James Rankin(Boris Karloff) is a "social reformer", the kind of inquisitive fellow who investigates cases where the "wrong man" had been convicted, condemned, and executed for crimes they didn't commit due to inadequate counsel due to impoverished means. He's also a successful novelist, working with a young man who secretly courts his daughter. The person of interest in his new case was a man considered the "Haymarket Strangler", notorious for killing five women. Rankin is dead set on proving that with proper counsel he could've escaped the hangman's noose. In his search for the truth, Rankin makes a startling discovery which will forever change his life, a surgical knife used by a young mortician named Dr. Tenant who subsequently disappeared 20 years ago at the time of innocent Edward Styles' hanging, found buried with the dead man's corpse. What in turn occurs is that Rankin becomes "under the spell" of a psychopathic urge to strangle and stab with the found surgical knife, his face twisted into a grimacing Ogre-like expression, one arm paralytically frozen and bent. In so lies Rankin's ongoing dilemma for the rest of THE HAUNTED STRANGLER, contending with an inner evil that wants control. In regards to finding Tenant, Rankin doesn't heed the pleas of his wife to abandon this incessant pursuit for his person, and a revelation as to who the nurse is that helped the troubled mortician escape possible prosecution(as we see in the opening graveyard burial before the credits role, the mortician collapses into a crashing heap, knowing that he should've been lying in a pine box, covered with lime), not to mention the identity of Tenant himself, results in utter tragedy.
This kind of role, the Jeckyll/Hyde transformation from decent, gentle soul to mad ghoul is nothing too hard for the caliber of a legend like Karloff. He contorts his face, breathes heavy, and ogles intently from darkened shadows awaiting to strike. Maybe some will find his change(or perhaps the story line itself about how one man has dueling personalities bucking for supremacy, an object such as the recovered knife the tool for how the beast resurfaces)a bit campy, but I dug seeing him turn from such a well respected and honorable man into a menacing gargoyle on the rampage. Like that one scene where he's held in a horrible asylum prison, setting afire some hay placed in the padded room, using a broken piece of glass(Tenant breaks a lamp covering) to cut a security guard's face so to free himself. Or, when Tenant stabs a victim repeatedly off-screen, yet the viciousness is emphasized to a substantial degree by thumping sounds and Karloff's twisted expression, deranged in his violence. The film spends a lot of time at a naughty dancehall called The Judas Hole, a frequent hangout for the rich aristocratic men throwing around some money for the can-can girls. Beautiful, elegant B&W cinematography also gives THE HAUNTED STRANGLER a visual polish that only heightens it's effectiveness. Along with CORRIDORS OF BLOOD, THE HAUNTED STRANGLER, in my opinion, is one of Karloff's best performances of the 50s, considered, by critics, a down decade for the horror icon.
This kind of role, the Jeckyll/Hyde transformation from decent, gentle soul to mad ghoul is nothing too hard for the caliber of a legend like Karloff. He contorts his face, breathes heavy, and ogles intently from darkened shadows awaiting to strike. Maybe some will find his change(or perhaps the story line itself about how one man has dueling personalities bucking for supremacy, an object such as the recovered knife the tool for how the beast resurfaces)a bit campy, but I dug seeing him turn from such a well respected and honorable man into a menacing gargoyle on the rampage. Like that one scene where he's held in a horrible asylum prison, setting afire some hay placed in the padded room, using a broken piece of glass(Tenant breaks a lamp covering) to cut a security guard's face so to free himself. Or, when Tenant stabs a victim repeatedly off-screen, yet the viciousness is emphasized to a substantial degree by thumping sounds and Karloff's twisted expression, deranged in his violence. The film spends a lot of time at a naughty dancehall called The Judas Hole, a frequent hangout for the rich aristocratic men throwing around some money for the can-can girls. Beautiful, elegant B&W cinematography also gives THE HAUNTED STRANGLER a visual polish that only heightens it's effectiveness. Along with CORRIDORS OF BLOOD, THE HAUNTED STRANGLER, in my opinion, is one of Karloff's best performances of the 50s, considered, by critics, a down decade for the horror icon.