The Devil Commands. Edward Dmytryk. 1941.
More Karloff. The fourth of Columbia Pictures barmy boffin series. This time Boris plays Dr.Julian Blair, a kindly somewhat absent minded doc who is researching human brainwaves. When tragedy strikes the good doctor becomes obsessed with attempting to breach the barrier between life and death.
Sadly this was a disappointing effort, even Karloff seems to struggle to do much with this, he seemed bored. I'm not sure if perhaps the producers also felt the cycle was wearing thin but everything but the kitchen sink seems to get thrown at the screen in this one. The mad scientist, the laboratory, an Ygor character in the form of Ralph Penny's brain-damaged brute Karl, the gothic clifftop mansion, perpetual downpours, pitchfork waving villagers. Yet none of it really came together I felt. A shame, Karloff is still good, or at least does nothing wrong. His character becomes more despondent and defeated as the film goes along and it felt like Karloff was feeling that way himself. Maybe it's just what I got from this one though.
Far from a bad film, simply sub-par for the great man.
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