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A doctor researching "frozen therapy" seeks out Boris Karloff, the therapy's originator. Boris has been missing from his island laboratory for ten years. After ignoring requests to stay off the island by locals, the doctor and his beautiful nurse discover Boris frozen in secret caves beneath the lab. Boris has been frozen along with a host of villagers. Through flashback it is learned these others came to arrest Boris for murder ten years earlier and they all wound up being gassed and frozen. This is the proof Karloff needs to vindicate his research. He sets out to duplicate his accidental results, his methods become increasingly Machiavellian. Ultimately he is his own undoing. This movie is hard to catagorize. The film makers tried to add shock to an interesting scifi story. The film succeeds in spite of the efforts to punch it up. The acting is uneven but overall this is a top notch "B" effort. The science is very plausible, a rarity in old laboratory films. See it and be pleasantly surprised

A doctor (Roger Pryor) studying cryogenics visits the deserted home of Dr. Leon Kravaal (Boris Karloff), a pioneer in the field who went missing ten years before. Uncovering a secret passage in the basement, he and his nurse girlfriend (Jo Ann Sayers) find Kravaal and four other men frozen in ice. They successfully revive Kravaal, who then revives the others. It turns out Kravaal had frozen himself and the others years before when they tried to arrest him. So now the somewhat mad doctor holds them all hostage while he tries to recover his original formula.

Very interesting and entertaining Karloff mad scientist movie. The subject of cryogenics (never called that here, just frozen therapy) is ahead of its time. The rest of the cast is fine but obviously it's Karloff's show the whole way. Intriguing premise with fun execution. A solid "B" movie that's highly enjoyable.

Roger Pryor is a doctor who has success 'curing' patients by lowering their body temperatures. He is urged to publish his results, but wants to know more about the work of a doctor who pioneered the science, then vanished ten years before. Pryor and his nurse/girlfriend Jo Ann Sayers set out to find the last known address of the doctor, Boris Karloff (who else?) to see if he left any notes behind. Not only do they find his notes, they find him..frozen in a room 91 steps (they counted) below his laboratory. They thaw him out, and he tells what happened a decade before..how 3 officials tried to stop him from using the technique on a wealthy citizen, and they all got trapped in the 'deep freeze'.

Oddly, none of them seem particularly surprised or upset (?) about their years on ice, but things get ugly fast; one man becomes very greedy concerning profits from the promising technique, and Karloff wants to continue experimenting on everyone else. It's a fun watch, but you can guess early on that Karloff is going to go completely off the deep end (only naive' Pryor and Sayers are very slow to catch on).

This little known gem from 1940 is impressive for a few reasons: first, it stands head and shoulders above most of the B movies of the era, largely due to a good script and a great performance from Boris Karloff. Also, while made in the midst of the Universal horror period, it demonstrates some of the best elements of that genre, however it also pre-figures the oncoming decade of sci-fi flicks of the 50s, but with a more intelligent, and mysterious, plot than most of the B sci-fi films that followed. It also incorporates some noir elements such as shadowy images, gun play, etc. The Man with Nine Lives is also known under the alternative title Behind the Door (which is actually more accurate).

"The Man with Nine Lives" is my second favourite Boris Karloff movie from "Columbia" after "The Devil Commands."

The man himself doesn't make his first appearance until about 25 minutes into the film but it hardly matters as he makes up for it.

The film strives for a more claustrophobic look and succeeds brilliantly.

The number of characters aren't many but that's the idea of it.

Karloff always had the knack of emoting both sympathy as well as menace.

The rather modest budget is obvious in places but this film is still worth the viewing.