(1940)
Dir - Nick Grinde
Overall: GOOD
Immediately following The Man They Could Not Hang and The Man with Nine Lives, director Nick Grinde and Boris Karloff wrap-up their collaboration with Before I Hang, one of several films that the iconic horror actor made with Columbia Pictures. Playing a brilliant scientist for the umpteenth time and counting, Karloff carries the movie with a performance that ranges from soft and caring benevolence to tightly wound fury, and his character remains wholly sympathetic the whole way through. Edward Van Sloan makes an appearance as well, poorly trying to disguise his noticeable accent, (even though he was actually born in Minnesota), but elsewhere the cast is sufficient if not memorable. The screenplay is not particularly strong, but it ultimately does not have to be as its highly unscientific cliches act as mere placeholders for Karloff to shine. Without such an actor of his class and caliber present, the film would most likely cease to even remotely amaze, but as it stands, it is a solid enough sixty-two minutes to experience for the Karloff enthusiast.
(1941)
Dir - Edward Dmytryk
Overall: MEH
Fusing seances, liberal loads of wacky laboratory props, creepy old houses, a conniving female sidekick, a dumb brute to act as muscle, and even an angry mob for good measure, Boris Karloff's only film released in 1941 The Devil Commands checks off many of the horror tropes of the day. At this point, Karloff had played warmhearted yet tortured mad scientists enough times that you would imagine he could simply phone it in or at the very least ham it up a bit out of sheer boredom. Yet here, he still steadily steers away from camp as much as ever, remaining respectable from beginning to end. There are a few atmospheric set pieces with effective cinematography from Allen G. Siegler and earlier on it seems like the script might have a few intriguing ideas up its sleeve. Unfortunately though, it becomes stuck in a loop where the desperate plight of Karloff's doctor never really culminates. His isolation and dependence on a cold and manipulative medium who drops her entire business on a dime to shack up with him for years seems even more implausible than the silly, Hollywood-logic science experiments that are underway.
(1944)
Dir - George Waggner
Overall: MEH
Originally planned as a sequel to Universal's own Claude Rains-stared, color remake of The Phantom of the Opera from the previous year, The Climax in turn bares no narrative resemblance to it and merely uses the same opera house sets and actress Susana Foster in a virtually identical role. Director George Waggner who had delivered marvelously on the seminal The Wolf Man four years prior handles the material decently enough, but sadly the story here which is based very loosely if at all off of Edward Locke's play of the same name is weak in comparison to Phantom. This includes Boris Karloff's villainous antagonist Dr. Friedrich Hohner who comes off as underwritten and ultimately uninteresting in the process. While Karloff is admirably fine as always, the plotting is a bit monotonous and the musical numbers are frequent and long enough to clash with the horror elements that end up feeling forced. It is admirably produced, but overall forgettable in too many other regards.
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