terrible... so disappointed.

Better Late Then Never

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A routine but well-staged programmer with the inimitable Boris Karloff as an elderly, mild-mannered scientist who unsurprisingly becomes a homicidal maniac when he uses himself as a guinea pig for a new serum he has developed to prolong life - a serum which, surprise, surprise, contains the blood of a hanged murderer. It's not long before Karloff is growing younger before our very eyes, but he also finds himself becoming possessed by a murderous spirit which causes him to strangle all those who are close friends or relatives. What follows is a string of shocking murders, but at a sixty minute running time it's not long before the police are on the case to hunt Karloff down.The same plot - or at least a variation of it - was already a bit clichéd by the time this movie was made, but that doesn't stop it from being entertaining. There's a good pacing, with no scenes dragging as they tend to do from this period, and at least there are plenty of opportunity for chills and scares thanks to Karloff's performance. Here, Karloff is a tragic monster, a kind of Jekyll and Hyde, and Karloff's sympathetic portrayals of screen villains and monsters were always what he did best; you end up caring for his character, and thus become involved in the movie. BEFORE I HANG is no exception, and Karloff's strong acting makes the whole movie worthwhile; furthermore, as a policeman in the film says, Karloff is the only person to send a chill down one's spine whilst being polite - his understated menace is highly effective, and the scenes in which his whole visage grows locked and his eyes madly staring are great stuff.The supporting cast is a strong one, including genre veterans Evelyn Keyes as Karloff's unsuspecting daughter, and Dracula's own Van Helsing, Edward Van Sloan, as a scientist friend of Karloff's. There are some atmospheric moments to enjoy, my favourite coming when Karloff escapes through the fog, his eyes staring almost luminously in the dark with madness. Plenty of macabre touches and Karloff's commanding performance highlight a minor, but efficient, low-budget horror yarn from a forgotten studio.

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?

I don't know how many movies -- most of them pretty poor -- have been made about anatomical transplants causing the recipient to ape the deranged behavior of the donor. Maybe the most amusing is Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein", when Igor rushes to get the transplant from the laboratory, drops the good one, and substitutes a brain labeled A. B. Normal. ("Abnormal," get it?) There's a movie circulating on cable TV now about a baboon heart, and I remember Michael Caine got a murderous black hand a few years ago.In this instance, Boris Karloff is a doctor convicted of a mercy killing and sentenced to hang. He's been working on an anti-death serum and, while in prison, is permitted to continue his research alongside the prison's doctor, Edward Van Sloan.He undertakes an experiment that results in the kind of evidence that investigators refer to as "self report." That is, he injects himself with serum based on tinkering with the blood of a murderer. Well, let's not laugh too hard. That's how the Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman discovered LSD.The problem is that the serum works in the sense that it regresses the ancient Doctor Karloff to the age of about forty, but since the original blood sample was drawn from a murderer, the desire to kill has also been transferred. You can always tell when one of his irrational impulses are coming on because he rubs the back of his neck. Before he collapses, Karloff is able to strangle Van Sloan in private. The murder is blamed on someone else and Karloff is released from prison for his contribution to medical research.Now he's out in the open, back in society, and he wants to experiment on his close old friends, including Pedro de Cordoba as a pianist whose age has slowed down the tempo of his Chopin. De Cordoba sees Karloff alone and agrees to the injection but Karloff kills him instead.And so on.This seems to be regarded as a horror film by some. I don't know why. It's more of a drama. Karloff gives a very sympathetic performance. He's particularly endearing as the ancient practitioner, bent and kyphotic, who is convicted and sentenced to death for putting an old acquaintance out of his intractable pain after months of treating him.Evelyn Keyes doesn't have much to do, but what little she does is critical.There's little violence, no blood, and nothing supernatural. It's a relatively quiet movie about a man who finds that, now and then, he can't help himself. Doctor Jeykll had the same problem, didn't he? It wouldn't be surprising if the writers hadn't begun their story with the kernel of Stevenson's in mind.

Before I Hang (1940) ** 1/2 (out of 4) A kind, elderly scientist (Boris Karloff) is sentenced to hang for a mercy killing but with his last three weeks to live the warden allows him to work with another scientist (Edward Van Sloan) in hopes that he can complete the blood serum he was working on, which could make people younger. Before hanging, Karloff tries it on himself and it works but with deadly side effects. This Columbia cheapie is pretty good during the first half of its 62-minutes but the second half really falls apart as it goes for every cheap cliché in the book. The first half mostly takes place inside the prison and this is where the film is most entertaining. It was great fun seeing Karloff and Van Sloan working together again as they had previous worked together in the classic Universal films of the early 30s. The second half of the film settles into a Jekyll/Hyde type of film and this is where it gets routine and rather boring. The plot itself is rather silly especially how Karloff gets all these privileges inside the prison and is eventually able to get out. Evelyn Keyes and Van Sloan are good in their supporting roles but it's Karloff that steals the film. He turns in another very good performance and especially in the first half when he's playing someone twice his actual age. When it's all said and done there's nothing overly special about this film but it does manage to keep you slightly entertained in its short running time.