallery: Artwork and Ephemera (HD)

Before I Hang Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Before I Hang continues with several of the tropes that had already been established in both The Man They Could Not Hang and The Man With Nine Lives, and as such can seem like a kind of cinematic version of a rerun at times. The "fountain of youth" angle is interesting, but the film arguably muddies the water (and/or blood, as the case may be) with the whole "transfusion from a psychopathic killer" aspect. Video encounters some hurdles, but audio is largely fine, and once again the included commentary is very enjoyable, for those who are considering a purchase.