- Actors: Boris Karloff, Anthony Dawson, Jean Kent, Elizabeth Allan, Vera Day
- Directors: Robert Day
- Writers: John Croydon, Jan Read
- Producers: John Croydon, Richard Gordon
- Format: NTSC
- Language: English
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 1
- MPAA Rating:
- Studio: Vid Canada
- Release Date: Sep 27 2002
- Run Time: 78 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- ASIN: 6305079749
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #83,093 in DVD (See Top 100 in DVD)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
The first half of The Haunted Strangler is a civilized look at Victorian London, with socially minded novelist Boris Karloff investigating a 20-year-old murder case. Still, it's Karloff, right? So when the elegant, snow-haired king of horror movies finally wanders into a graveyard in the middle of the night, shovel in hand, intent on digging up the bones of a serial killer, the viewer can breath a sigh of relief: we're back on familiar turf. Freshly dug turf, that is. This is not the last surprise in this neatly turned picture, which has some genuinely disturbing moments mixed into the cut-rate atmosphere. The plot borrows from the legends of Dr. Jekyll and Jack the Ripper, and the presence of Karloff specifically invokes his earlier horrors in Val Lewton's moody shockers, Bedlam and The Body Snatcher. The horror maestro, 70 years old, is exceptionally agile; stripped to the waist and fighting a straitjacket, he looks as though he's about to outwrestle his two burly attendants down at the local insane asylum. You go, Boris! Weirdest thing about this movie: the inordinate amount of footage devoted to can-can dancers--no, the star is not involved; Karloff wasn't that agile. --Robert Horton
Video Details
Boris Karloff stars in this terrifying story, reminiscent of the unsolved Jack the Ripper case. Set against the sinister background of London in the gaslight days, a man is driven by an inner compulsion to kill, becoming a human beast that strikes again and again, brutally murdering a number of young women.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
CAN-CAN,
By
This review is from: Haunted Strangler, (VHS Tape)
For can-can enthusiasts, this film contains two EXCEPTIONAL can-can numbers in full costume (including traditional suspender stockings and frilled underwear)....
4.0 out of 5 stars
Why the bad rap?,
By Dr. Freeman (Perry, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Haunted Strangler, (VHS Tape)
I dont see why this movie gets such poor reviews. Boris does a great facial contortion with paralisis when possesed by a dead murderer. Great victorian costumes help set the stage for a pretty good mystery. I guess most of todays audience expect special effects to replace acting. No twisting heads or spewed pea soup here. While its not as good as Frankenstein, The Mummy or the afore mentioned Corridors of Blood, its still a pretty good Karloff movie.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A karloffian extravaganza,
By A Customer
This review is from: Haunted Strangler (DVD)
It's too bad Image didn't offer a double-bill platter of this and Corridor of Blood, as was done on laser; the films are short and were made at the same time by the same team--that would have made this an irresistible bargain, rather than a necessary luxury for Karloff lovers. The first five minutes are superb, as realistic a depiction of a Newgate hanging and all the attendant merriment (concluding with a neat window flirtation) as you will see. The picture grows routine with its Jekyll/Hyde slasher story; but there's nothing routine about Boris, who enters broadly smiling and devolves scene by scene into total madness. Does the plot have holes (like his ability not to get blood on his clothes)? Of course, and who cares. The scene where he goes bonkers in his cell beating on the walls is amazing--try to imagine another 70-year-old pulling it off. Then there's the transformation makeup: He doesn't wear any! Just squints and bites his lip and no one recognizes him, and you not only buy it, but spend the rest of the day squinting any biting your lip. This was his last great horror fest (he is relatively subdued in Black Sabbath and the overrated Targets) and he goes for broke. Also Anthony Dawson is a good guy but never looked more evil, and the much undervalued Elizabeth Allan, a veteran of '30s classics here making her last appearance, brings much feeling to a small role. Hard to believe this was the stuff of kiddie matinees back in 1958.
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