Karloff for Christmas

Admittedly, there is no sci-fi in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the 1966 animated Christmas movie. There is a connection, though, to classic sci-fi: Boris Karloff. He was both the narrator of the Grinch movie and the voice of the Grinch himself. His deep, soft voice was perfect for the narration. Seuss, however, worried that Karloff could too easily make The Grinch too frightening for young children. No doubt, Seuss had seen some of the mad scientist roles Karloff had done in the 40s and 50s. Karloff could -- and had -- infused his voice with a dark menace in his rolls as Dr. Niemann in House of Frankenstein or the Cabman in The Body Stealer, just to name two. Apparently, the compromise was to do a bit of electronic filtering of the Grinch lines to make them sound a bit more gravelly and so, a bit less real.

The Grinch movie has gone on to spawning costumes, copyists and remakes (both bad and worse) as well as becoming such a strong cultural icon that photoshopping one's opponent's face onto a Grinch image is routine repartee.

The song: You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch, has lived on in the culture, such that you can find the children of parents who were not even born in 1966, know the song and sing it with zeal. Granted, Karloff did not sing the song, but the song itself lends staying power to The Grinch, who will forever have Karloff's voice.

So, as you enjoy your Christmas, and no doubt cross paths with The Grinch somewhere along the line, just remember the legend of classic sci-fi behind that memorable voice.

Merry Christmas!

The Ape

Boris Karloff did another "mad doctor" film outside of the more famous set of four he did for Columbia between 1939 and '41. In 1940, he made The Ape with low-budget Monogram Pictures. William Nigh directs. Curt Siodmak deserves most of the writing credit. For some reason, killer apes were all the rage (so to speak) for awhile in the 30s and 40s. King Kong ('33) is, of course, the most famous of them. But the killer ape trope was around before Kong and obvious after. The Ape is yet another sci-fi hybrid that is notably weak on the sci-fi part. Spinal fluid plays a pivotal role, and would again in a followup film by Monogram, The Ape Man.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A circus comes to the small town of Red Creek. Dr. Adrian (Karloff) is eyed with fear and suspicion in Red Creek, but he is the only doctor around. So, when a circus ape escapes and injures a trainer who had been taunting him, they bring the wounded man to Dr. Adrian. The trainer dies. Adrian, recognizing an opportunity, extracts some spinal fluid from the dying man for a serum he's working on to help pretty young Francis (paralyzed from the waist down). The ape is loose in the countryside. He killed a farmer named Wilcox. The serum begins to work on Francis. She has feeling in her legs. Adrian accidentally drops the vial, breaking it. He needs more spinal fluid. The ape breaks into Adiran's house (seeing the trainers coat on a chair). Adrian kills the ape, then has an idea. Later, he leaves his house, dressed in the ape's skin. Henry Mason, a disrespected town banker and philanderer, leaves to visit his mistress, but never arrives. His body is found. A coroner notes a similar puncture at the spine. Adrian pretends not to have noticed. The coroner recognizes Adrian as a shunned, but brilliant researcher from 25 years go. After additional serum treatments, Francis can move her legs a little. The coroner sees that Adrian was right after all. The sheriff, his men and dogs have concentrated their search around Doc Adrian's house, where most of the sightings place the ape. Adrian, encouraged at Francis's progress goes out one more time for more spinal fluid. He attacks one of the guards, but is chased off by another guard. On the way back to his house, he is seen and shot. A crowd gathers around the ape body on the porch. The sheriff lifts off the head to reveal Adrian. Francis wheels up in her wheelchair to show the dying Adrian that his serum's worked. She stands and takes some wobbly steps. Adrian dies, but vindicated. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
As usual, it is Boris Karloff who pulls an otherwise drab B movie higher than it would have on its own. The premise is a bit strained, but has some interesting roots. It is also interesting to see the "mad doctor" turn out to be right, for a change.

Cultural Connection
In the years before nuclear radiation dominated sci-fi thought, medical science got a lot more screen time. The "mad doctor" trope was a sort of flip-side to cultural optimism about what medical science could do.

