John Croydon

Boris Karloff plays James Rankin, a social campaigner investigating perceived miscarriages of justice including that of the "The Haymarket Strangler", a murderer hanged twenty years previously. He discovers a strange mystery around a Dr Tennant who disappeared around the same time as the Strangler was hanged. As Rankin closes in on the mystery he finds himself becoming possessed and following in the murderous path of the Strangler. "Grip of the Strangler" (which I watched under the title "The Haunted Strangler") is an odd take on the Jekyll and Hyde story with an elderly Karloff doing well in pulling of what looks like quite a painful transformation. The film has some good moments, particularly the graveyard scenes which look like a throwback to the classic Universal style of the 1930s. These sequences are creepily effective and highly atmospheric. Cinematographer Lionel Banes provides some nice, crisp black-and-photography but director Robert Day lets the narrative meander a wee bit too much for the overall good of the film.… (meer)