Boris Karloff plays a mad doctor(surprise!) bent on revenge. In this fast paced effort, we see Karloff emotionally bounce from dignified to devilish and everything in between. Great acting and a neat and very entertaining story. The low budget certainly did not harm this movie at all. This one has a lot of heart, no pun intended. Ironically, it is the one person closest to the doctors own heart that offers the potential victims of his revenge a small chance of a reprieve. Karloff and black and white horror go together like peanut butter and jelly. The expressive manner of Karloff, the crags and lines on his face, the intonation of his voice, the way his talents are used here, plus the prophetic medical story that is presented, all of this combine to make this barely- one- hour and well made film a not to be missed gem by any fan of vintage old school horror....

The Man They Could Not Hang is a very solidly done film but falls short of greatness. The ending is tacky and felt somewhat like two endings in one. The first third does take its time to get going, it sets things up well but compared to what comes after it was a little dull, while the music is rather stock and you can tell that several composers were responsible. The Man They Could Not Hang looks very good however with fluid photography and creepy settings, while the script is witty and clever with a foreboding tone that really makes its impact, and the story may be standard but it is still very neatly told with the suspense levels appropriately sinister and the fun factor deliciously entertaining. The last third apart from the ending fares by far the best, that's fun and enough to make you bite the nails. The acting is good, Lorna Gray comes off best in the supporting cast, all competent but none make the same impression that Boris Karloff. Karloff is good reason to see any film and he is the best thing about The Man They Could Not Hang. He has an effortless eerie command and does it with his usual style and dignity. The artificial heart and organ transplant stuff is also very ahead of its time, and a further source of interest. Overall, standard with a hokey ending, stock music and a slow start but lots of fun and very effective in atmosphere and as ever Karloff is great. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Fascinating! Boris Karloff stars as Dr. Henryk Savaard, whose cutting-edge research is proved by his own death...and rebirth. Weird and exciting for movie goers in the 1939. The scientist is totally obsessed with his research of bringing the dead back to life. A young medical student with faith in the doctor offers himself to be put to death, but before Savaard can bring him back to life...he is arrested and convicted of murder and sentenced to hang. The unappreciated Savaard vows revenge on the judge and jury. The sentence is carried out and an assistant of the now deceased Savaard claims the body and revives him proving the unimaginable technique actually works. A vengeful and justly manic Savaard begins killing his doubters. Other players include: Lorna Gray, Joe De Stefani, Robert Wilcox, Roger Pryor and Don Beddoe.

Man They Could Not Hang, The (1939) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Boris Karloff plays a crazed scientist who is obsessed with bringing the dead back to life. He tries his new machine on a dead college student but before he can bring the kid back to life the police show up and he is eventually sentenced to death. The scientist swears vengeance on the jury, judge and prosecutor if he can live through the hanging. This was the first of four "mad scientist" films that Karloff made for Columbia and it's certainly the weakest. The film starts off pretty well but it slowly grows tiresome and ends with a very poor finale, which is a cheat, silly and just comes off bad. Karloff is actually pretty good in the first half of the film as we see him really playing crazy like he wasn't offered too many times. Quite often he was the nice mad scientist but here is actually gets to come off pretty crazy and messed up in the head. This might take sympathy away from him for later in the film but I liked his character early on. The second half of the film turns into your typical revenge thriller and doesn't add anything new or original to the mix. The supporting cast is also rather disappointing even though Lorna Gray comes off fairly well. None of these Columbia films with Karloff are overly special but the good news here is that this one runs just over an hour, which makes for some mild entertainment but if you want to see classic Karloff then you'll have to look elsewhere.