Before I Hang (1940)

Genre: Horror, Mad Scientist

Source: My Own Collection

Grade: C

I know for a fact we have all have had one of those movies that you hear about or read about and that you then end up really wanting to see, but when you actually see it ends up really not being that amazing, in fact it ends up being a pretty sore disappointment. Well thats kinda how this movie ended up being for me, I had read about and thought it sounded like one of the best Boris Karloff movies ever, but alas upon my initial viewing of it I was severely let down. Overall I had expected the movie to deliver more of a  "punch" but it just didn't deliver that. So by the end of the movie I was thinking "was that it"?

Now before you get the impression i`m going to spout off on a tangent i`d like to say this movie did have some pluses. Such as the awesome performance put in by Boris Karloff, he plays his role with such style that he makes the character a sympathetic yet demented mad scientist. Edward Van Sloan even puts in a good performance as the doctor who helps Boris out at the Beginning, in case you don`t know who that is he played Van Helsing in Universals Dracula and he played the leader of the spy ring in 1939`s The Phantom Creeps. Though I noted this was one of his last major films were he was credited in and since his days on Dracula he had grown a bit pudgy and lost a lot of the facial features that he had when he played Van Helsing in Dracula. Then this movie was also very well directed, I was impressed with the uses of shadows and mist. So at least it had a some what decent atmosphere.

Now with that said, the main problem I had with  this movie was I felt it was way to rushed. Characters didn't develop,and there was not very much suspense other then like two scenes. It seemed to me like the film makers were just trying to rush the movie along at way to fast a rate.Next the script had the potential of being awesome, but it wasn`t! There was just so many things the writer could have added to make this movie stupendous, but of course they didn't. Then all the actors who played cops and prison guards were incredibly bland giving there characters no unique traits. Finally the films ending was not horrible but not very memorable,basically the script was just a little two-bit script with a not so memorable ending. Then If I were trying to get someone into these types of movies I would definitely not show them Before I Hang.