Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

hyped garbage

An Exercise In Nonsense

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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....

In the 1930s, Boris Karloff made several films with VERY similar plots. In these films, he was killed and returned to life--with BAD results. The main plot for this film is from Karloff's "The Walking Dead" and very similar to "The Man Who Lived Again". Clearly "The Man They Could Not Hang" was a VERY derivative film! Yet, despite the very repetitive nature of these films, they are very enjoyable.The film begins with Karloff doing some strange research that will allow him to do heart transplants. He gets one of his assistants to allow him to kill him--with the intention that he would then revive him with his new experimental system. However, the assistant's girlfriend (Ann Doran) is an idiot. Instead of letting Karloff finish the experiment, she runs for the police. The police break in and won't allow Karloff to revive the man--insisting it isn't possible and jailing him. Soon, Karloff is indicted for murder and is tried, convicted and sentenced to death. However, another assistant is able to obtain Karloff's corpse and soon revives the once-good doctor. However, now Karloff is no longer a kindly researcher but decides to spend the rest of the film killing everyone responsible for his death sentence. I liked this portion best, but unfortunately, his quest is cut short and the film ends.Overall, enjoyable and Karloff, once again, is terrific. The only big problem, other than the repetitive nature of the script, is the acting of Doran--who, frankly, was terrible in the few scenes in which she appeared.

"The Man They Could Not Hang" is an interesting little film if only for its foretelling of artificial hearts and organ transplants by many years.Dr. Henryk Savaard (Boris Karloff) has invented an artificial heart that has been successful in bringing animals back to life after they have been clinically dead. Savaard now wants to try the procedure on a human ans medical student Bob Roberts (Stanley Brown) agrees to be the guinea pig. His fiancé, Betty Crawford (Ann Doran), who is Savaard's nurse is fearful for Roberts' life.As the experiment begins Betty goes to the police in an attempt to stop the experiment. Reporter "Scoop" Foley (Robert Wilcox) overhears Betty's pleas and goes ahead to Savaard's home where he meets Savaard's daughter Janet (Lorna Gray) with whom he strikes up a friendship. Police Lt. Shane (Don Beddoe) arrives at Savaard's laboratory before he can bring the young man back to life, and arrests him for murder. Savaard is tried and found guilty and is sentenced to hang. Before he is sentenced, Savaard vows revenge on those who had a hand in his conviction.Following his execution, Savaard's body is turned over to his assistant Dr. Lang (Byron Foulger) who following Savaard's procedure, brings Savaard back to life. Weeks later, several of the jurors who voted for Savaard's conviction turn up hanged, apparently suicides.Using a note from trial Judge Bowman (Charles Trowbridge) as bait, Savaard lures the remaining parties for his revenge to his home and traps them therein. Included are the Judge, DA Drake (Roger Pryor), Jury Foreman Kearney (Dick Curtis), Betty Crawford, the Coroner (Joe De Stefani) and Lt. Shane. "Scoop" Foley is also entrapped having "crashed" the party.Savaard plans to systematically murder each person at 15 minute intervals. Judge Bowman is the first and dies by electrocution. Next Kearney is poisoned. Betty is targeted next, but before Savaard can complete his murderous scheme, his daughter Janet arrives and......................Karloff as usual gives a great performance. He moves from a kindly dedicated scientist to a madman bent on murder and revenge with ease.The use of an artificial heart put this modest little programmer several years ahead of its time.

This is the first of Karloff's cycle of "Mad Doctor" B-films for Columbia and, given that somehow I was under the impression that this was considered the least of them, I was surprised to find it great fun throughout. Essentially, all the films had similar plots (and it's interesting to see how the star's looks changed from one title to the next) - with Karloff on the verge of some great discovery or other but who's always thwarted at the proverbial 11th hour by thick-headed police and other figures of authority!; in fact, they're so teeth-grindingly stupid here that Karloff's conversion from dedicated scientist to cold-blooded killer was actually quite convincing!! The star is in really fine form in this film - especially effective when delivering his threatening final statement before the court passes sentence on him and then, following his resurrection (complete with broken neck a' la Bela Lugosi's Ygor!), when exacting his elaborate and sinister revenge plan. In fact, the second half - intriguingly modeled on Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians/And Then There Were None" - is even more entertaining than the first. seeing how it finds all who remain of Karloff's intended victims being locked up in one room of his house (with all exits having been systematically blocked and wired with electricity!) and allowing 15 minutes between one execution and the next. Of course, his plans go sadly awry in the end as he hadn't counted on the presence of his daughter (alerted to Karloff's reappearance by her snooping reporter boyfriend) and, when she eventually 'sacrifices' her life to save that of Karloff's unwilling guests, he sees the error of his ways and willingly accepts death anew from a bullet wound. Unfortunately, there's a hokey, tacked-on happy ending of sorts - with Karloff's daughter getting resurrected in the nick of time, through the use of his own invention, before he himself expires.