The Man They Could Not Hang

Dr. Henryk Savaard (Boris Karloff) is a scientist working on experiments to restore life to the dead. When he is unjustly hanged for murder, he is brought back to life by his trusted assistant. Re-animated he turns decidedly nasty and sets about murdering the jury that convicted him.

Similarly themed as Before I hang and part of the series of "mad Doctor' series he made, Boris Karloff is excellent as always, and it's quite well-paced, gripping and cleverly an Agatha Christie-style element is infused in towards the end, drawing the plot away from the usual mad Doctor formula. Here, the doctor traps the ones who sent him to the gallows and intends to bump them off one by one via electric shocks.

A Boris Karloff vehicle from 1939. Karloff is a scientist on the cusp of creating a device to bring the dead to life (ironic coming from Frankenstein's monster!) & he already has a willing guinea pig, his assistant's boyfriend, volunteering for the task. On the cusp of completing his experiment, the distressed girlfriend has sent a phalanx of police to halt him in his tracks but the foul deed is done; the boyfriend is dead & the process was never applied. Imploring his assistant to hide the device when he hears the cops at his door, Karloff is arrested, tried (even though he gives an impassioned speech on his potential discovery) & hanged for his trouble. When he's revived by his aide, Karloff constructs an elaborate plan to kill off all the people (the district attorney, the jurors at his trial, even his assistant) in a rigged dining room in a large mansion. When Karloff's daughter, played by Lorna Gray, shows up, his game is thrown, will he succeed in his determination to murder the rest of his guests? Only Karloff's oily ham of a performance saves a rather muddled Agatha Christie-esque yarn which even w/its abridged running time still feels a little too wild for its own good.

I really, really liked "The Man They Could Not Hang"! It's definitely one of the best – probably even THE best – of all the "mad scientist" movies released during the 1930s / 1940s and starring the almighty Boris Karloff in the role of megalomaniac doctor or professor (and these are quite numerous)! In fact, I loved this particular movie so much that it was one of those rare occasions where I regretted the fact that horror movies from this era are so short and to-the-point! I usually think it's a giant advantage that these films only last like 60-70 minutes, but in case of "The Man They Could Not Hung", I really wished that Karloff's mad-raving behavior would last another half an hour extra! There were most other contemporary titles of this kind are soft and overly talkative, this one is non-stop packed with action, suspense and deeply fascinating medical theories! Brilliant scientist Henryk Savaard is on the verge of writing medical history with his invention of a mechanical heart that can bring dead patients back to life after they have been operated. Savaard's student/assistant volunteers to test the device, but his girlfriend goes haywire and alerts the police. They break into the laboratory before Savaard has the opportunity to resurrect his guinea pig and – boom – the poor doctor gets accused of murder and sentenced to death by hanging! In court, Savaard transforms from a civilized scientist into an insane killer and vows to destroy everyone responsible for his death: judge, jury, crazy girlfriend and skeptical colleagues! A few weeks later, they all receive an invitation to come to a secluded old mansion; Agatha Christie style! Here, there are awaited by their very much alive host Savaard and subjected to a series of vile death traps… What I personally liked most about "The Man They Could Not Hang" – maybe even more than the delicious 'old dark house' climax – is the realism of Dr. Savaard's research. To put it in his own absorbing words: "To operate on a living body is like trying to repair a motor when it's still running… It would make more sense to switch off all bodily functions during an operation and then turn them back on when the operation was successful". That actually makes sense! Savaard isn't just another crazed professor aiming at immortality or creating new life, but a devoted doctor with a vision! I was definitely supporting him before and during his trial, and even when he was extracting his vengeance (although admittedly he goes a little over-the-top there…). This is, simply put, a massively entertaining black-and-white chiller with a splendid screenplay and an excellent Karloff performance. Director Nick Grindé does a more than adequate job as well. He would make two more mad scientist movies with Karloff, namely "Before I Hang" and "The Man with Nine Lives", but this one is my favorite.

Karloff plays Dr. Saavard, a scientist involved in creating an artificial heart and hopefully the means to extend life and perhaps realize immortality. A young man offers his services to him, and accidentally dies. Karloff is brought to trial, convicted and hung. He comes back(as we new he would from the name of the title) and seeks revenge on all those responsible for his "death." The story is fairly conventional and routine, but there are some splendid moments in the house of Karloff menacing his "guests" and letting each one know how long he or she has to live. The only real complaint I have deals with the ending which just cuts the tension that had been built up. The ending is rather make-shift and really spoiled the mood earlier created.

Columbia's 'Mad Scientist' quintet was supervised by line producer Wallace MacDonald, the initial three all scripted by Karl Brown and directed by Nick Grinde, the template set from the start, Boris Karloff a dedicated researcher whose experiments often skirt into illegality, hoping to achieve something positive for mankind even if it means sacrificing a few lives (the actor's previous Columbia SON OF SHOCK titles included "Behind the Mask" and "The Black Room"). 1939's "The Man They Could Not Hang" actually kicks off exactly that way, an artificial heart made of glass designed to pump blood through tubes in an attempt to revive the actual human heart and restore life to a body that has been scientifically put to death to more easily perform surgery without the pressure of a race against time (commonly known today as open heart surgery, the film gets it right). His assistant Lang (Byron Foulger) is present along with a willing test subject (Stanley Brown) eager to do a great benefit for humanity, his complete trust in Karloff's Dr. Henryk Savaard undone by an unthinking fiancée (Ann Doran), her subsequent summoning of the police assuring the young man's demise. Pleas for one hour to save the boy's life fall upon deaf ears, a trumped up trial only a pretense for disbelieving medical authorities to put a stop to Savaard's incredible theories, the title incorrect for they DO actually hang him ("Before I Hang" should have sported this title, this one redubbed "After I Hang!"). Lang claims the corpse and revives Savaard, after which six of his jurors mysteriously suffer suicide by hanging, reporter 'Scoop' Foley (Robert Wilcox) joining the remaining jurors at the supposedly deserted Savaard home to learn the truth. Secure in the knowledge that no one would ever suspect a man legally dead, the now insane medico is determined to gain revenge on the short sighted authorities who denied him justice ("they killed the man I was"). The law of diminishing returns works against the four follow ups, and it's tough to imagine Karloff topping his performance here, from sympathetic entreaties for techniques to preserve life to embittered angel of death, a devoted dispenser of retribution. Interestingly, his Warners debut in "The Walking Dead" found him an innocent man electrocuted for a murder he didn't commit, restored to life by Edmund Gwenn, only his resurrection is a spiritual one, his enemies driven to destroy themselves through their own guilt.