TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Nonureva Really Surprised!

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

mark.waltz What happens after a body dies? Does the brain die instantly like the rest of the body, or does it desperately reach out to expose its last thoughts? This is what scientist Boris Karloff is desperate to find out in this silly science fiction film where the brain in question is that of his beloved wife who is suddenly taken from him in a freak accident. Karloff's daughter is scared of the reclusive turn dad takes all of a sudden and is horrified by his sudden retirement from the university he works in and the sudden move he makes to a New England coastal town with local fake spiritualist Anne Revere. The community they move to are instantly suspicious of their odd behavior, and when their housekeeper doesn't come home from work one day, they storm the cliff side mansion to confront the owners.Karloff tries to hold back from being hammy in his low-key performance, but it is obvious a variation of roles he had played many times before, most recently in several other films at Columbia ("The Man They Could Not Hang", "Before I Hang"). Anne Revere is another dark villainess in the shadow of Gale Sondergaard and Judith Anderson's recent turns as somberly dressed housekeepers in films such as "The Cat and the Canary" and "Rebecca". Her performance, however, is closer to that of Rafaela Ottiano's in "The Devil Doll", with a touch of Gloria Holden's vampire in "Dracula's Daughter".The moody cliff side mansion is a memorable photographic shot, and the laboratory that Karloff and Revere live in is one that Edward D. Wood Jr. would envy. A Lon Chaney Jr. like monster, having gone from being somewhat normal to a dominated servant, comes off like Universal's later horror goon, Glenn Strange. Unlike some other genuine bad movies, "The Devil Commands" is actually pretty fun to watch, definitely worthy of a single watching by horror movie enthusiasts. But it has a been-there, done-that feeling about it, and a genuine lack of imagination in it script and execution that makes this a poor entry in the second era of sound horror films.

sol **SPOILERS**The great Brois Karloff in another one of his many horror films about a misunderstood, but really great guy, mad scientist-Dr. Juian Blair-this time in communicating with the dead trough their brainwaves.The entire story of the mad as a hatter Dr. Blair is told by his daughter Anne, Amanda Duff, in an hour long flashback. It was Anne who was to become a victim of her father's insane experiments in his communicating with his dead wife Helen, Shirley Warde, who's tragic death the Doc feels responsible for. Getting results in picking up brain waves with live subjects in his laboratory Dr. Blair attempted to do the same with dead one's in regard to his wife who was killed in a car accident. This happened as Dr.Blair went to the local bakery to pick up a birthday cake for his daughter's 20th birthday.Having a brainwave print of Helen before she was killed Dr. Blair attempt to pick up his dead wife's brainwaves from beyond was only half successful with him being kicked out of the collage, where he was head of the Science Department, by his not so impressed colleagues before her could finish it. It's when Dr. Blair's assistant Karl, Ralph "A Penny for his Thoughts" Penney, introduced him to psychic and medium Mrs Walters, Anne Revere, that the mad doctor finally convinced himself that he was in fact on to something: Communicating with the dead! It's not that Mrs. Walters was the genuine article, she was in fact a fake, but she had the ability through her electro magnetic energy force to open the door for disembodied spirits like the Doc's late wife Helen to communicate with the world of the living!Moving, with both Karl & Mrs. Walters to the quite seaside New England town of Brasham Harbor to conduct his secret experiments in human brainwaves Dr. Blair soon started to suffer, by working day and night for weeks at a time, from a severe case of burnout with the evil Mrs. Walters taking over his experiments. It's then when everything went bananas for the poor and by now mentally and physically exhausted Doc. It's when Dr. Blair's maid Mrs. Marcy, Dorothy Adams, tired to sneak into his secret laboratory, at the insistence of the local sheriff-or Mister-Ed, that things really got out of control!Getting herself killed, when she accidentally turned on the brainwave machine, Mrs. Marcy's now distraught husband Seth, Walter Baldwin, blamed Doc Blair for her death and whipped up the local townspeople, who had no use for Doc Blair anyway, into a bloodthirsty lynch mob. With pitchforks and torches in hand the mob headed out to Doc Blair's place to pay him a very very unfriendly and unannounced visit!***SPOILERS*** Working against time with the mob bearing down on him Dr. Blair did in fact make contact with his dead wife through his brainwave machine using his daughter Anne as the connection between the world of the both living and dead. This all went to pot when the Doc overloaded his brainwave machine with enough juice that could power the entire city of Boston! In a flash everything that Dr. Blair accomplished over the last ten or so years went up in flames but in the end, even though he was not around to see it, his experiments in brainwave communications turned out to be a smashing success!

mlraymond This well made little horror thriller belies its low budget with some really fine camera-work and good set design. The focus is on character and a plausible storyline, so that one seldom notices the limited use of locations or elaborate sets.For such a brief running time, the movie manages to seem leisurely and involving at the beginning, establishing the kindly and progressive Dr. Blair as a well meaning, cutting edge thinker, and not a clichéd mad scientist. Karloff makes the transition from lovable husband and father to fanatical experimenter so smoothly, that Dr. Blair always remains a believable, sympathetic character.Good supporting roles by Kenneth MacDonald as the local sheriff trying to keep the suspicious townsfolk from taking the law into their own hands, Dorothy Adams as the wary but tight lipped housekeeper, and Ralph Penney in the limited but very effective role of a mute lab assistant. Amanda Duff, who also narrates, as the daughter and Richard Fiske as the clean cut hero are effective.But the prize aside from Karloff has to go to Anne Revere as the truly sinister medium Mrs. Walters. She nearly steals every scene she's in, as the behind the scenes mentor and influence on Karloff, who makes it quite clear she's only in on the experiment for the potential fortune to be made if the Professor's communication device is a success.The original novel The Edge of Running Water by William Sloane is a far more detailed and involved story than this film adaptation, but the movie works very well for what it is. A larger budget and longer running time might have made it even better, but it stands as one of Karloff's best movies of the Forties, and a good, involving thriller well worth the viewer's time.Definitely recommended.

JoeKarlosi One of several "Mad Doctor" films Boris Karloff made for Columbia Pictures in the '40s and often considered one of the best of that group by many fans. It's not bad, but it's only a notch above average in my estimation. Here we have Karloff as a scientist who has discovered a device for reading people's brain waves and then becomes obsessed with the idea of trying to communicate with his recently deceased wife. He enlists the aid of a somewhat eccentric phony mystic (Anne Revere) who becomes the dominant force in the partnership and sets the course for some potentially disastrous events.This movie was directed by Edward Dmytryk, so at least it enjoys some spirited dashes of mood and dreary lighting, which is one thing that elevates it just over the line of the ordinary. It's interesting to see long-time Three Stooges foil Kenneth MacDonald as a sheriff who suspects that strange goings-on are underfoot in Boris' mysterious house, and Anne Revere's stoic and power-hungry medium is an added benefit. Still, there's something which seems to be lacking here to keep this one from rising above "B" level. Karloff is quite good as the eager but harried scientist, emitting a range of different emotions during the course of the picture. **1/2 out of ****