The Haunted Strangler (1958)

• Year: 1958
• Released: 11 May 1958
• Country: United Kingdom
• Adwords: 1 nomination
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051706/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_haunted_strangler
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: Not Rated
• Genre: Crime, Mystery, Horror
• Runtime: 78 min
• Writer: Jan Read, John Croydon
• Director: Robert Day
• Cast: Boris Karloff, Anthony Dawson, Jean Kent
• Keywords: murder, serial killer, obsession, cemetery, series of murders,

6.2/10

The Haunted Strangler Storyline

1880, London. With his assistant, Canadian Dr. Kenneth McColl, by his side, McColl also the suitor for his daughter Lily’s hand, novelist and social crusader James Rankin wants to write about someone he considers wrongly convicted, he choosing Edward Styles, hanged in 1860 as the supposed Haymarket Strangler who choked then stabbed to death five women in separate incidents. Styles professed his innocence all the way to the gallows. Rankin posits that if Styles had the resources to mount a credible defense, he would have been acquitted, and that he was wrongly accused as being easily identifiable solely as a one-armed man, however not *the* one-armed man who committed the crimes. In doing the subsequent research, including speaking to Styles’ chief accuser, Cora Seth, a singer at the Judas Hole, a bawdy music hall, the Strangler who killed Seth’s colleague, Martha Stewart, Rankin comes to the belief that the Strangler truly is Dr. Tennant, who conducted Styles’ autopsy, who Rankin further believes buried the knife used in the stabbings along with Styles, but who disappeared without a trace shortly thereafter. In his attempts to exhume Styles’ body to prove his theory regarding the knife, seemingly futile in no one believing that theory, Rankin enters into a dangerous game which may prove fatal, including to himself, in the resurrection of the Strangler.

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The Haunted Strangler Movie Reviews

Solid performance from the Master

A researcher (Boris Karloff) investigating a notorious serial killer who was hanged 20 years earlier seemingly becomes possessed by the long dead strangler.

I love that this film was given the star treatment by Criterion. It’s definitely not one of the better-known Karloff films, which is a bit of a shame, because it’s at least as good as anything he did for AIP. Maybe horror fans need to pay more attention to Criterion.

The simplicity of the transformation is great. Apparently the originally script called for more of a “possession” angle, and then it developed into more of a physical thing — sort of Jack the Ripper meets Jekyll and Hyde. And Karloff nails it. By simply taking out his dentures, he successfully plays two very different people.

Aside from Karloff’s goofy facial expression, it’s pretty good

This is a unique film from Boris Karloff. I certainly can’t say I’ve seen another film quite like it.

Karloff plays a writer who is investigating the execution of “The Haymarket Strangler” twenty years earlier. Despite people insisting that the man executed was the killer, something within Karloff makes him investigate further. Eventually, when he obtains the knife used in the murders, it unlocks a dark secret within himself and the movie takes a very unusual turn.

The film is pretty exciting and unusual but there is a negative as well. Despite a generally good performance by Karloff (he was amazingly physical considering his age and arthritis), when he became “mad”, his face contorted in the most comical manner. Instead of making him look menacing, he just looked like he was mentally challenged. It just didn’t work.

Overall, compared to many of the later Karloff films, this one is pretty good–with decent production values and script. While not a great film, it’s a very good time passer and one that his fans should certainly see.

Pretty good

Not one of Boris Karloff’s best films or performances, but very interesting, sort of a take on Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde with a miscarriage of justice element, and pretty good as a film. Even with the big problems it has, it is still one of Karloff’s better later films, Grip of the Strangler’s problems never reach rock-bottom quality like the Mexican films he starred in did. The script is on the simplistic side, there are some pacing problems with the film taking a little too long to get going and then feeling rushed towards the end, and the ending could have been better rounded off. It looks reasonable though, the settings are effective, the photography is crisp and the make-up for Karloff is used very well, when in his more murderous madman guise it is quite grotesque-looking. The music is also haunting and effectively used. There are some creepy moments and the atmosphere is unsettling and well-evoked. The story on the most part is interesting and entertaining, the first half is very promising especially. The performances are solid, best in support are Vera Day and Anthony Dawson. But only one performance comes off as really “great” and that is (predictably perhaps) Boris Karloff, as ever showing a gift for changing personalities expressively and sometimes subtly. All in all, Grip of the Strangler is a pretty good film, often decent and solid without reaching greatness excepting Karloff’s performance, the best thing about the film by some considerable distance. 7/10 Bethany Cox