Reader Reviews
This film is more timely than some of its contemporaries because it involves a debate on euthanasia. It also makes the film largely unpleasant.Karloff defends himself for putting a friend to death, and loses his case. He is sentenced to death. He tries out his new youth serum on himself, figuring he has nothing to lose. Then his sentence is commuted to life, and he is doomed to a much longer time behind bars than he had planned. This is one of the interesting ideas.
Then some other contrived stuff happens and Karloff seeks typical horror/noir revenge, as he did in most of the movies he made for Cloumbia in the 40's. It seems the criminal's blood he used in the serum turns him into a killer sometimes. This is another interesting idea. But although there is some decent atmosphere, the film in general bogs itself down.
The Man They Could Not Hang is better, and is quite similar in plot setup, with a few instances of surprisingly strong dialogue and an air of cheeky menace and genuine tragedy, rather than a feel of squalid inevitability.
P.S. Nobody says 'serum' like our man Boris.