Notes
Less Madness -- Karloff plays yet another "mad doctor" with the customary tension between his altruistic desire to help and his ruthlessness as to the methods. In The Ape, Dr. Adrian is almost the most mild-mannered of the mad doctors. He is so driven to help poor beautiful Francis to walk again that he's willing to push the ethical envelope. Unlike most of the mad doctors, it turns out Adrian was right and actually does the good he set out to do.

Just Desserts -- In the spirt of Occupy's "Eat the Rich" mindset, the one man that Adrian does murder is sort of a small moral loss. He is the banker Henry Morgan. No one in town much likes Morgan for the interest rates he charges. Nor does Morgan join any community efforts to find the ape. "Thats your job." Further, Morgan is cheating on his wife. Even worse, he is mean-spirited to his poor mousey wife. She pleads with him not to carry on his affairs so flagrantly near home. "If you don't like it, you can leave," he says. She says she has no relatives, no friends, nowhere else to go. "There's always the river," he sneers. Adrian murdering Morgan is not quite horrible. Poor little Mrs. Morgan may be better off with the insurance money and someone else.

Broadway Roots? -- The credits list the story as coming from a play by Alan Hull Shirk. (Screenplay by Kurt Siodmak) While this play may not have been filmed, an earlier movie is also said to have been based on the play. House of Mystery (1934) credits Shirk's play. Interestingly, HoM was also directed by William Nigh. The '34 film and Siodmak's '40 screenplay are very very different stories. House of Mystery is a more pedestrian murder mystery with many people in a spooky mansion, seeking an inherited fortune, dying off one by one. The murderer turns out to be a gorilla, trained to stand stiff like a stuffed ape, but kill on command. There is one small scene where one of the lesser characters has dressed up in an ape suit in order to sneak around the house looking for the treasure. He gets shot by nervous policemen. The setting and camera work in House of Mystery suggest stage roots, so may be closer to Shirk's play. Siodmak's story is almost completely unrelated -- except for the man dressed in an ape suit getting shot and an actualy killer ape.

Rapid Taxidermy -- Dr. Adrian is supposed to have stripped the entire skin off of dead Nabu, including hands, feet and face. And, tanned them all sufficient to be worn. And, he did it in a day or less. Granted, Adrian is supposed to have been a brilliant doctor, but this bit of the plot strains credulity beyond what movies like this usually do, if one knows even a little bit about taxidermy.

Bottom line? The Ape has very little science in its fiction. It does have some of the classic elements: a shunned brilliant doctor who secretly works on some boon for mankind, and it even has an angry mob. It is low on production values, but par for poverty row studio Monogram Pictures. Karloff fans will enjoy it. Those with expectations not too high, can be entertained. Modern tastes may only be annoyed.

The Devil Commands

The fourth of Columbia's "mad doctor" films with Boris Karloff is The Devil Commands. (TDC) There are many similarities with the prior three, yet just as many differences. Like the others, TDC is a horror/sci-fi hybrid with the science part in a secondary role. Nick Grinde did not direct this one. Instead, Edward Dmytryk directed. (he would later gain fame with The Caine Mutiny ('54)) One of the screenwriters, Robert Andrews, worked on the third film, Before I Hang.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Dr. Julian Blair is a well respected scientist at Midland University. His work regards the power of thought being captured, recorded or transmitted. His machine records "brain waves" of his assistant, then of his wife Helen. All is happy and congratulatory. On the way home, Helen is killed when a truck hits her car. Distraught, Blair seeks distraction in his lab. When he turns on his sparking machines, the needle moves again, repeating Helen's pattern. He is convinced that Helen's consciousness survives beyond the grave and is trying to speak to him. His scientist cohorts think he's lost his mind. His simple-minded helper, Karl, takes him to a "spirit medium," Mrs. Walters, to contact the dead. Blair sees through her parlor tricks, but senses Walters has a receptive brain. Walters senses great fortune if Blair is successful. Ann suggests he get away to some remote New England town and work in private. He does, but the townsfolk don't like it. Bodies go missing from graves. Blair's housekeeper, Mrs. Marcy dies when she accidentally turns on the sparky machines. Walters fakes her death as having fallen off the cliff between the house and town, but her husband is convinced that Blair killed her. The missing bodies are in Blair's lab, all seated at a techno-seance table, wearing metal hazmat suits with neon tubes and wires sticking out of them. The added brain-receiver power works. With full sparky power on, a tornado appears in the center of the table. The needle plots Helen's pattern. Blair hears a raspy "Julian…" He turns up the power to get a better connection, but it kills Walters. Ann and Richard arrive at the Sheriff's behest. Blair is convinced that Helen communicates when Ann is around. Richard won't allow her to be hooked up, so Blair has Karl lock him away. Blair does hook up Ann. The sparky things spark. "Julian….Julian…." The last time, it was clearly Helen's normal voice. Blair cranks it up more, but it causes the house to start breaking up. His own safety strap breaks loose and he's swept into the tornado. The angry mob storms the house with clubs and torches, but flee when the house starts to break up. Ann narrates that they never found her father. Some say his spirit still lives in that house. Human beings are not supposed to know what lies beyond the grave. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
As always, Karloff's acting is the major plus of the film. Even though it is a low-budget affair, he brings a sincerity to the role that lifts the film from the dross of typical B-movies. For one's inner 12-year-old, all the sparky machines and Man-In-The-Iron-Mask helmets with neon ear cones, have gadget appeal.

