One of Boris Karloff’s best and yet least known movies; The Devil Commands is another tale of science gone mad. In this film Karloff plays a kindly scientist who looses his wife in a car accident. Karloff, who was experimenting with brain impulses, becomes obsessed with contacting his wife from beyond the grave and he thinks he can do this by harnessing the electrical energy generated by the brain. Ann Revere, who gives an incredibly sinister performance as a phony medium, presses Karloff onward towards the final, horrifying conclusion of his final experiment.
Although it was a low budget film, The Devil Commands status is immediately elevated by the presence of the Legendary Boris Karloff who as always turns in a great performance which is both frightening and sympathetic at the same time. (His specialty.) The real villain of the story is Ann Revere as the Medium whose performance is just dripping with pure evil. The fact that she manages to stand out as a secondary character next to Karloff is a testament to the strength of her performance. Also, in a low budget film often the first thing to suffer is the lighting which certainly isn’t the case here. The Devil Commands is lit beautifully and adds a great deal to the films dark, oppressive atmosphere.
Karloff’s experiments grow more and more blasphemous, merging science and the supernatural until the films amazing climax. The science behind the film is pretty goofy but hay, it’s an old horror movie so what can you do. This is a must see if you’re a Karloff/classic horror fan and if you’re not it’s still a fun, creepy movie regardless.
Rating - 7/10
Day 5 - The Haunted Strangler (1958)
Billed as a come back movie for Karloff, The Haunted Strangler is by far one of the better films he was involved with at the late stage of his carrier and also one of his best performances from that period. Set in Victorian London, Karloff plays a novelist who is researching a serial killer known as The Hillside Strangler who was hanged 20 years ago. After some research Karloff begins to suspect that they hanged the wrong man and that the killer is still at large. He goes to the grave where the killer was buried and digs it up to search for evidence or something like that. Hay, I haven’t seen it for a long time, cut me some slack.When Karloff’s hand closes about the old scalpel The Strangler used he begins to twist and contort, becoming the crazed strangler! Karloff kills and wakes up with no memory of what he did the night before. As he probes deeper into the mystery of the Hillside Strangler he’ll soon discover that horrible truth behind The Hillside Strangler was that he never really died after all. . .
It’s amazing to watch Karloff’s performance here with the knowledge that he was 70 years old when the movie was filmed. He runs, he leaps, he strangles! Really, the dude has more energy here that I do on any given day. It goes to show you the type of actor Karloff was. He was a man who always gave it his all and did the best job he could regardless of what he film he was in.
No makeup was used for the killer, Karloff just twists his face up (with his dentures out) when he becomes The Strangler and it’s surprisingly effective. Just by means of his body language and movements it’s as though he becomes a completely different character. Unfortunately the rest of the cast is rather forgettable and the film can drag on at times between the action. Still, it’s completely worth the price of admission thanks to Karloff’s performance and the interesting plot. Recommended to any Karloff fan, The Haunted Strangler is perhaps his best performance out of all his “twilight” films up to his swan song, Targets. (1968)
Rating – 5 ½ out of 10.
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