Raymond Massey does a great job filling Boris Karloff s shoes, since dear old Boris wasn t allowed to leave the stage production to participate in the movie. Even Peter Lorre gets his share of laughs as the disreputable doctor traveling with the insane killer. The black and white film element used for the transfer is in marvelous shape, or has been digitally cleaned up for this presentation. The image is crisp and very highly detailed, displaying the pores in the actors faces, as well as the richness of fabrics and set dressings. Blacks are a perfect velvety black and are shown off to astonishing effect during a sequence in the film that is played completely in silhouette.
Contrast is excellent and the image faithfully renders all of the shades of gray up to bright white.
Digital compression artifacts never distract one from the beauty of this presentation. Dialogue is crisp and is reproduced with absolute clarity. Frequency range has the expected age limitations, however the track is well worth amplifying for Max Steiner s truly delightful musical score. Unless one turns up the volume up to an excessive level, background hiss remains relatively unperceivable. Subtitles are provided on the DVD in English and French.