The Man with Nine Lives (1940)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Nick Grinde

Writers:

Harold Shumate (story)
Karl Brown (screenplay)

Release Date:

18 April 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Mystery | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

He kills in the name of science...Tombs of ice for the living...Chambers of horror for the dead!

Plot:

A medical researcher visits the deserted home of a pioneer in cryogenic science who disappeared 10 years earlier and finds him frozen in ice but still alive.

Plot Keywords:

Cancer | Cryogenics | Experiment | Ice | Human Guinea Pig

Cast

Boris Karloff	...	Dr. Leon Kravaal
Roger Pryor	...	Dr. Tim Mason
Jo Ann Sayers	...	Nurse Judith Blair
Stanley Brown	...	Bob Adams
John Dilson	...	District Attorney John Hawthorne
Hal Taliaferro	...	Sheriff Ed Stanton
Byron Foulger	...	Dr. Henry Bassett
Charles Trowbridge	...	Dr. Harvey
Ernie Adams	...	Pete Daggett

Also Known As:

Behind the Door (UK)

Runtime:

74 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Canada:G (Ontario) | USA:Approved (PCA #6183) | USA:TV-G (TV rating)

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Goofs:

Plot holes: When Dr. Mason uses the "standard" method of reviving Dr. Kravaal, it doesn't appear to be anything more than placing him near a fire and putting blankets on him. He asks his nurse for "more coffee," but it's unclear what he's doing with the coffee which would help him resuscitate the doctor as Kravaal is unconscious and can't be drinking it.

Quotes:

Dr. Leon Kravaal: Let it sink into your brain that this is the year 1940, and that you've been buried, lost, frozed in the ice for ten years!

"Frozen but alive. My work is finished," says Karloff as mad doctor...

THE MAN WITH NINE LIVES is the kind of programmer made on the quick from Columbia studios, not too bad as far as the sets are concerned and with some halfway decent dialog--but nothing disguises the fact that it's not exactly BORIS KARLOFF at his finest. He's a doctor tinkering with the concept of freezing bodies and reviving them later, inadvertently getting frozen in his own freezer and thawed out by a doctor (ROGER PRYOR) and his pretty assistant (JO ANN SAYERS).

Most impressive thing about the film is the ice storage areas where the frozen look of the experimental igloos are pretty "cool". But the plot is a simple one of a man willing to be an outlaw in order to prove his scientific theories about reviving the frozen dead.

WILLIAM TROWBRIDGE, a dependable B-film actor (who did many an A-film at Warner Bros. and other studios) is the only other recognizable name in the cast--except for a bit appearance by BRUCE BENNETT as a trooper, who is uncredited.

Karloff's final experiment does have some value and he passes this on to Pryor and Sawyers so the world can benefit from his knowledge.

Summing up: Serves as an okay vehicle for Karloff but fails to have the horror appeal of his best string of films at Universal.