Boris Karloff plays a physician who is not only convicted of a mercy killing but improbably gets the death penalty because of it. He has developed a serum which will reverse the aging process, and he uses it on himself some hours before his scheduled execution. But then the governor commutes his sentence to life imprisonment. The serum makes Karloff look a bit younger and gives him vigor, but it also has an unfortunate, violent side effect. Karloff is fine and restrained in the picture, and frankly he deserved a much better script. Before I Hang doesn't do nearly enough with its premise and actually amounts to very little. Bruce Bennett plays the boyfriend of Karloff's daughter, Martha (Evelyn Keyes).
Verdict: Not much in this cheapie creepy. *1/2.
Karloff really made some forgettable ones, too, I guess. But his star rose again, unlike his costar and contemporary Lugosi...
ReplyDelete-C
Yes, Lugosi was truly tragic.
ReplyDelete