Before I Hang

Boris Karloff, typecast in the horror genre, was one of our most underrated film actors. Here is a typical film of his middle career that showcases his versatile skills, equally strong as the benign, elderly scientist and his murderous, strangling younger self. This b-picture packs a lot of atmosphere and suspense into it's hour running time. Any shortcomings cannot be blamed on anyone but the screenwriter, Robert D. Andrews, who was just trying to keep things moving- not such a bad thing, actually. Nick Grinde does an excellent job making the most out of the script and witness Karloff's fireside confession for an example of the film's above average cinematography. It's also nice to see Karloff side by side with Edward Van Sloan again nine years after Frankenstein. If you need proof of Boris Karloff's talent and charisma aside from Frankenstein, check out Before I Hang, as well as The Black Room, The Body Snatcher, and Targets. I wish we had a star like him today...

Boris Karloff played the benign "mad" scientist whose intentions were good but turn awry better than anyone else. Most of his mad scientists were men put into bad situations by some kind of catalyst beyond their control and Before I Hang is no exception. Karloff plays a doctor brought before a jury for a mercy killing - a man who had been living in terminal pain sought out Karloff's help with hopes that a youth age-suppressing serum he had been working on would help regulate the pain and off-set the aging process. It didn't work and Karloff aided in his assisted death. Karloff is sent to prison but finds that the warden believes in his work and allows him, with the aid of Edward Von Sloan the prison doctor, to work on his serum just weeks before he is to be hanged for his crime. Before I Hang has really quite a preposterous storyline but Boris Karloff breathes life into it rather nicely with a gentle performance edged by a maniacal turn as he injects himself with the serum that has some bad side effects. The other actors are all very good with old Karloff nemesis from Frankenstien Von Sloan doing very well with his rather small, thankless role and Eugene Palette giving a good turn as the warden. Karloff's three old friends are all well-played and Evelyn Keyes as his daughter adequate as is Bruce Bennet as her love interest and Karloff's former assistant. The movie is not particularly fast-paced but the tension does build increasingly with effect. Before I Hang is a rather nice addition to Karloff's Columbia Mad Doctor roles. Perhaps not the best of them but certainly stands strong with the rest of them.

The third Boris Karloff "mad doctor" film is an interesting if surprisingly rather dull affair; the star is always worth watching, however, and his role here certainly offers him plenty to sink his teeth into: he starts the film as an old man about to be hanged for a mercy killing, is then rejuvenated through a serum he develops while in prison (the kindly warden having consented to Karloff continuing his experiments there until the time of his execution comes) and finally turns into a strangler (the unfortunate side-effect of the drug which contained the blood cells of a murderer)!

Though the supporting cast features several familiar faces, they're all somewhat underused: Evelyn Keyes and Bruce Bennett are certainly among the higher-prolife actors to fill the 'romantic interest' roles in this type of film, but they're just about the most thankless I've ever seen (especially Bennett who has barely 5 minutes of screen time)! Edward van Sloan's presence was especially welcome (having memorably faced-off with Karloff twice before) but, again, his prison doctor here is nowhere near as juicy as his iconic roles in Dracula (1931), FRANKENSTEIN (1931), THE MUMMY (1932) and DRACULA'S DAUGHTER (1936)! Pedro de Cordoba, on the other hand, is quite poignant as Karloff's pianist friend whose career is fading due to his advancing age; of course, Boris is willing to help him out in this regard, but his new-found and uncontrollable murderous instincts prevail! A measure of amusement is also gleaned from noticing the recurring presence of such actors as Roger Pryor, Don Beddoe and Charles Trowbridge in roles which were pretty much reprises of ones they had played in the earlier Columbia Karloffs!

On the debit side, the low budget especially shows here in the film's rather dismal sets - the other three of Karloff's serious horror efforts for Columbia made good use of the star's gadget-filled house (THE MAN THEY COULD NOT HANG [1939]), frozen underground lab (THE MAN WITH NINE LIVES [1940]) and Karloff's imposing cliff-top mansion (THE DEVIL COMMANDS [1941]); besides, the rather clinical experiments become repetitive and the film talky, which is further exacerbated by the regrettable fact that throughout there are few action/horror highlights per se.

As far as the film's DVD presentation goes, I found it to be disappointingly lackluster: while the print itself is adequate, there are no scene selections for any of the films in this set (which also proves to be the case with Universal's Karloff collection and the "Inner Sanctum" Set!) nor, for that matter, proper menu screens - have the studios become stingy or what?!

Boris Karloff would begin to repeat what might be considered the same part again and again in a series of "Mad Doctor" films he made for Columbia Pictures in the early '40s. As the elderly Dr. Garth, Boris is developing a serum which he hopes may preserve life. He's been convicted of the mercy killing of a terminally sick friend (would that make Karloff the first Dr. Jack Kevorkian?) but yet is allowed to continue his experiments while on death row with the aid of prison physician Dr. Miller (DRACULA's Edward Van Sloan). Garth decides to use himself as a guinea pig and injects himself with a serum made with the blood of a known murderer. The kindly doctor is subsequently pardoned from his crime, and the end result of his experiment produces the amazing effect of turning him into a much younger man. He has now inadvertently reversed the aging process, but the tainted formula has one slight side effect: it periodically turns him into a homicidal killer who is seized with the urge to strangle his victims. BEFORE I HANG is a decent offering in this series, though is not to be confused with the similarly-titled and superior THE MAN THEY COULD NOT HANG from 1939. **1/2 out of ****

Basically "Before I Hang" is very simplistic and inconspicuous thriller story, but it is almost evidently brought to a much higher level solely thanks to the always-reliable performance and natural class of the iconic Boris Karloff. I wrote it before and I'll write it forevermore in my reviews: this man was simply amazing! With is moody voice, he could narrate the content of a phone book for all I care, because I would still hang on his lips. His charm and charisma make every movie atmospheric and his grimaces when he transforms from a seemingly gentle elderly person into a cold-blooded murderer (as masterfully demonstrated a couple of times in "Before I Hang") are utmost petrifying! Mr. Karloff truly was – and still is – horror personified! So, that concludes my ode to this brilliant actor, and on to the film itself. "Before I Hang" is actually another loose interpretation of the classic novel "Les Mains d'Orlac" by Maurice Renard. The novel first got turned into a film in 1924 already, in the German expressionist masterpiece "Orlacs Hände" starring Conrad Veidt, and several more times since, including two films starring Peter Lorre ("Mad Love", "The Beast with Five Fingers") and another one starring Christopher Lee in 1960 ("The Hands of Orlac"). Although the source material isn't specifically credited here, it's clear that Renard's novel also provides the basic plot idea. The movie opens with a beautiful and long Boris Karloff plea in court. He's physician Dr. John Garth, sentenced to death by hanging because he attempted to cure a man but failed. Awaiting his execution, Dr. Garth continues his experiments with the consent of the prison director and the help of the resident doctor, and he uses himself as guinea pig when he injects the serum into his own veins. Dr. Garth's execution gets overruled after all, but he begins to notice that the serum rejuvenates him. Unfortunately, however, he used the blood of a convicted murderer to finalize his serum and this bad blood is now slowly turning him into a merciless strangler as well. Classic Karloff material, in other words, with numerous fantastic monologues and a handful of eerie moments. Short (barely 60 minutes), intense and to the point; where would (mad) science be without Boris Karloff?