Cultural Connection
Each of the four films dealt with death. As war raged in Europe (Pearl Harbor had not happened yet when TDC was in theaters), death was more of a front-and-center issue. Nor was death as neatly pasteurized as it has since become. Back then, there was more of a personal connection.

Notes
Sad Scientist -- Karloff's Dr. Blair is more of a tragic figure than his prior "mad doctor" roles. Dr. Laurience in The Man Who Lived Again ('36) was obsessed, cold-hearted and a little bit lustful. Dr. Savaard in The Man They Could Not Hang ('40) started out altruistic, but turns to deadly vengeance. Dr. Garth in Before I Hang is a well-meaning man, but the blood of a killer in his serum turns him into an unwitting murderer. Dr. Blair is driven by hope (and grief) over his lost wife. Deaths happen, but more by accident than malice. The more palpable evil in TDC comes from Mrs. Walters.

Mrs. Mephisto -- The Mrs. Walters character is Blair's Mephistopholes. Blair (like Faust) seeks knowledge beyond the mortal world. Walters, coldly driven by the prospect of immense power and wealth, helps Blair and pushes him on when he has qualms. She withheld Ann's letters from Blain so he thought she didn't care about him anymore. She had a cold enough heart to rob graves, though it is never stated how the bodies came to the lab. She rather coldly deals with the accidental death of Mrs. Marcy, and chastises Blair for fretting over lying to the Sheriff. Mrs. Walters may well be the "Devil" cited in the title. She gets her just desserts, though.

A Hint of Occult -- While still a horror/sci-fi pictures, TDC suggests that something of Helen's consciousness did continue after her death. She becomes an almost literal Ghost in the Machine, though little conjecture is made over just what's going on. Beyond the graph plots, there was little corroboration that Helen was trying to communicate with Julian. In fact, he may have imagined the voices. His dangerous electric devices managed to damage Karl's brain, kill Mrs. Marcy and Mrs. Walters -- maybe even himself, but TDC treads lightly on the ghosts aspect.

Based on the Book -- The kernel of the story comes from a novel written by William Sloane in 1937, "The Edge of Running Water." Reviews of the book give it middling marks. While the movie follows the basics of the novel, the movie is apparently more cohesive and better paced. Sloane only wrote two novels. The other was "To Walk the Night" which was also made into a movie in 1963 called "Unearthly Stranger."

Bottom line? TDC is a watchable enough film, even if one isn't a Karloff fan. It moves along, avoiding slow talky parts . The characters all read quickly enough without laggy development. The sparky machines and metal helmets are steampunk cool. As sci-fi, it's a bit thin, but it's still fun to watch.

