Grip of the Strangler
Director: Robert Day
Year: 1958
Rating: 7.0
Aka -
The Haunted Strangler
A wonderfully grim and at times grotesque
black and white horror film from England. The script was written specifically
for Boris Karloff and he gives it a performance for the ages. Everything
he has as he switches back and forth between sane and insane and his face
contorts like a madman. It was produced by Amalgamated Productions who made
a number of B films - mainly crime but a few horrors as well. This was paired
with their Fiend Without a Face for a double feature. They also produced
Corridors of Blood with Karloff which was directed by Robert Day who also
directs this one. He was to go on to direct She. This felt rather rough and
nasty for a Brit horror film from 1958 - there is a graphic whipping - but
Hammer had just opened the door at the same time.
The good old days of public hangings and
men in high hats. The crowd looks on in glee as the Strangler of Haymarket
takes a short trip at the end of a long rope. One trollop from her window
tries to drum up some business. In his burial preparation with lime, someone
slips a doctor's scalpel into his casket. The Strangler, Edward Styles, was
convicted of killing five women. The film jumps ahead 20-years and Rankin
(Karloff) and his assistant are trying to prove that Styles was innocent
and only needed a good lawyer to get off. Rankin becomes obsessed with the
case visiting bawdy music halls, witnesses to the killings and digging up
the dead in the dark of night. He begins to realize that all the autopsies
of the murdered women were performed by the same doctor. Who was committed
to a mental institution until a nurse helped him escape. No one has seen
either of them since. Soon the killings begin again. It runs a quick
78 minutes and if you are a Karloff fan, worth your time. Not a young man
at the time, but his physicality is impressive. The film completely goes
off the tracks towards the end but in a very good way.
