Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

atlasmb "The Man They Could Not Hang" is certainly a very watchable film. On the surface, it appears to be another mad-scientist-defies-nature story, but it has deeper roots.Dr. Henryk Savaard (Boris Karloff) has designed an artificial heart and has tested it on various animals. A young man volunteers to be the first human recipient, so Savaard and his assistant terminate the man's life only to be interrupted mid-procedure, before they can restore the man's life.What follows is a courtroom drama, then an Agatha Christie-like murder in a box, with a twist. At each phase of the film, Dr. Savaard delivers a speech about science vs. ignorance, each with its own perspective. Each speech is well written and takes the story beyond the typical mad doctor genre.This film does not fall into the horror genre. Perhaps the mere presence of Karloff prompted that labelling. But Savaard may be the most rational character in the film. It is a sci-fi crime story. And it is well worth watching and very entertaining.

TheLittleSongbird The Man They Could Not Hang is a very solidly done film but falls short of greatness. The ending is tacky and felt somewhat like two endings in one. The first third does take its time to get going, it sets things up well but compared to what comes after it was a little dull, while the music is rather stock and you can tell that several composers were responsible. The Man They Could Not Hang looks very good however with fluid photography and creepy settings, while the script is witty and clever with a foreboding tone that really makes its impact, and the story may be standard but it is still very neatly told with the suspense levels appropriately sinister and the fun factor deliciously entertaining. The last third apart from the ending fares by far the best, that's fun and enough to make you bite the nails. The acting is good, Lorna Gray comes off best in the supporting cast, all competent but none make the same impression that Boris Karloff. Karloff is good reason to see any film and he is the best thing about The Man They Could Not Hang. He has an effortless eerie command and does it with his usual style and dignity. The artificial heart and organ transplant stuff is also very ahead of its time, and a further source of interest. Overall, standard with a hokey ending, stock music and a slow start but lots of fun and very effective in atmosphere and as ever Karloff is great. 7/10 Bethany Cox

AaronCapenBanner Nick Grinde directed Boris Karloff as Dr. Savaard, a researcher into life and death who is working with a student on an experiment where he will be killed and returned to life, when it is interrupted by his foolish girlfriend, who gets Savaard arrested for murder(he didn't have enough time to resurrect the student) He is then tried, convicted, and hanged, but an assistant takes his body back to the lab, and after some neck reconstruction surgery, is returned to life. He then plots a campaign of revenge against all those responsible for his hanging... Boris Karloff is fine, and film has some potential, but it is squandered in a standard revenge tale that proves most unsatisfying; a bit more imagination and ambition could have made this good.

Hitchcoc It isn't such a bad movie. It's just how many times does Boris Karloff get the same script. He is hanged or electrocuted or done in in some way and someone manages to bring him back. Of course, he's not the man he used to be. In this one, his work is compromised, costing a young assistant his life, due to a panic stricken girl. When his partner brings him back, he decides to kill the jury, the judge, the prosecuting attorney. It's a sort of "And Then There Were None" thing but doesn't work as well as the Rene Clair film. The device invented looks silly but is a precursor to an artificial heart. The science is bad but the idea is ahead of its time. There is a great courtroom speech that is hard to deny, but they hang him anyway. Still, I love this guy and am impressed by his acting. It's too bad he got himself typecast so badly. He did have some very nice dramatic roles, but most of it was this kind of thing. See it anyway.