Watch The Man They Could Not Hang For Free

Pretty Good

best movie i've ever seen.

A Masterpiece!

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Karloff is a scientist experimenting on bringing the dead back to life (sort of ... he's using a whacky mix of cryogenics and a huge glass artificial heart to either raise the dead or put people in suspended animation). When the police interrupt one of his experiments at the behest of a traitorous nurse, his volunteer dies and he's tried for murder and executed. His assistant brings him back to life so he can seek vengeance on those who did him in. This is an average genre outing elevated by another great Karloff performance.

I really, really liked "The Man They Could Not Hang"! It's definitely one of the best – probably even THE best – of all the "mad scientist" movies released during the 1930s / 1940s and starring the almighty Boris Karloff in the role of megalomaniac doctor or professor (and these are quite numerous)! In fact, I loved this particular movie so much that it was one of those rare occasions where I regretted the fact that horror movies from this era are so short and to-the-point! I usually think it's a giant advantage that these films only last like 60-70 minutes, but in case of "The Man They Could Not Hung", I really wished that Karloff's mad-raving behavior would last another half an hour extra! There were most other contemporary titles of this kind are soft and overly talkative, this one is non-stop packed with action, suspense and deeply fascinating medical theories! Brilliant scientist Henryk Savaard is on the verge of writing medical history with his invention of a mechanical heart that can bring dead patients back to life after they have been operated. Savaard's student/assistant volunteers to test the device, but his girlfriend goes haywire and alerts the police. They break into the laboratory before Savaard has the opportunity to resurrect his guinea pig and – boom – the poor doctor gets accused of murder and sentenced to death by hanging! In court, Savaard transforms from a civilized scientist into an insane killer and vows to destroy everyone responsible for his death: judge, jury, crazy girlfriend and skeptical colleagues! A few weeks later, they all receive an invitation to come to a secluded old mansion; Agatha Christie style! Here, there are awaited by their very much alive host Savaard and subjected to a series of vile death traps… What I personally liked most about "The Man They Could Not Hang" – maybe even more than the delicious 'old dark house' climax – is the realism of Dr. Savaard's research. To put it in his own absorbing words: "To operate on a living body is like trying to repair a motor when it's still running… It would make more sense to switch off all bodily functions during an operation and then turn them back on when the operation was successful". That actually makes sense! Savaard isn't just another crazed professor aiming at immortality or creating new life, but a devoted doctor with a vision! I was definitely supporting him before and during his trial, and even when he was extracting his vengeance (although admittedly he goes a little over-the-top there…). This is, simply put, a massively entertaining black-and-white chiller with a splendid screenplay and an excellent Karloff performance. Director Nick Grindé does a more than adequate job as well. He would make two more mad scientist movies with Karloff, namely "Before I Hang" and "The Man with Nine Lives", but this one is my favorite.

Boris Karloff is a seemingly good doctor who has invented a mechanical heart he hopes to utilize on his nurse's boyfriend in order to alleviate the suffering of mankind. The young man has agreed to be medically put to death in order to be revived with the new heart installed. However, the frantic nurse turns him in, Karloff is arrested and sentenced to death. Members of the jury who voted for his execution, the D.A. and the judge are all invited to Karloff's house by a "mystery" host whom even the servants hired for the evening haven't seen.This is a tale of revenge, and it would really work if Karloff's character had been sent up as a vindictive man who had more interest in achieving immortality through giving to humanity than one who had humanity at the forefront of his motivation. Karloff's sudden rampage against the jury and other members of the court comes out of nowhere, and this gives the impression that there was really no consistency in the writer's idea of who this character was. The film moves at a quick pace and has some clever and macabre ideas to it, culminating in an eerie conclusion which involves Karloff's innocent daughter (Lorna Gray). But had someone pointed out the lack of motivation or twisted reasons for Karloff's demented change in personality then the film might have been a lot better. Director Nick Grinde and Karloff would get together the following year for the similarly titled "Before I Hang" which in retrospect is the better of the two films.

This is the first of Karloff's cycle of "Mad Doctor" B-films for Columbia and, given that somehow I was under the impression that this was considered the least of them, I was surprised to find it great fun throughout. Essentially, all the films had similar plots (and it's interesting to see how the star's looks changed from one title to the next) - with Karloff on the verge of some great discovery or other but who's always thwarted at the proverbial 11th hour by thick-headed police and other figures of authority!; in fact, they're so teeth-grindingly stupid here that Karloff's conversion from dedicated scientist to cold-blooded killer was actually quite convincing!! The star is in really fine form in this film - especially effective when delivering his threatening final statement before the court passes sentence on him and then, following his resurrection (complete with broken neck a' la Bela Lugosi's Ygor!), when exacting his elaborate and sinister revenge plan. In fact, the second half - intriguingly modeled on Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians/And Then There Were None" - is even more entertaining than the first. seeing how it finds all who remain of Karloff's intended victims being locked up in one room of his house (with all exits having been systematically blocked and wired with electricity!) and allowing 15 minutes between one execution and the next. Of course, his plans go sadly awry in the end as he hadn't counted on the presence of his daughter (alerted to Karloff's reappearance by her snooping reporter boyfriend) and, when she eventually 'sacrifices' her life to save that of Karloff's unwilling guests, he sees the error of his ways and willingly accepts death anew from a bullet wound. Unfortunately, there's a hokey, tacked-on happy ending of sorts - with Karloff's daughter getting resurrected in the nick of time, through the use of his own invention, before he himself expires.