Before I Hang

The third of Columbia's "mad doctor" films was, Before I Hang (BIH), released in 1940. Boris Karloff plays yet another variation on the formula. Nick Grinde directs again. As with the prior two in the series, the science aspect is somewhat minimal. The bulk of the story is a horror/crime hybrid. This time around, the story is more Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde than Frankenstein. Writer Karl Brown was also involved the first two of the four, The Man They Could Not Hang ('39) and The Man With Nine Lives ('40). He also wrote a variant starring Bela Lugosi in '43, The Ape Man.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Dr. John Garth (Karloff) awaits sentencing at his murder trial. He gives an impassioned statement about his work seeking an anti-aging serum and an old friend terminally ill and in great pain. The fail old doctor with white hair and thick glasses, admits to the mercy killing and accepts his fate.The prison doctor talks the warden into letting Garth continue his experiments for the three weeks he has left. They obtain needed blood for the serum from a recently executed murderer. With only minutes to go before he is hung, Dr. Howard injects Garth with the serum. As they come to take in for the long walk, the phone rings. The governor commuted his sentence to life in prison. Garth faints. He awakens in a hospital bed. His hair has streaks of black. He no longer needs his glasses. The serum took 20 years off of him. Garth and Howard continue working. Howard wants to be next to receive the serum. But, when Garth sees the blood in the test tube, the impulse to kill (from the murderer's blood) overpowers him. He strangles Howard. A shifty inmate, Otto, happens along. He and Garth have a big fight until Garth snaps Otto's neck. Garth awakens again in a hospital bed. He can't recall anything. The warden decides that Howard caught Otto stealing alcohol and was murdered. Otto then fought with Garth, but fell and broke his neck. Popular outcry over Garth's presumed heroics gets him a pardon. At home with his daughter Martha, Garth invites over three old friends: Victor, Steven and George. He offer them his serum. They all decline. Garth goes to Victor's house one foggy night and convinces him to try the serum. Again at the sight of blood, Garth kills. The police suspect him. Garth visits George with the offer, but rage at George's refuel incites the murderer's blood again. Garth knows he is an uncontrollable killer. He walks to the prison, demanding to be let in. He menaces a guard (on purpose) so as to get shot. Paul (Martha's love interest) agrees to carry on Garth's work. The End.

Why is this movie fun
Boris Karloff himself, is the primary attraction of the film. Yes, he was, by this point, typecast as the mad scientist, but it was a role he played with skill. His Dr. Garth characters is one of his more sympathetic.

Cultural Connection
Again, the mortal desire for immortality is the motivator of the story. In this variation, human biology is presumed to be "immortal". Aging (and death) are cast as cumulative flaws that science can somehow mitigate.

Notes
Not Bad Enogh -- Some Karloff fans consider BIH to be the weakest of the four Columbia "mad doctor" films. This may be because he plays a more accidentally evil man. Garth lacks the cold-hearted detachment of prior mad scientists. In place of ruthless disregard for lives lost, Garth is remorseful and repentant.

Bad To The Bone -- Central to the story, is the old notion that a person's being or essence was distributed throughout their body. Our goodness or badness was not just in our minds, but infused in all our tissues. The idea is very old. This is part of why some relics were revered in the middle ages. If St. Peter was saintly, that saintliness would be in one of his bones too. This was a factor in old-style voodoo (and picked up by New Age cults), that a bit of the person (hair, nail clipping, etc.) had some essence of the whole person, so useful in "magic." The same would go for badness. The criminal urge to kill was presumed to infuse even his blood cells. All this suggested that behavior was much more endemic than later theories would hold. For example, the "he's just sick…we can cure him" notion in A Clockwork Orange.

Immortality, 2-Edged Sword -- The Garth character enthuses over the prospect of "good" people being kept alive longer. His old friends could go on in public service, building and producing art. Yet, evil could be prolonged too. The murderer's blood is the symbolic dark-side of Garth's dream. To prevent "evil" people from extending their evil via the serum, it would have to be controlled. That control could all to easily fall into hands less altruistic than Garth.

Bottom line? BIH is the less sensational of the four "mad doctor" films, but still worthwhile for Karloff fans. The "science" is minimal and vague. The visuals are good. Director Nick Grinde makes good use of light and shadow to create images with a German Expressionist sort of drama.

