The Boogie Man Will Get You Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

The Boogie Man Will Get You 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.

Unlike the other films in Columbia's Mad Doctor series starring Boris Karloff, The Boogie Man Will Get You is, as its title probably conveys perfectly well, an unabashed comedy. That may be due in part to an intervening event which occurred between this Mad Doctor entry and its immediate predecessor, The Devil Commands. Edward Dmytryk, the director of The Devil Commands, reportedly gave Karloff special dispensation to wrap up filming at least a bit earlier than planned because Karloff had to hightail it to the airport to fly to New York, where he was already contracted to begin work on what became one of the smash Broadway plays of that general time period, Arsenic and Old Lace (the link of course points to the film version, which featured Raymond Massey in the Karloff role, ironically because Karloff, who also had a financial stake in the play, was asked to remain with the stage version to keep ticket sales healthy).

That well remembered and even beloved play was also of course an unabashed comedy, and it revealed an almost lovably menacing side to Karloff, which the gurus at Columbia may have wanted to capitalize on in this film. You can almost feel The Boogie Man Will Get You struggling to recreate the manic farce ambience of Arsenic and Old Lace, and while there isn't poison this time around, there are dead bodies in the basement galore, courtesy of Karloff's character Nathaniel Billings. Billings sells his historic estate to Winnie (Jeff Donnell) with the proviso that he can still work in the basement, with Winnie unaware Billings is experimenting with electricity and corpses to create a race of superhumans to aid in the war effort. Local jack of all trades Arthur Lorentz (Peter Lorre) also gets involved in the shenanigans, and while both Karloff and Lorre are expectedly fun, the film probably tries to hard to achieve the effortless hilarity that Arsenic and Old Lace offered in droves.

The Boogie Man Will Get You Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Boogie Man Will Get You is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka! Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.34:1 (a just ever so slightly wider aspect ratio than the rest of the 1.33:1 presentations in this set). This presentation follows in line with the majority of the other transfers in this set, with recurrent if often minor damage, some brightness fluctuations and flicker, and what looks like print through, with what almost might be described as waves occasionally flowing vertically through the frame. This is another outing that has some darker material where an already thick looking grain field can be pretty gritty and rough looking. All said, though, this is probably a slight step above some of the others in this set, though arguably not quite at the generally consistent level of The Black Room. My score is 3.25.

The Boogie Man Will Get You Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Boogie Man Will Get You features an LPCM 2.0 Mono track. The kind of goofy credits music by Morris Stoloff (who scored several of the films in this set) sounds reasonably full bodied, but still has a slightly boxy ambience which identifies the era of its recording. Dialogue and effects are rendered cleanly and clearly, and there are no issues with outright damage or distortion. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Boogie Man Will Get You 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)

The Boogie Man Will Get You Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You can almost feel the cast in this film struggling to provide the same kind of manic energy that Arsenic and Old Lace offered in a more effortless fashion. The film is fun, but it's never really laugh out loud hilarious. Video is decent if improvable, audio is relatively fine, and as with all the other films in this set, the included commentary is a lot of fun, for those who are considering a purchase.