Grip of the Strangler (1958)

Too much of everything

Purely Joyful Movie!

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

"The Haunted Strangler" is an unusual beast for a horror movie. It makes the surprising decision to feature no surprise. There is never any question of who the killer is because the movie tells you early on. It doesn't even end with a twist.There are examples of this being done well with horror movies and thrillers, usually when the aim is to disturb, rather than scare the audience. Consider films like "American Psycho", where you already know the guy on screen is a killer. The suspense comes from wondering who they'll off next. "The Haunted Strangler" doesn't seem to be trying for that, though. The main feeling it evinces is sadness, I guess, at the tormented killer, when really you should just be scared of him. He's hideous and fearsome, but not interesting enough for the movie to show its hand so soon.The plot concerns an infamous killer called the Haymarket Strangler who is hanged in Victorian London. Twenty years later, Boris Karloff plays an ageing writer and social reformer who is determined to prove that the man executed for the Haymarket crimes was innocent. Karloff unravels the mystery of the case and the killings begin again.Who could the killer be?If you think I'm hedging perilously close to a spoiler with this review, the people who made the movie would have disagreed. The revelation of who the killer is could have been used to great shock and suspense, but instead, it's thrown away carelessly early on. With it, sadly, goes all trace of suspense.

Boris Karloff's assured performance alone makes this otherwise routine British B-movie one to watch. It's in much the same vein as its companion piece, CORRIDORS OF BLOOD, also made in the same year, although this film lacks a solid supporting cast and the lurid sensationalism that that film holds (although it does come close at times). GRIP OF THE STRANGLER has an excellent twist in its tale - that the killer Karloff is hunting turns out to be himself, and that he is unable to convince the police of his guilt - and the whole film rides on Karloff's performance. I'm pleased to say that it's a typically excellent one.Karloff plays his tormented murderer with just the right touch of humour and sympathy. Essentially his role is a Jekyll and Hyde one, although unlike other screen monsters he has very little - if any - makeup in his Hyde role. Instead, all he does is distort his arm to make it seem paralysed, close one eye, and curl his upper lip. The effect is devastating, and disturbingly good, and a mark of Karloff's skill as an actor to be able to convincingly pull off such a effect by merely contorting his features. His Jekyll, on the other hand, is an innocent, friendly man who wants only the best for his family and friends. Essentially he's a schizophrenic, and the way that he manages to be both scary and sad is skilled. Bear in mind that the actor was about seventy when this film was made, and his achievement seems all the more impressive.Sadly, he is let down by his lacklustre supporting cast, who simply don't cut it when they should. Where are all those British character actors when you need them? The best of the lot is Anthony Dawson, who is effective as the leading police investigator, but Tim Turner, who plays the younger doctor, is wooden in the extreme. Diane Aubrey is unassured as Karloff's wife, and minor roles become caricatures. Most of the women in this film are can-can girls, and a fair amount of time is taken up with their performances which certainly helps to pad the running time out a bit.This is a film undoubtedly influenced by Hammer's THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, which had of course had worldwide success a year previously. This is evident in the Gothic Victorian setting of the film, and the fact that genre staples like grave-digging and lunatic asylums are brought into play to good effect. The murky black and white photography effectively conjures up just the right atmosphere for a film such as this. While the first hour is mainly build up with a few shock scenes, the climax is excellent and classic stuff. We see Karloff ingeniously escape from his asylum cell by setting fire to his bed and slashing the guard with a piece of glass. He then roams the countryside and woods, hunted down by police, before attacking his daughter. I had to laugh at the scene in which he jumps through a greenhouse window, which is pushing Karloff's ability a bit too far, considering his age. I mean, even made up to look younger than he is, he still appears to be in his late 50s at youngest, and the stuntman is obviously thirty years younger.This asylum horror, complete with its implied gore, brings to mind the full-blown and bloody horrors of FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL, which is a good thing. Compare the end of the movie with the shocking finale of Bob Clark's DEAD OF NIGHT and the similarity is remarkable, and undoubtedly an influence. GRIP OF THE STRANGLER may just be another B-movie, but the interesting plot and Karloff's performance make it hold together much better than other, more typical pictures from the period.

Boris Karloff plays a man who comes to believe that a serial killer from 20 years previously was innocent of the murders for which he was hanged. The case starts to consume him, literally...Based on the story "Stranglehold" written by Jan Read, pic unfolds as a creepy take of the Jekyll and Hyde kind. It's never overtly scary, but the atmospherics are palpable and the period flavours superb. This never resorts to cheap thrills, and unusually for the era of film making it doesn't rely on effects work for the transformation sequences - it is just Karloff acting!Plenty of horror movie staples are adhered to, such as a hanging, a coffin opening, an awful prison and an asylum, whilst that even though there's a little filler that could have been cut from the running time, Karloff and the intriguing mystery part of the narrative marry up to the atmosphere to round out a good old classic horror yarn. 7/10

I am still kicking myself in the buttocks repeatedly for having missed the double feature of Boris Karloff's "The Haunted Strangler" (1958) and "Targets" (1968) at NYC's Film Forum a little while back. Thus, seeing a nice, crisp-looking DVD version of "Strangler" the other day came as a very nice consolation prize for me. In this one, Karloff plays a writer and social reformer living in London in 1880. He is investigating what he believes to be the wrongful execution of a man 20 years earlier; a man who had been accused of being the notorious Haymarket Strangler. Unfortunately, as Boris proceeds with this Victorian "cold case," all leads come back to...himself, and before long, he begins to act just a wee bit homicidal. As his Hyde-like nature emerges, Boris bites his underlip, sticks his teeth out, closes one eye and sweats a lot; still, it's a fairly impressive-looking transformation. Karloff was 71 when he essayed this role, but he still manages to exude a great deal of energy and enthusiasm (just watch him try to rip himself out of that straitjacket!). Perhaps being back in England again to make a film was somewhat responsible for this boost. And speaking of energy boosts, I must say that a neat surprise concerning Boris' character comes halfway through that really does shake things up. "The Haunted Strangler" also offers some interesting supporting characters, including cancan dancer Vera Day (who, with her bullet bra, made such a double impression on me in the following year's "Womaneater") and Scotland Yard agent Anthony Dawson (who, come to think of it, attempted a bit of strangulation himself in 1954's "Dial M For Murder"). Bottom line: This Karloff pic really ain't half bad!