The Man They Could Not Hang (1939)

First of Columbia's "mad doctor" series for Karloff, this is a well produced and engaging melodrama. It's a nice role for Boris, who by this time was gravitating to the mad scientist role rather than the monster created by them! Here he is a little of both, and he shines in both modes.Karloff plays Dr. Henryk Savaard, experimenter with mechanical hearts (shades of 1936's The Walking Dead). Interrupted in the middle of restoring life to a willing human subject (as Lionel Atwill was in The Mad Doctor of Market Street a couple of years' later) he walks to the noose and of course is soon resusitated by his assistant, embarking on a mad scheme of revenge against those who sent him to the gallows.In truth the movie loses its way a little with the And Then There Were None style wrap up, especially during the abrupt climax where he destroys his mechnical heart after saving his daughter. But overall this is still a watchable and engaging horror pic.

"The Man They Could Not Hang" is certainly a very watchable film. On the surface, it appears to be another mad-scientist-defies-nature story, but it has deeper roots.Dr. Henryk Savaard (Boris Karloff) has designed an artificial heart and has tested it on various animals. A young man volunteers to be the first human recipient, so Savaard and his assistant terminate the man's life only to be interrupted mid-procedure, before they can restore the man's life.What follows is a courtroom drama, then an Agatha Christie-like murder in a box, with a twist. At each phase of the film, Dr. Savaard delivers a speech about science vs. ignorance, each with its own perspective. Each speech is well written and takes the story beyond the typical mad doctor genre.This film does not fall into the horror genre. Perhaps the mere presence of Karloff prompted that labelling. But Savaard may be the most rational character in the film. It is a sci-fi crime story. And it is well worth watching and very entertaining.

Fascinating! Boris Karloff stars as Dr. Henryk Savaard, whose cutting-edge research is proved by his own death...and rebirth. Weird and exciting for movie goers in the 1939. The scientist is totally obsessed with his research of bringing the dead back to life. A young medical student with faith in the doctor offers himself to be put to death, but before Savaard can bring him back to life...he is arrested and convicted of murder and sentenced to hang. The unappreciated Savaard vows revenge on the judge and jury. The sentence is carried out and an assistant of the now deceased Savaard claims the body and revives him proving the unimaginable technique actually works. A vengeful and justly manic Savaard begins killing his doubters. Other players include: Lorna Gray, Joe De Stefani, Robert Wilcox, Roger Pryor and Don Beddoe.

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.