Before I Hang (1940)

Before I Hang: Directed by Nick Grinde. With Boris Karloff, Evelyn Keyes, Bruce Bennett, Edward Van Sloan. A physician on death row for a mercy killing is allowed to experiment on a serum using a criminals’ blood, but secretly tests it on himself. He gets a pardon, but finds out he’s become a Jekyll-u0026-Hyde.

“The third Boris Karloff u0026quot;mad doctoru0026quot; film is an interesting if surprisingly rather dull affair; the star is always worth watching, however, and his role here certainly offers him plenty to sink his teeth into: he starts the film as an old man about to be hanged for a mercy killing, is then rejuvenated through a serum he develops while in prison (the kindly warden having consented to Karloff continuing his experiments there until the time of his execution comes) and finally turns into a strangler (the unfortunate side-effect of the drug which contained the blood cells of a murderer)! u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThough the supporting cast features several familiar faces, theyu0026#39;re all somewhat underused: Evelyn Keyes and Bruce Bennett are certainly among the higher-prolife actors to fill the u0026#39;romantic interestu0026#39; roles in this type of film, but theyu0026#39;re just about the most thankless Iu0026#39;ve ever seen (especially Bennett who has barely 5 minutes of screen time)! Edward van Sloanu0026#39;s presence was especially welcome (having memorably faced-off with Karloff twice before) but, again, his prison doctor here is nowhere near as juicy as his iconic roles in Dracula (1931), FRANKENSTEIN (1931), THE MUMMY (1932) and DRACULAu0026#39;S DAUGHTER (1936)! Pedro de Cordoba, on the other hand, is quite poignant as Karloffu0026#39;s pianist friend whose career is fading due to his advancing age; of course, Boris is willing to help him out in this regard, but his new-found and uncontrollable murderous instincts prevail! A measure of amusement is also gleaned from noticing the recurring presence of such actors as Roger Pryor, Don Beddoe and Charles Trowbridge in roles which were pretty much reprises of ones they had played in the earlier Columbia Karloffs! u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOn the debit side, the low budget especially shows here in the filmu0026#39;s rather dismal sets – the other three of Karloffu0026#39;s serious horror efforts for Columbia made good use of the staru0026#39;s gadget-filled house (THE MAN THEY COULD NOT HANG [1939]), frozen underground lab (THE MAN WITH NINE LIVES [1940]) and Karloffu0026#39;s imposing cliff-top mansion (THE DEVIL COMMANDS [1941]); besides, the rather clinical experiments become repetitive and the film talky, which is further exacerbated by the regrettable fact that throughout there are few action/horror highlights per se.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAs far as the filmu0026#39;s DVD presentation goes, I found it to be disappointingly lackluster: while the print itself is adequate, there are no scene selections for any of the films in this set (which also proves to be the case with Universalu0026#39;s Karloff collection and the u0026quot;Inner Sanctumu0026quot; Set!) nor, for that matter, proper menu screens – have the studios become stingy or what?!”