#367: DAY, Robert: The Haunted Strangler (1958)
MONSTERS AND MADMEN {Spine #364}
The Haunted Strangler [1958]
Spine #367
DVD
DVD
Nineteenth-century English author James Rankin believes that the wrong man was hanged twenty years earlier for a series of murders, but his investigations lead him to a horrible and, for him, gruesomely inescapable secret.
79 minutes
Black & White
Black & White
Monaural
1:33:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2006
Director/Writers
Original story by Jan Read.
Screenplay by John Croydon (as John C. Cooper) and Read.
Robert Day was 36 when he directed The Haunted Strangler.
Other Day films in the Collection:
The Film
Boris Karloff hadn’t had too many good roles throughout the 50’s — mostly television or bit parts in weird films like Abbot and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953). Thus recruited for this good-looking “B” pic produced by Richard Gordon and Croydon — in which he would actually star with top-billing — he jumped at the opportunity. At 70-years-old, he still had the acting chops required, and — even more impressive — created his monstrous look without busting the budget; he simply took out his false teeth, and grimaced!
Karloff is James Rankin — an English gentleman — who is researching the strange 20 year old story of a man who was buried with a surgeon’s scalpel.
No need to spoil anything further, other than to add that the bit players are all excellent: Jean Kent, Elizabeth Allan, Vera Day, and particularly Anthony Dawson, who would appear in the first James Bond flick, Dr. No, a few years later.
Film Rating (0-60):
The Booklet
Twenty-four page booklet featuring an essay by Maitland McDonagh, who discusses both this film and Corridors of Blood (Spine #368); and Croydon’s account of working with Karloff on both films.
Commentary
With both Gordons, Richard and Alex, and Tom Weaver. As with all the other commentaries in this set, most of the talk concerns details about production.
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The ExtrasThe Booklet
Twenty-four page booklet featuring an essay by Maitland McDonagh, who discusses both this film and Corridors of Blood (Spine #368); and Croydon’s account of working with Karloff on both films.
Commentary
With both Gordons, Richard and Alex, and Tom Weaver. As with all the other commentaries in this set, most of the talk concerns details about production.
For example, Strangler was paired on a double-bill with another Criterion horror film, Fiend Without a Face (Spine #92), after MGM became the distributor.
Karloff’s salary was $27,500.
Video interviews
Video interviews
With Read, Kent, Robert Day and Vera Day.
Trailer and radio spots
Trailer and radio spots
Love the trailer with all its diagonal, cut-glass wipes! The radio spots feature Karloff trying to scare you.
Extras Rating (0-40):
Extras Rating (0-40):
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