The Devil Commands (DVD)
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When the Devil commands…Boris Karloff obeys! Actually, the title is somewhat of a come-on. There’s nothing Satanic about this movie. Karloff’s character is motivated by love, devotion and grief; not anything sinister. And despite what the tagline touts, he doesn’t kill anyone… not on purpose, anyway.
This 1941 black and white horror / sci-fi B-flick starts off with a wide shot on a cliff-perched mansion set against a
Dr. Julian Blair (Boris Karloff) is a dapper research scientist working on a new machine that records brain waves. His goal is to replace radio and television with human telepathy. He’s discovered that a woman’s brain waves are the very strongest, and his wife Anne (Amanda Duff) is the perfect subject to show his early findings off to his colleagues. With all the stuffy scientists gathered round, Anne dons a big metal helmet with lots of electrical doodads on it and a graph records the waves of her thoughts for all to see. Just when it seems as though the Blairs on the verge of a major scientific breakthrough, tragedy strikes.
Anne is killed in a car wreck… but Blair becomes convinced that she is not truly gone when his brain wave machine starts picking up stray communiqués that seem to be from his departed dear. In an intriguing turn of events, Blair teams up with a dark-hearted spiritual medium, Mrs. Walters (Anne Revere). Along with Blair’s deformed assistant (Ralph Penney) the depraved duo embark on a perilous journey to the underworld in a desperate attempt to bring Anne’s spirit back to the mortal plane.
The need for fresh corpses to aid them in their work compels them to move to a lonely, Cliffside mansion that’s not far from a cemetery — before long, the townspeople grow suspicious and in a rather amusing scene they wind up storming the home with the then modern-day equivalent of torches and pitchforks (flashlights and two-by-fours). But it’s not over yet… you’ll have to see this very short, fast-moving movie yourself to find out what ultimately happens.
While the characters are nothing new or different, and director Edward Dmytryk’s style is rather bland, the actors do their damnedest to add some dimension. As Dr. Blair, Karloff starts off quite well-dressed, nicely composed and articulate, then after his wife’s death he unravels in subtle but obvious physical and mental ways. As always, he commands the screen. However,
If you like horror about mad scientists, complete with gadget-crammed laboratories, covert experiments, and spooky séances, you can’t go wrong with The Devil Commands. It’s not a great movie (it’s a B flick, and isn’t considered a classic) but at just over one hour, it’s worth a peek.
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson