THE MAN WITH NINE LIVES

THE MAN WITH NINE LIVES (1940). Director: Nick Grinde. 

Dr. Leon Kravall (Boris Karloff) was a leader in the field of "frozen therapy" in which cells and people are frozen for allegedly beneficial results, but he disappeared ten years ago. Aha -- it turns out that the good doctor and several others were actually accidentally frozen in a cavern in his basement. Thawed out, the megalomaniacal Kravall insists on doing things his way whether everyone agrees with him or not. Karloff is fun, Jo Ann Sayers is fine as the nurse Judith, and there are some okay ideas and moments in the movie, but overall this doesn't add up to all that much. Still, Karloff is always watchable and so is the film. 

Verdict: Just don't expect too much. **1/2.

 

BEFORE I HANG

BEFORE I HANG (1940). Director: Nick Grinde.

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.