The Man With Nine Lives

Columbia's second of four Karloff death-cheating films was somewhat mis-titled. In The Man With Nine Lives (9L), Boris Karloff has only two "lives", sort of. One before being frozen in 1930, then another when revived in 1940. Once again, a lone scientist has some wonder to prolong human life. In 9L, Karloff gives the by-now-traditional role a bit of a twist. 9L is directed by Nick Grinde, as were the first and third in the set. Karl Brown provided the screenplay, as he had for the previous film in the set, The Man They Could Not Hang. The trope of frozen people as a low-tech version of suspended animation, would be a recurring feature in several later movies.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Dr. Mason impresses a room full of reporters and other doctors with his cold temperature treatment of a cancer patient. Mason explains to his fiance and nurse, Judy, how his ideas came from a book on cold treatment by a Dr. Kravaal who mysteriously disappeared ten years ago. Mason's boss is displeased at the premature publicity, so sends Mason (and Judy) on leave. They take the opportunity to go up to Silver Lake, Kravaal's last known home. The man who rents the rowboats tries to warn them away. Five men went there ten years ago and never returned. Mason goes anyway.The old house has long been vacant. Judy falls through a floor board. This reveals underground tunnels that lead to a lab and a big frozen door. Mason sees a body trapped in the ice. He chops it free with a handy axe. They warm him up with a fire. He revives. It's Dr. Kravaal. He is surprised to be alive at all, let alone after ten years. He tells the flashback story of how he was treating a private patient with his cold therapy, but the nephew brought the authorities, suspecting foul play. Kravaal threatened them with a toxic teargas mixture. He drops it. It vaporizes. The nephew, D.A., sheriff and coroner flee to the rear ice vault. Kravaal locked them in. He passed out in the first ice vault. His patient (Uncle Jasper) dies for lack of care. Now back in 1940, they realize that the vapors are what kept them alive. They revive the other men too. The nephew is upset at not getting Uncle's inheritance, since he's now legally dead. In a rage, Nephew grabs the formula paper and throws it in the fire. Acting on impulse, Kravaal shoots him dead. He locks the rest in the room. Eventually, he lets out Mason and Judy to help him recreate the formula. He tries it on the coroner, but he dies. He tries it again on the DA, but he dies. The sheriff dies too. Kravaal is stumped, but eventually figures out that the others died because they already had the vapor exposure. He needs a fresh body. After a struggle, Mason is tied up. Judy volunteers to be the guinea pig to save her fiance. She doesn't die, but goes into a coma. Kravaal freezes her, but she remains alive. State troopers come and untie Mason. In all the scuffles, Kravaal is shot and mortally wounded. Yet, he shows Mason that the formula worked. Judy is alive, even though her body temp is 30 degrees. He gives Mason is notebook, then dies. Fast forward. Mason is the toast of the medical world with Kravaal's formula and cold treatment advances. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Boris Karloff is always fun to watch. His portrayal of Kravaal is more star-crossed than mad, but still just as entertaining. Director Nick Grinde does a good job of providing rich visuals on a low budget.

Saga Connection
In a rare turnabout, 9L presages to the trope used in the Universal saga and the later Hammer saga.Frankestein Meets the Wolfman ('43) had the monster frozen in an arm of a glacier, in a basement vault. In both films, the frozen man is thawed out with a toasty fire. While Boris Karloff did not star in FMtW, he is forever a member of the saga family.

Notes
Only Mostly Dead -- The story toys with definitions. Just what is "dead"? Existing traditional definitions keep failing. Dr. Bassett, the coroner, represents the stodgy conventional-wisdom voice. Dead is judged by body temperature. Since no one has survived (to his knowledge) a body temperature lower than 80 degrees, Uncle Jasper was, by conventional wisdom, dead. Even the lack of a pulse does not equal death, as frozen men come back to life. A nice literary play on this was the legal definition. Since all the men have been missing for more than seven years, they were legally dead (but clearly not). All four of Columbia's Karloff films tease around the edges of the real definitions of life and death.

