The Devil Commands

 

The Devil Commands

Director - Edward Dmytryk

Writers – Robert Hardy Andrews (screenplay), Milton Gunzburg(screenplay), William Sloane(novel "The Edge of Running Water")

1941, USA

Stars –  Boris Karloff, Anne Revere, Amanda Duff

 

Perhaps you can’t go wrong with a black-and-white shot of a “haunted” house in a storm with a portentous opening narration, but the mood is immediately set to maximum Gothic pleasure.  It’s the kind with the feel of ‘Rebecca’, and as with all good Gothics, the storms happen at the correct moments.

Slightly mixed-up from William Sloane’s novel ‘The Edge of Running Water’, this has some nice black-and-white imagery – the séance of corpses in diving suits is quite unforgettable – and some hilarious science-y stuff with equally madcap/entertaining experiments and equipment as a main source of enjoyment. And, of course, Karloff’s central performance to ground it all. In fact, all the older actors give their thin roles more colour than perhaps warranted; and although Karloff rules, it’s Anne Revere that steals the show as the mercenary sham medium.

The mash-up of science and supernatural, but without the influence of religion (the title means nothing), is notable and promising, but although there’s the sense that the execution is all a step above the script, it never really delves deep into this mad doc’s delusion and what he might be touching on. But it’s short and entertaining in an old-school gothic-horror manner.

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