Underplayed Gems

The Man They Could Not Hang (1939)

The Man They Could Not Hang poster
Directed by
Nick Grinde
Genre
horror film
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 04m
Rated
NR
Rating
6.7 of 10 from 48 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

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The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A scientist creates a machine to revive the dead but is executed for murder before he can prove it works. He comes back to life and seeks revenge on the people who put him to death.

tensegothicvengefulmethodicalmoodyeerieslow-burn

What happens

The Man They Could Not Hang is a 1939 American horror film directed by Nick Grinde from a screenplay by Karl Brown. It stars Boris Karloff as Dr. Henryk Savaard, a scientist who develops a procedure for bringing the dead back to life. When he is arrested and sentenced to be executed for murdering a young medical student who volunteered to be killed to test the procedure, Savaard vows retribution on the individuals responsible. Alongside Karloff, the film's cast includes Lorna Gray, Robert Wilcox, and Roger Pryor. The Man They Could Not Hang is the first in a series of four similarly themed but otherwise unrelated horror films produced by Columbia Pictures, all starring Karloff, informally known as the "Mad Doctor Cycle." It was followed by The Man with Nine Lives, Before I Hang (both 1940), and The Devil Commands (1941). A fifth, The Boogie Man Will Get You (1942), was a parody of the others. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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