First Frozen -- 9L is one of the earliest films featuring a person being frozen and coming back to life when thawed. Others would pick up and use this trope. Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman ('43), Return of the Ape Man ('44), The Thing From Another World ('51), Madmen of Mandoras ('63), The Evil of Frankenstein ('64) Frozen Alive ('64), and The Frozen Dead ('67 -- Frozen Nazis revived to rule the world! Oh my!) to name the older ones. 9L seems to be a trendsetter.

Freudian Face -- In a refreshing change, Karloff is made up to look more Freudian. In the place of wild white hair, he has a tidy, short, salt-n-pepper cut. He also sports a pointed beard and mustache. The round glasses and three-piece pinstripe suit (with watch chain!) give Kravaal much more of an old european charm than the usual lab coat and wild eyes. It's a nice change.

Bottom line? 9L is yet another remix of the trope (man-cheats-death), but it is still an entertaining film. Karloff is his usual quality self, playing a "mad" scientist who is a bit less mad, and maybe not all that bad. It's still worth checking out for Karloff fans, and for a look at sci-fi before everything had to be either atomic radiation or aliens.

The Man They Could Not Hang

Continuing in the theme of science and immortality, is Columbia's 1939 film, The Many They Could Not Hang (MCNH). This was the first of four similarly themed movies by Columbia, all starring Boris Karloff in roughly the same 'mad scientist' role. While there is predominant crime-drama flavor to the film, it has some science fiction as a necessary component. In this case, it is an artificial heart that can revive a recently killed person. There is more than a little bit of cross-pollination from Universal's Frankenstein series, which was up to it's third installment.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Dr. Savaard (Karloff) has developed an artificial heart machine. He has revived dead animals with smaller versions. The next step is to do it with a human. Why? So doctors can perform long complex surgeries on non-bleeding patients, then revive them. Savaard's assistant Bob volunteers to be 'killed' and revived. His fiancee, Betty, panics and tells the police. They interrupt the process and arrest Savaard before he can revive Bob. Bob then stays dead. Savaard is put on trial for Bob's death. He tries to appeal to the jury about the benefits of science, but most of them just want him dead. Savaard has arranged for his secret protege, Lang, to take his body after the hanging, "for science". Lang does so, and revives Savaard's dead body after 3 months of surgery to repair his broken neck. Once alive again, Savaard plots revenge. Six of the jurors mysteriously hang themselves. The judge, District Attorney, prosecutor, police doctor, Betty and remaining jurors are all summoned to the Savaard mansion by fake telegrams from the judge. Once everyone is there, Savaard tells them he will kill them all, one by one. The judge dies first, grabbing the electrified iron grating. The prosecutor, Mr. Kearney, is next, dead from a poison needle in the telephone earpiece. Betty is to be next, but the plan is interrupted by the arrival of Janet, Savaard's lovely adult daughter. She pleads with him no to. He rants about how all of science's gifts have been used for evil. She agrees to leave, but threatens to touch the electrified grate to let the people out. Savaard pleads with her not to. She does, and dies. The DA shoots Savaard when he rushes to fallen Janet. He says he can save her with his machine. They take dead Janet upstairs and hook her up to the machine. After awhile, she lives again. Savaard, mortally wounded, waits until everyone is out of the lab, then shoots his glass-and-tubes heart machine to bits. He then expires. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Boris Karloff is the main reason for viewing pleasure. He turns in another fine example of the fragile genius "mad scientist." The prescience of an artificial heart is a fun bit of (now) retro science fiction -- an interesting gizmo of glass flasks and rubber tubes.

Saga Connection
MCNH was not directly part of Universal's Frankenstein franchise, but it borrowed from it. In Son of Frankenstein, the year before, was the trope of a hanged man who did not die, extracting revenge on the jurors and magistrate. In this case, it was Ygor (Bela Lugosi) using the monster do this. In MCNH, it is Karloff (the former monster) who is the revenger.

Notes
First of Four -- Karloff's 1936 film with British-Gaumont, The Man Who Lived Again, got the ball rolling. Columbia pictures decided the idea "had legs" and signed up Karloff to do four more films like it over the course of 18 months or so. MCNH was the first of the four. It was shot and printed in 1939. The others are, The Man With Nine Lives, Before I Hang, and The Devil Commands. All follow the basic pattern of a scientist with some boon for mankind, but he is rejected and turns into the stereotypic mad scientist. Apparently, audiences in the early 40s had quite an appetite for such films.

