Before I Hang (1940)

Director:

Nick Grinde

Writers:

Robert Hardy Andrews (writer)
Karl Brown (writer)

Release Date:

17 September 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Beware! When Karloff stops the clock, your hour has come!

Plot:

A physician on death row for a mercy killing is allowed to experiment on a serum using a criminals' blood, but secretly tests it on himself. He gets a pardon, but finds out he's become a Jekyll-&-Hyde. |

Plot Keywords:

Doctor | Human Test Subject | Amnesia | Foggy Night | Autopsy

Cast

Boris Karloff	...	Dr. John Garth
Evelyn Keyes	...	Martha Garth
Bruce Bennett	...	Dr. Paul Ames
Edward Van Sloan	...	Dr. Ralph Howard
Ben Taggart	...	Warden Thompson
Pedro de Cordoba	...	Victor Sondini
Wright Kramer	...	George Wharton
Bertram Marburgh	...	Stephen Barclay
Don Beddoe	...	Capt. McGraw
Robert Fiske	...	District Attorney
Kenneth MacDonald	...	Anson
Frank Richards	...	Otto Krone
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ernie Adams	...	Sam (hospital attendant) (uncredited)
Stanley Brown	...	Prison gate guard (uncredited)
Frederick Burton	...	Gov. Prentiss (uncredited)
Jack Cheatham	...	Patrolman Olson (uncredited)
Edward Earle	...	Dr. Nichols (uncredited)
Richard Fiske	...	Mandish (uncredited)
Eddie Laughton	...	Guard (uncredited)
James T. Mack	...	Butler (uncredited)
George McKay	...	Reardon (uncredited)
Edmund Mortimer	...	Courtroom extra (uncredited)
Charles Trowbridge	...	Judge Braden (uncredited)
John Tyrrell	...	Sanders (uncredited)
Gohr Van Vleck	...	Police dispatcher (uncredited)
Barton Yarborough	...	Undetermined Role (uncredited)

Directed by
Nick Grinde

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Robert Hardy Andrews		writer (as Robert D. Andrews)
Karl Brown		writer

Produced by
Wallace MacDonald	....	producer

Cinematography by
Benjamin H. Kline

Film Editing by
Charles Nelson

Art Direction by
Lionel Banks

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Milton Carter	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
J.S. Westmoreland	....	sound recordist (uncredited)

Music Department
Morris Stoloff	....	musical director
Leigh Harline	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Ben Oakland	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
George Parrish	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Karol Rathaus	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Gregory Stone	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1940) (USA) (theatrical)
• RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2006) (USA) (DVD)

Runtime:

62 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

This film was shot in the house later used in the 1945 title The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) staring Hurd Hatfield.

Quotes:

Victor Sondini: You know, it's not so easy to say the end is coming - the fire is burned out!

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Lady with the Torch (1999)

When I Get Older Killing my Friends - Not So Many Years from Now

Boris Karloff played the benign "mad" scientist whose intentions were good but turn awry better than anyone else. Most of his mad scientists were men put into bad situations by some kind of catalyst beyond their control and Before I Hang is no exception. Karloff plays a doctor brought before a jury for a mercy killing - a man who had been living in terminal pain sought out Karloff's help with hopes that a youth age-suppressing serum he had been working on would help regulate the pain and off-set the aging process. It didn't work and Karloff aided in his assisted death. Karloff is sent to prison but finds that the warden believes in his work and allows him, with the aid of Edward Von Sloan the prison doctor, to work on his serum just weeks before he is to be hanged for his crime. Before I Hang has really quite a preposterous storyline but Boris Karloff breathes life into it rather nicely with a gentle performance edged by a maniacal turn as he injects himself with the serum that has some bad side effects. The other actors are all very good with old Karloff nemesis from Frankenstien Von Sloan doing very well with his rather small, thankless role and Eugene Palette giving a good turn as the warden. Karloff's three old friends are all well-played and Evelyn Keyes as his daughter adequate as is Bruce Bennet as her love interest and Karloff's former assistant. The movie is not particularly fast-paced but the tension does build increasingly with effect. Before I Hang is a rather nice addition to Karloff's Columbia Mad Doctor roles. Perhaps not the best of them but certainly stands strong with the rest of them.