Themes: Split Personalities, Doctors and Patients, Mad Scientists
Main Cast: Boris Karloff, Evelyn Keyes, Bruce Bennett, Edward Van Sloan, Ben Taggart
Release Year: 1940
Country: US
Run Time: 60 minutes
Plot
Condemned to death for a mercy killing, Dr. John Garth (Karloff) continues to experiment in prison to develop a serum that will put at end to the ageing process. On the eve of his execution, he offers himself as guinea pig for his youth serum, which has recently been mixed with the blood of an executed psychopath. Miraculously, Garth does grow younger before the astonished eyes of kindly prison physician Ralph Howard (Edward Van Sloan). Alas, the serum has murderous side effects, which Howard discovers only as Garth strangles him to death. Pardoned from Death Row thanks to a script contrivance, Garth spends the rest of the film trying to carry on his humanitarian work despite embarrassing lapses into homicidal mania. Many observers regard Before I Hang as the best of Karloff's "Mad Doctor" series for Columbia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The old saying that "blood will tell" is given a very literal -- and not very scientifically sound -- twist in Before I Hang. Of course, in mad scientist films such as this, the "science" is much less important than the mad, so most fans will not care about the intense implausibility of the premise that blood from a murderer will turn a kindly man into a raving maniac. Hang's problem isn't really that its premise isn't sound; it's that the script is hackneyed. It's all about connecting the plot dots, and those dots are absurdly obvious, even from miles away. As might be guessed, dialogue is also not a strong suit here. Nick Grinde's direction is poor and quite rushed -- although that does have the advantage of making Hang a very short, breezy flick. What makes the film worth a viewing is, of course, its star. Boris Karloff was still in his prime in 1940, and he makes even lower-tier work such as this enjoyable. It's not one of his great performances, but there are moments here and there, little nuances that lesser horror actors wouldn't have thought of. He can't quite save Hang, but he keeps it afloat -- which is quite an achievement. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Lionel Banks - Art Director, Nick Grinde - Director, Charles Nelson - Editor, Morris W. Stoloff - Composer (Music Score), Morris W. Stoloff - Musical Direction/Supervision, Ben Kline - Cinematographer, Wallace MacDonald - Producer, Robert Hardy Andrews - Screenwriter, Karl Brown - Screenwriter
Before I Hang is a science fiction, horror film released by Columbia Pictures in 1940, starring Boris Karloff. In the film he plays Dr. John Garth, a physician on death row who experiments on a serum using the blood of a criminal. He is pardoned, but becomes a character similar to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The film was directed by Nick Grinde, and was one of several films Karloff starred in contract with Columbia.