Self-fulfilling Hypocracy -- Dr. Savaard rants to his daughter that the world doesn't deserve his science gift. "We gave them wings to fly and the rain death upon us. We give them a voice to be heard around the world and they preach hatred to poison the minds of nations. Even the medicine we gave them has been used to enslave half mankind for the profit of a few. Every gift that science has given them has been twisted into a thing of hate and greed." On the one hand, this is a subtle condemnation of the Nazis, who were conquering France at this point in time. Yet, was Dr. Savaard himself really any different from the Nazis he disliked so much? He, himself, was using his science gift to rain down death, to speak hate, etc. for his own selfish ends.

Heart of Glass -- A fun, and almost steampunk, bit of propping is Savaard's mechanical heart. An elaborate "pump" of glass flasks and rubber tubes, the central two chambers tick-tock back and forth. This artificial pump forced the flow of blood which somehow was supposed to restart the dead person's heart. Curiously, the glass heart only seemed to pump clear water, not blood. Perhaps a darker fluid (this was black and white, after all) would have hidden the bubbles which were half the "animation". Or, perhaps the thought of a few gallons of blood sloshing around in beakers was thought to be a bit too much for sensitive viewers. Either way, it was a cool "machine."

Who Was First? -- The trope of a vengeful man inviting his victims to a lonely location and killing them off one by one, is probably older than this 1939 film. Some reviewers on imdb.com see the second half of MCNH as copying from other movies. One movie they say MCNH was Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None" (aka "10 Little Indians). Trouble is. Her novel was released in 1939, too. Another film incorrectly deemed the original was The House on Haunted Hill, starring Vincent Price. But this film was 1959. The trope is, no doubt, an older one, but MCNH did not copy these two more famous examples.

Bottom line? MCNH is fast paced and well shot. Karloff turns in another good performance as the brilliant-altruist-turned-'mad"-scientist. Granted, the sci-fi component is secondary to the crime-revenge story. Still, it's better entertainment than many other films with weak sci-fi that filled the decades to follow.

The Man Who Lived Again

Boris Karloff's 1936 film with British-Gaumont, The Man Who Changed his Mind (MWCM) has many things in common with the last sci-fi of 1971 (The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler. Both deal with one man's obsession with cheating death, allowing people to live forever by replacing worn out bodies (or parts). Both were directed by men who did extensive work in television (though Robert Stevenson's TV career came much later, of course). An alternate title on some prints was The Man Who Lived Again. MWCM is a "cousin" of Frankenstein ('31) in several ways, but is also a clear ancestor of '71's Wheeler.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Dr. Clare Wyatt leaves her surgical career to assist the famous, but recently discredited, Dr. Laurience (Karloff) She believes in his brilliance and a chance to do ground-breaking work. Clare's boyfriend, Dick, persists in proposing marriage, but she good-naturedly says her career comes first. He follows her to the remote English manor in which Laurience has set up his lab. Clayton, crippled and in a wheelchair for 30 years, is Laurience's only assistant. Laurience explains his work in isolating and capturing the "soul" inside the brain, storing it, for transfer into another brain. He demonstrates with two chimps. One well-behaved, one unruly. His machine works! Dick, a journalist, writes about Laurience's mysterious research. Dick's father, Lord Haselwood, runs several newspapers and a prestigious research institute. On Dick's suggestion, Lord Haselwood offers to sponsor Laurience's work at the institute, provided his papers get the scoop. Laurience agrees. Clare finds out that he plans to use his brain-swapping process on humans, so quits the project. She comes to say goodbye, but he thinks she might have romantic feelings for him. He does for her. No. She loves Dick. Haselwood pressures Laurience to give a lecture about his mind-body theories, but he is mocked by the establishment science types. Embarrassed and angry, Haselwood says Laurience must go. Laurience, however, puts him into the change booth, with crippled Clayton on the other side. They change "minds". Haselwood-in-Clayton tries to walk, but dies. Claytin-in-Haselwood rather enjoys the trade. With Clayton now playing Haselwood, Laurience can stay. Clayton-Haselwood gets a bit too full of himself, but finds out that Haselwood's body had a bad heart. Laurience strangles Clayton-Haselwood, but leaves obvious clues that he did it. He lures Dick to his lab where he makes the "mind" swap. His plan is to have Dick-in-Laurience take the blame and get hung, and he, Laurience-in-Dick can have Clare. She sees through all this immediately. Dick-in-Laurience staggers from the booth, falls from a window to be mortally injured in the fall. Clare enlists the aid of her former surgical partner to get the two men back into the booths. She makes the switch back. Dick is Dick again. Laurience is himself. As he dies, he regrets all he's done and takes his secret to the grave. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Boris Karloff, alone, is worth watching the movie for. He's just great as the unfairly maligned genius, the evil schemer and even the tragic victim of his own hubris. The screenplay's dialogue is fun too. Sometimes it comes too fast, but there are a great many exchanges. For example: Laurience accuses Clayton of leaking info to the papers (Dick's story) and threatens to withhold his injections. Clayton snips back. "I don't mind dying, but to be accused of journalism…" Later, when Lord Haselwood scoffs at the dingy lab in the remote manor. "How can you work in these conditions?" Clayton retorts, "If you're referring to the smell of bacon, it poses no obstacle to research."

