Celui qui avait tué... la mort

Original title: The Man They Could Not Hang

IMDb RATING

6.8/10

2.1K

YOUR RATING

Boris Karloff and Lorna Gray in Celui qui avait tué... la mort (1939)

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Crime Horror Sci-Fi

When Dr. Savaard's experiment in cryonics is interrupted by the short-sighted authorities, his volunteer dies, and he is condemned to death. He vows vengeance if he can survive his own hangi... Read allWhen Dr. Savaard's experiment in cryonics is interrupted by the short-sighted authorities, his volunteer dies, and he is condemned to death. He vows vengeance if he can survive his own hanging.When Dr. Savaard's experiment in cryonics is interrupted by the short-sighted authorities, his volunteer dies, and he is condemned to death. He vows vengeance if he can survive his own hanging.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.8/10

2.1K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Dr. Stoddard
(as Joseph De Stefani)

Charles Trowbridge

Judge Bowman

Byron Foulger

Lang

Dick Curtis

Kearney

James Craig

Watkins

John Tyrrell

Sutton

George Anderson

Prison Warden
(uncredited)

Sam Ash

Druggist
(uncredited)

Sam Bagley

Courtroom Spectator
(uncredited)

Stanley Blystone

Prison Guard
(uncredited)

Harlan Briggs

Defense Attorney Parker
(uncredited)

Stanley Brown

Bob Roberts
(uncredited)

Director
- Nick Grinde
Writers
All cast & crew
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Storyline

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Trivia
On the witness stand, Dr. Savaard claims that one day it will be possible to take a heart from a person, such as someone killed in an automobile accident, and place it into the body of a person in need of a new heart, while skeptics in the courtroom scoff. Twenty-three years later, on December 3, 1967, the first successful human heart transplant occurred at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. The patient, Louis Washkansky, received the heart of a young woman tragically killed in an automobile accident.

Goofs
After the judge dies, the remaining guests discover the electrified grill because the detective's gun, in a holster on his belt, hits the grill. Later, when the detective pulls his gun, he pulls it from his jacket.

Quotes
Dr. Henryk Savaard: Think of it! The Edison or Pasteur of tomorrow need not die merely because his heart is worn out. We'll give him a new heart taken perhaps from the body of a young man who's been killed in a automobile accident. And our great genius is awakened to another sixty years of useful life! You ask me if that's a benefit to mankind? I answer it's the gift of eternal life! But whether man's wise enough or old enouh to receive such a gift, I don't know. I don't know!

Connections
Featured in Classic Nightmares: The Man They Could Not Hang (1959)

User reviews47

Featured review

Better then Expected

This 1939, public domain cheapie B-Film turned out to be much better then expected. The plot in a nut shell is this: Boris Karloff kills a medical student in order to test a procedure that will bring him back to life, only his nurse, played by Ann Doran goes to the police. Karloff is arrested, tried and hanged, but not before threatening the judge, members of the jury, his nurse and others who helped to get him sentenced to death. Once dead, a scientist who worked with Karloff brings him back to life, and he sets out killing those who sentenced him to death.

If anyone has seen The House on Haunted Hill and its later remake, this film was probably used for certain inspiration for this film. You have a group of people, all associated with the case, who are all brought to a deserted house, locked inside, and are slowly killed off one by one. The film is short, just a little over an hour in length, but is top notch entertainment, and is very enjoyable, and well acted.