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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Tuesday, March 21, 2017

The Man With Nine Lives (1940)

Starring Boris Karloff, Roger Pryor, Jo Ann Sayers, Stanley Brown, John Dilson
Directed by Nick Grinde
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A doctor who has performed successful experiments in frozen therapy seeks out the scientist who inspired him, and finds him frozen alive in a tunnel beneath his home.

Another entry in the Columbia series casting Karloff as a series of "mad doctors," it follows the blueprint of the series in establishing the actor as a scientist performing dangerous experiments which the authorities try to stop, leading Karloff to take desperate measures.  The actor looks good in the goatee beard he's fitted with in this film, which is effectively showcased in silhouette under the opening credits, and although he's playing much the same character as in the other films in the series, he remains entertaining to watch.  Although much of the picture unfolds in a pair of rooms beneath Karloff's scientist's home, the screenplay is well-structured and Grinde's direction focused enough that it never seems dull or boring.

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