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Rating:  -
When I first saw THE DEVIL COMMANDS I was quite young but had already watched my first few Shock Theaters on New York TV and was familiar with monster movies. I realized that Karloff, who portrayed the Frankenstein monster, had the starring role in this movie and somehow the role of this kindly old scientist scared me more than his great 1931 movie classic.
This film really frightened me. Naturally, I would recommend that Karloff fans purchase this DVD which I promise was a good video transfer (not perfect, but very good). The merits of this film included: a good script, fine acting, credible model work, nice sets and special effects and a very plausible tale of reliable communications with the dead established by using a combination of technology and a medium. After almost a lifetime of watching and re-watching this old film I still occasionally screen it.
The imagery of several newly robbed corpses seated in a mystic circle serving as the individual vacuum tubes of a radio like device to amplify the thoughts and reproduce the "voice" of a departed soul was credible and chilling. Enlisting the aid of a medium in the circuit just seemed like the cherry on the cake. If you didn't believe in the paranormal, you had hard science teamed up with the occult arts to make for a scary and powerful alliance. Frankly, THE DEVIL COMMANDS scared the crap out of me.
As several fans have already written in to accurately describe the interesting story I will only mention my personal story of that New Years Eve when I first saw this movie alone. My parents had gone out for the evening so I spent the night anxiously looking forward to seeing this old film by myself. Then after seeing the film I realized all at once that I was so unnerved that I had to call up my cousin who was a couple of years older than me and speak with her just to calm down. At the time I couldn't help thinking not only was this film scary, it seemed like it might just be possible. I mean, wasn't everything possible using the right technology? That was my frame of mind that New Years Eve. I really think being alone contributed only a bit to my fear. I was already a young veteran of FRANKENSTEIN, DRACULA, THE WOLFMAN, and all their sequels with no ill after effects. The story seemed very plausible to my young mind, which made it all the more unsettling.
Rating:  -
Awesome and terror-inspiring would sum up my thoughts on this movie. I had many a bad dream as a child growing up in the '50s and '60s after seeing this movie, and it still reaches out to grab me. Of course, few could inspire sheer terror as Mr. Karloff could.
Not gory or bloody, but a nightmare-creating monster, nonetheless.
Rating:  -
Movie: ***1/2 DVD Quality: **1/2 Extras: **1/2
A fun little "B" horror film from 1941 with the redoubtable Boris Karloff playing the kind of "mad doctor" role he could pull off with effortless aplomb. What makes this one a notch above the average is that Karloff is up against an unusual foil --- a scheming female medium, formidably played by the superb character actress Anne Revere (just three years away from winning her Oscar for "National Velvet"). Watching an unhinged Karloff and a toughly villainous Revere sparring together on-screen is a real treat, and they're given excellent support by a supporting cast that includes Amanda Duff as Karloff's daughter and wide-eyed Dorothy Adams playing another of her patented domestic roles (she is perhaps best remembered as Gene Tierney's housekeeper in the classic "Laura"). The main plotline is fairly cliched, with Karloff as yet another bereaved husband trying to contact his deceased wife from beyond the grave, but there are some great set decorations and moody cinematography that liven up the proceedings. And at a mere 65 minutes of running time, director Edward Dmytryk (like Revere, an eventual victim of the Hollywood blacklist) keeps things humming along nicely.
Columbia's DVD transfer is wildly uneven. There are sections where the video quality is superb; sadly, there are also long stretches plagued by white lines running through the frame, and some frequent spotting. The sound is fairly good throughout. DVD extras consist of three trailers for more recent Columbia horrors; there are no features pertaining to "The Devil Commands" itself. Overall, the DVD will appeal primarily to genre fans in general, and Karloff devotees in particular. Others may not be so appreciative of the film's charms, but there are certainly worse ways to spend an hour and five minutes.
Rating: -
I say this one when it first came out and a few details always lingered in my mind. For 1941, this was quite a production. Boris was at the height of his powers and the story line was good. It has many of the features of the early Frankenstein films including the angry mob, the demented side-kick and the mildly deranged scientist. Someone ought to remake this with some of our current 'stars' playing the dead bodies inside the space suits.
Rating: -
A kindly, absent-minded scientist loses his wife suddenly and decides to modify his brain-wave measuring invention to communicate with his dead spouse from beyond the grave.
THE DEVIL COMMANDS opens onto a dark and stormy night with a sad sounding woman, the Mad Scientist's daughter, providing a voice-over narration. The narrator throws us into a deep flashback where a happy Dr. Boris Karloff is showing off his new invention, a primitive electroencephlogram gadget (the EEG was developed in the 1930s, so this is relatively new technology) that features a six foot tall, wall mounted graph. The person whose brain is being scanned is fitted with a head strap that's covered with what looks to be a deep sea diving helmet. Dr. Julian Blair (Karloff) believes this device will help him talk to his dead wife. As he puts it, his brain scanner will allow `controlled and scientific communication between the living and the so-called dead.' The crowd of admiring fellow scientists are wowed by the machine, dismissive of the planned application.
Not so the charlatan spiritual medium Mrs. Walters (Anne Revere), who may be a fraud but, more to Dr. Blair's purpose, is able to take a 10,000 volt charge with nary a murmur (`Why, it only takes 1000 volts to electrocute a man!') Not so, either, poor, loyal Karl (Ralph Penney.) Without giving too much away, let's just say you NEVER trust Karloff when he's in Mad Scientist mode and assures you, as he's strapping on the electrodes, that `I won't let thith hurt you.' Karloff probably believes it when he says it, too, but likely as not you'll end up mute, uncontrollably drooling and lucky if you're able to understand `Sit,' `Stay,' `Go lock the laboratory doors,' and, especially, `No, Karl. No!' And so, with Karl and the frosty Mrs. Walters in tow Dr. Blair moves to Creepy Mansion, where he can, hopefully, continue his experiments undisturbed.
For a short (65-minute), cheap b-movie THE DEVIL COMMANDS is eminently entertaining. The lighting is moody, the acting (especially Karloff and Revere) is appropriately creepy, and some of the sets are brilliant. Especially the lab at the creepy mansion, which may not have cost much but is a hoot and a half.
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