Cultural Connection
The mad scientist / Frankenstein story was too powerful to be contained in just Universal's Frankenstein series. The story would be continued (and repeated) in the Universal sequels (Bride of, Son of…) Many other movies would recast the basic Frankenstein trope into differing stories -- keeping the essentials of a "mad" scientist creating a monster. MWCM would be one of the earlier recasts, with the added bonus of Boris Karloff.

Notes
Visual Arts -- Despite the low budget, director Robert Stevenson manages far more visual artistry in MWCM, than Robert Wynn did in Zachary Wheeler ('71). The camera work and lighting add much more visual appeal.

Canned Soul -- Where the usual Frankenstein trope involved transplanting brains, the twist to MWCM is the transferring of the "contents", the soul, from the brain, into a neutral-electronic storage container so it can be transferred into a similarly emptied other brain (still inside the body). No grizzly surgeries. This trope would be repeated in Hammer's Frankenstein series in Frankenstein Creates Woman ('66). This was the literary device used in the Star Trek (TOS) episode, "Turnabout Intruder" in '69. Kirk and Janice Lester swap 'essences' into each others' bodies.

Tortured Triangles -- The soap opera plot gets complicated at the end, so the last 15 minutes or so really move fast. Dick loves Clare, but Dr. Laurience (pronounced Lorenz) is also taken with Clare. He mistakes her professional interest as personal. (It's pretty clear he didn't get many dating opportunities) It's the classic love triangle. Overlay this with a power triangle. Clayton is subservient to Laurience who is subservient to Lord Haselwood. When Clayton's mind is transferred into Haselwood, the triangle exists within just the two actors. The plot gets complex where the two triangles meet. Laurience wants Lord Haselwood's money (to continue his research) and wants Dick's body so he can have Clare. If he kills Haselwood and frames himself (with Dick's mind inside), he gets rid of a rival AND inherits the needed resources. Too bad for him that there was more to Dick than just his body. Clare could tell the change right away.

The Eyes Have It -- An interesting bit of directing art is how the "essences" of the men are portrayed. Clayton, the 30-year cripple is played by Donald Calthrop with squinting eyes and a rat-ish voice. When Frank Cellier (who mostly played Lord Haselwood) "becomes" Clayton, he assumes the squinting eyes and rat-ish voice. The use of distinctive eyes is reminiscent of Bridget Helm's squinty eye to mark Evil Maria in Metropolis. The more obvious distinction between Dick and Laurience was that the latter smoked (rather a lot), where the former did not at all.

Bottom line? MWCM is not one of Karloff's better known films, but it is definitely worth finding and watching. He is quite captivating in his performance. Happily, the movie is in public domain and can be viewed online at the Internet Archive here. It is a great example of pre-atomic sci-fi.