I Watch Films: The Haunted Strangler

 

The Haunted Strangler

In the 1870s Edward Styles is convicted of the murder of five women as the “Haymarket Strangler,” executed and buried. We, the audience, see a mysterious figure put a knife in the coffin before it is buried.

Twenty years later James Rankin (Boris Karloff), true crime podcaster novelist and social reformer, wants to prove Styles was unjustly condemned. Looking for witnesses he goes to the Judas Hole (?) music hall where the strangler picked up dancers. There are some fun song and dance routines; Rankin and his assistant (who is courting his step-daughter) tangle with a popular young dancer before finding an older one who saw the strangler. She also mentions a doctor, Tennant, who signed all the papers, was institutionalised after Styles’ death then vanished with a nurse.

Rankin goes through Tennant’s belongings, discovers that his autopsy knife is missing. Convinced it was buried in Styles grave, he tries and fails to get permission to dig it up. He bribes a guard at Newgate Prison to let him into the graveyard, digs it up, finds the knife… and puts on a Boris Karloff special expression, paralysed arm and limping walk, promptly starts murdering people and forgetting about it.

The film then retraces its steps with more murders. The resolution is not quite as silly as the haunted-autopsy-knife-that-makes-people-stranglers it implies.

Watch This: Karloff does his transformation, there’s some cool period detective work and a couple of female characters who appear to be in stock roles get to come forward and have big dramatic scenes
Don’t Watch This: It’s sensationalist nonsense