The Devil Commands ***½ (1941, Boris Karloff, Anne Revere, Amanda Duff) – Classic Movie Review 5643

Director Edward Dmytryk’s highly capable 1941 horror chiller is swiftly paced, short and amusing, with Boris Karloff grabbing the attention as Dr Julian Blair, even though he is typecast once again as a mad scientist experimenting on his deceased wife to prove that brainwaves never die. Dr Blair is obsessed with the idea of communicating with Mrs Blair beyond the grave. Ah yes, ‘When the Devil commands Karloff obeys…!’

Anne Revere plays the phony medium Mrs Blanche Walters and Amanda Duff plays Anne Blair, the mad doctor’s daughter who he gets to help him in his crazy experiments. Cy Schindell (billed as Ralph Penney) plays Dr Blair’s mentally-challenged servant Karl.

Despite the cheap Columbia Pictures production and a script (by Robert D Andrews and Milton Gunzberg) that can’t quite handle the chiller thrills, this bizarre little horror film is gripping and enjoyable, particularly if you don’t expect too much.

Cult director Dmytryk puts his muscle behind it and gives it his best shot. Overall, it is arguably second only to The Man with Nine Lives (1940) as the best of Karloff’s Columbia B-movie thrillers.

It is based on the novel The Edge of Running Water by William Sloane.

Also in the cast are Dorothy Adams, Kenneth MacDonald, Shirley Warde, Walter Baldwin, Ernie Adams, Lester Allen, Wheaton Chambers, Earl Crawford, Al Rhein, John Tyrrell, Jacques Vanaire, Harrison Greene, Erwin Kalser, Eddie Kane and George McKay.

It runs 65 minutes, is made by Columbia Pictures, is shot by Allan G Siegler, is produced by Wallace MacDonald, is scored by Mischa Bakaleinikoff, Frank Skinner and Morris Stoloff and is designed by Lionel Banks.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5643

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