Dr. Henryk Savaard is a scientist working on experiments to restore life to the dead. When he is unjustly hanged for murder, he is brought back to life by his trusted assistant. Re-animated he turns decidedly nasty and sets about murdering the jury that convicted him.
Boris Karloff Lorna Gray Robert Wilcox Roger Pryor Don Beddoe Ann Doran Joe De Stefani Charles Trowbridge Byron Foulger Dick Curtis James Craig John Tyrrell George Anderson Stanley Blystone Sam Ash Harlan Briggs Stanley Brown Flo Campbell John Dilson Carl Faulkner Chuck Hamilton Frank Jaquet Kenner G. Kemp William Lally Perc Launders Larry Lund Ian Maclaren Charles McAvoy Charles Miller Show All…
Joseph Nussbaum R. H. Bassett Ben Oakland Karol Rathaus George Parrish Gregory Stone William Grant Still
L'uomo che non poteva essere impiccato, La horca fatal, O Homem Imortal, 他们绞不死的那个人, Muž, který nešel oběsit
USANR
USA
Mad science meets medical ethics in this pulpy Botis Karloff thriller. The Man They Could Not Hang feels like a less sensational version of Frankenstein, as Karloff's doctor accidently kills a man while messing around with a scheme to resurrect the dead. The film follows a fairly predictable formula. The scientist grandstands in court about why his work is beneficial to mankind and is eventually sentenced to death. It doesn't take a genius to work out what happens next, and sure enough the film morphs into a revenge thriller that seemingly takes a little influence from Agatha Christie in the way it plays out. It's very short, running at just over an hour, and this ensures it doesn't overstay its…
In The Man They Could Not Hang, Boris Karloff is less a mad scientist than a misunderstood scientist. Dr. Henryk Savaard (our BoKa) is a serious chap, the inventor of a nifty-looking device that will bring the dead back to life by restarting their hearts. But wouldn’t you know, the stupid public just doesn’t understand, interfering with a procedure and causing the death of a medical student (Stanley Brown). But is the public punished? No way. The good doc is hanged for murder. But is he dead for long? See the film’s title, though actually it’s misleading since he really is hanged. It just didn’t take. So what can a misunderstood scientist do but seek not revenge, he says, but…
⛄Daily Horror Hunt #31 (Jan. 2021)⛄
[9] Science experiments gone wrong.
💀HORRORx52 (2021)💀
[13] 1930's.
Gotta say, this one kinda took me by surprise. It starts out like your typical 30's mad scientist story – a doctor discovers a life changing breakthrough, attempts a questionable experiment, gets betrayed and sentenced to death by hanging, and is finally revived by his assistant so he can plot his revenge. A story done in so many other movies, most of them also starring Boris!
So why the four stars? Cause man, did this story ever get DARK. Turning into some kind of Saw-esque diabolical dinner party in the second half. Mr. Karloff would like to play a game, if you will. Invite the…
The Man They Could Not Hang is kind of a deconstruction of the evil mad scientist genre. Boris Karloff plays Dr. Henryk Savaard, a research scientist who’s doing experiments with suspended animation and artificial organs. Using a student volunteer he intends to kill a man and then bring him back to life with a large resuscitation machine. But the student’s jittery girlfriend runs to the police and Savaard is interrupted before he can revive the volunteer. The police arrest Savaard for murder and send him to the gallows. But the hung scientist’s assistant recovers the body and using Savaard’s own technology brings him back to life. The film then shifts to a revenge plot with an ‘old dark house’ format. …
"The Man They Could Not Hang" is a surprisingly progressive film about cryogenics and transplants in a time where surgeries were still very limited. However, the film quickly goes off the deep end into B movie goodness as Boris Karloff's Dr. Savaard begins experimenting with techniques to bring people back to life.
However, when he's interrupted in the midst of an operation on the dead body of his willing intern, he's arrested to murder and sentenced to hang. Once he's brought back to life by his assistant Dr. Lang he begins plotting his revenge on the judge and jurors that wrongfully (but actually rightfully) convicted him.
"The Man They Could Not Hang" is a taut revenge tale. At a slim…
Oh, what a deliciously devilish revenge! A human Frankenstein story of a dead man and the court that killed him! Awesome courtroom speech by Boris Karloff setting the tone for his brilliant scheme. He simply continues to expand to his already legendary portfolio monster personalities. Only thing reducing this experience was the rather light finish after holding little back for the grueling build-up. But that's only a minor point for one of the great horror movies of 1939!
"We've taken a human life!
If we can't restore that life, the law will call it murder"
Here’s a great story about what happens when a mad scientist gets really really mad.
This just became my favorite B movie of 1939. Yes it’s low budget and yes there’s a lot of talking, but when Boris Karloff goes off on one of his many mad scientist tirades it’s wonderful. I liked the story and I was also impressed by the directorial decisions and visuals, especially in the third act showdown.
BONUS POINTS: for the set design and some of those nifty looking gadgets.
"Always remember I offered you life, and you gave me death!"
I’m a easy lay when it comes to Boris Karloff as a mad Dr. Really enjoyed this. Went into it with no expectations or knowledge about the story and genuinely didn’t know where it was going in a few places. Karloff is his usual wonderful self.
1st Nick Grinde
Karloff's first film for Columbia starts the cycle's structure of Karloff playing a scientist attempting to disrupt the lines between life and death with disastrous consequences. Here, after a medical experiment goes wrong, he is sentenced to death and hanged for the death of a consenting subject. Fuelled by self-righteous rage, he decides to assemble those who wronged him to submit them to a curious revenge that involves spikes and electrocuted doors. It's deliciously Saw, but that adds to the extremely nihilistic and intellectually arrogant tone of the film; scientists are permanently doomed to be misunderstood by the small minded public, to the extent that they are not worth the marvellous new inventions that they will be…
“You will now be punished for your disbelief.”
Lazarus the Second
A mechanical heart? Blasphemy! A brilliant doctor is pushed to his breaking point in this zombie-adjacent jury horror from Karloff's Columbia sojourn. Unjustly capitally punished for a death he was in the midst of reversing, Dr. Savaard (Karloff) returns from the dead and starts knocking off the jurors who sent him to the gallows. Those still left he invites to his mansion, locks them inside, and starts shocking them with high voltage, threatening through the home’s intercom system, and taking pot shots at from his perch in the rafters.
I wish they had made resurrected Karloff a little more grotesque, other than just a bit stiff-necked, but, budget, I…
Hooptober 2021: Film #19
Decade #9
We've taken a human life! If we can't restore that life, the law will call it murder.
Those bean counters with their "laws" and their "ethics"! Why can't they just let a guy do a couple of murders in the name of science?
