The Man with Nine Lives Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		2.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

The Man with Nine Lives 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 Man With Nine Lives is the second in the so-called Mad Doctor series of films Columbia offered starring Karloff, and once again he's playing a character with two a's in his last name, as he was in The Man They Could Not Hang, just one of several tie ins to the first film in the cycle. Here Karloff is a guy named Leon Kravaal, who has been missing for a decade or so after a career spent researching "ice therapy", which a helpful text introduction "reminds" audiences is front page news currently (maybe it was back in 1940 when the film was first released). A "modern day" scientist with an interest in proto- cryogenics, Tim Mason (Roger Pryor), and his trusty nurse (and love interest) Judith Blair (JoAnn Sayers) stumble upon an "ice cave" of sorts where Kravaal's still alive body has been frozen for all those preceding years. Unsurprisingly, Mason and Blair bring Kravaal back from the dead, along with a coterie of others who were also put into (frozen) suspended animation. Suffice it to say that this chain of events does not in fact lead to a happily ever after, and Kravaal turns out to be an "absent minded professor" who can't quite recall his world changing freezing formula, so he needs a few (unwilling) "volunteers" to help him recreate it.

The Man with Nine Lives Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Man With Nine Lives is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka! Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. This is one of the less pleasing looking transfers in the set, though it's certainly watchable. A lot of the dark cave material features a pretty gritty looking grain field, and there are noticeable fluctuations in brightness and contrast that the supposedly shadowy environments probably only exacerbate. Damage is more recurrent in this presentation, and it looks to me like the final reel or so was sourced from an inferior and badly damaged 16mm element. In its better moments, as in an earlier scene that takes place outdoors in a seaside locale, things can look relatively well detailed and sharp.

The Man with Nine Lives Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Man With Nine Lives features an LPCM 2.0 Mono track that, like some others in this set, reveals a bit of hiss and crackle, especially noticeable in the opening credits. Dialogue and effects sound decently full bodied and there are no major issues with distortion or damage. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Man with Nine Lives Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman


• Stills Gallery: Production Stills (HD)


• Stills Gallery: Artwork and Ephemera (HD)

The Man with Nine Lives Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I had to laugh when I noticed that the surnames of the doctors Karloff plays in this film and The Man They Could Not Hang each had double a's in them, as if some studio honcho type had insisted, "Yeah, that needs to be repeated!" There are a number of other repetitions that occur here which are more than evident if you watch the two films in rapid succession, but the whole "frozen therapy" aspect of this particular story gives The Man With Nine Lives an almost off the (frozen?) wall aspect. Video has some issues, but audio is relatively secure, and the accompanying commentary very enjoyable, for those who are considering a purchase.