Juggernaut

Juggernaut is really a very low budget film that holds interest as it was one of several British films made by Boris Karloff after he made his name in Hollywood for making horror films for Universal Pictures.

Karloff plays Dr Sartorius somewhere in north Africa whose funding for medical experiments has been cut. Distraught he succumbs to the dastardly plans of Yvonne Clifford (Mona Goya) a greedy, philandering wife of a rich old man. She wants Sartorius to poison her husband so she can inherit his fortune and he gets money for his research. Her plans become unstuck when she finds out that her stepson will administer his father's estate.

Goya is wildly over the top in her performance, Karloff is rather laid back even though he is playing a sinister role.

There is actually a rather short film but still packs a plot and some poor acting.

Dr. Sartorius (Boris Karloff) is without financial means to experiment for a paralysis cure and must give up his lab work. He meets Lady Yvonne Clifford (Mona Goya), a very wealthy wife of an ailing cotton millionaire Sir Charles Clifford (Morton Selten). Lady Clifford asks Dr. Sartorius to help her obtain her husband's money. Dr Sartorius eager to obtain money for his expenses and laboratory studies, agrees to poison her husband, making it look like he died from natural causes. After a period of time, Sir Charles begins to suspect Dr. Sartorius of making him gravely ill. This Karloff movie has a very different ending which surprised me. Karloff is without any monster makeup, however, he is terrifying and proves to be a very evil French doctor as usual.

In JUGGERNAUT, Boris Karloff plays a furious medical specialist who has received a major setback in his research into human paralysis. His desperation for renewed funding- and a hyper-inflated ego- lead him into a devil's agreement with the wife of a millionaire cotton industrialist, who is seeking a way to murder her husband so that she can go on with her high living affair with a jigolo. Running a timely interference are the family members of the rich patriarch, loyal personal servants and an observant and resourceful nurse portrayed by Joan Wyndham. Definitely the stuff of melodrama, and not a particularly unusual role in Karloff's career.

What's interesting about this piece is the pacing- which I suspect seemed very slow to American audiences, even at the time of its release (1936), if contemporary reviews found in books on Karloff are any indicator. Though some of it is indeed histrionic in content, there are only a few spots in the work where "over the top" acting disrupt its continuity. As a whole, of course, it's junk, but it's the junk of guilty pleasure. it's fascinating to watch Karloff breathe life into yet another tripped-up scientist characterization. His Dr. Sartorious is bitter, high strung, barely a note below fury at all moments, far from the characterizations of educated fruitcake benevolence that the actor is so often remembered for.

As for his "slouching" noted by other reviewers, I suspect it had less to do with conscious characterization then with the back ailment and arthritically bowed legs that plagued Karloff most of his life, which were flaring up before the man was in his 50s. You can view almost any of his films and see evidence of the ailment early on.

I think JUGGERNAUT is actually a better film then it's often reviewed as. It's not Karloff at the top of his form, but it's Karloff attempting to bring new flavor to what for many other actors would have long become a shop-worn characterization, and for that reason, well worth the hour or so it takes to take it in.

Boris Karloff is a research doctor who needs money to complete his research. He's returned to Britain to search for backers, and gets involved in one of those family situations. Old Morton Selten is married to young Mona Goya, and she has a young man on the string. Selten is failing, so Karloff is called in, Meanwhile, Selten has changed his will and given power of attorney to his son, Arthur Margetson; he hates Miss Goya and she him. Suddenly, Margetson is dead, and the nurse, Joan Wyndham suspects foul play.

It's a pretty good murder movie, one of the last that Henry Edwards directed for Julius Hagen. Karloff is, as always, a treat to watch, playing his doctor with intelligence, although he clearly finds the screaming and shouting going on a distraction from his duties; Miss Wyndham is good as the nurse who suspects the worse and finds herself trapped. There's also Nina Boucicault as Selten's sister; she was the daughter of the dramatist Dion Boucicault, and the first women to play Peter Pan.

It's a solid effort, with its only flaw the blaring theme by W. L. Trytel. Karloff had made three films in Great Britain in quick succession. After this, it was back to the US; Charlie Chan needed him.

This film is what I call "basic" - meaning not a lot to it. Doctor Sartorius (Karloff) is a "mad doctor" who's lost all his funding, Yvonne Clifford (Mona Goya) is married to a rich man while having an affair with man with not a lot of money. So she enlists the help of Dr. Sartorius to bump off her husband but there is one problem - the nurse.

If you like Boris Karloff then this film is worth watching otherwise you can pass this one by - you are not missing anything. It's not a terrible film but it's not a great film - I put it in the so-so category.

When you read reviews of this film you will find that reviewers talking about Mona Goya's performance being bad - and it's true she is not very good in this movie. Very much over acting in this film but she does not take away from Karloff's performance.

5/10