Grip of the Strangler (1958) (2024)

Popular reviews

• Review by pirateneckbeard ★★½

  This is an almost gem. I mean Boris is solid here but I wish they kept it either as a cursed item or gave a back story cause I liked the detective fact finding and the lies by other characters and some who couldn't identify details of the killer. It's clever but lacks a little visual sting for me. This be said I still had fun with this with it's short running time I just wished that they could have tightened it up to make it a better film which it was so close to be. It had a grip but to loose of a narrative for me.

• Review by Gentry ★★★

  “A man must do the work in which he believes.”

  Martha’s Last Night at Judas Hole

  It’s a makeout party at the hanging of Edward Styles and 20 years later kindly old true crime grandpa Boris Karloff (“scribbling novelist”) is on a crusade to prove the one-armed man’s innocence for the half strangled and slashed to death murders of which he was accused. Is this Lugosi’s most explicitly violent role? I couldn’t believe my eyes during a couple moments when the knife starts swinging. A surprisingly film that looks like a 40s Karloff but has a darker edge than those firmly Code entrenched years.

  British director Robert Day and his Amalgamated Productions have the right idea in how to use…

• Review by Jesse Snoddon ★★★

  "I can't turn back now"

  While doing research on a killer, author James Rankin (Boris Karloff) becomes convinced the wrong person was hung for the murders 20 years ago. The deeper he digs, the more obsessed he becomeswith solving the case. The truth may be more dangerous than he thinks. Findingit may have life shattering consequences.

  It's a real shame Karloff is primarily remembered as just the scary monster guy. I haven't seen much of his work but between this and Targets (1968) it's pretty clear he was a lot more than that. Here he gets a kind of duel role, spending much of the film as a family man and social reformer. An all around good guy. And he's…

• Review by D Edward ★★★½

  Boris Karloff acts the shit out of this movie. At age 70 and suffering from injuries sustained earlier in life, he gives his most physical role of his later years and his bod still looks pretty good too when he is shirtless in one scene. There’s a lot to the performance, though the hilarious “when you nut but she keep sucking” face is the easiest to comment on. Goodness me, it’s silly, but Karloff is fucking committed to this role. It was written for him by a friend, and he gets to do just about everything. He’s classy, he’s cool, hes distraught, he’s absolutely unhinged and desperate. It may be one of his most accomplished and demanding roles outside of…

• Review by Jay D 's Watching ★★½

  Fairly unassuming period potboiler that wears its budget limitations and interest in catering to the audience on its sleeve (the camera really lingers on those lines of high-kicking dancing girls) but Robert Day's black and white camerawork is handsome and evocative, and if you're a Boris Karloff fan, the film's plot is basically a showcase for him to show off his range, which is never a bad thing. Not sure which of the two titles I prefer - the strangler here is definitely haunted, but there are a LOT of moments where the camera lingers on him either choking people out, or trying to, so I'd have to say it's a draw.

• Review by 💀EmperorCupcake🧁 ★★★½

  May Horror 2021, Day 11, challenge #22 - Criterion collection

  This was a different kind of film than I thought from the synopsis, but I was still here for it. All the stars for Karloff's face acting. He's the main draw here, no one else was really that interesting, but he was enough. This is short and pretty entertaining. I liked the little twist (?) when you're expecting it to be more of a possession/supernatural type deal, I was actually like, "oh!" Did dudes really used to take their dates to burlesque shows? I mean, I guess if the drinks were good 🤷‍♀️

• Review by Dr. Ethan Lyon ★★

  1st Robert Day

  Another one seen for my thesis, this is a dull affair, let down by inert direction. The premise, which involves Karloff chasing a serial killer from 20 years ago only to find that he's much closer to home than he thought, is interesting, and the concept of a repressed identity that changes your physical appearance would be good for my thesis. But in terms of horror cinema of the era, this is a real let-down. For reference, the brilliantly energetic Hammer production 'The Revenge of Frankenstein' was released the same year. Strangler lacks the visual flair of Fisher- the sets are bare, the compositions bland and the lack of colour really doesn't help the film.

  Karloff, disappointingly,…

• Review by teamgal ★★

  There's a jump scare in this that was obviously accomplished by someone throwing a chicken at Boris Karloff's head.

  A very game cast — particularly the 70-year-old Karloff — are pinned in on every side by an uninspired script. They might have rescued the film from its lax direction and poverty-row sets but the incessant talk is a buzz-kill.

• Review by mikey ★★★

  gripping on my strangler til my boris starts karloffing or whatever

• Review by Digital Press ★★★

  Black and white blood is the best blood.

  Boris Karloff may have been the most typecast actor of all time. Think about it. In every Boris Karloff movie he is basically the same guy (exception: as Frankenstein’s monster which may have been his greatest performance but is most certainly not the role he plays in all of the rest of his filmography). Intelligent, British, sweet old man when he’s nice, nefariously evil when he’s bad, and you are likely to see both sides in every performance. What’s incredible is that he successfully pulls this off for fifty years and embraces his character, stereotyped as it may have been.

  Grip of the Strangler is another of these typecast roles and Karloff…

• Review by victoryfish ★★ 1

  Way too much can-can. Please let's cannot instead, I'm begging you. 😭

• Review by jmohrlang ★★★½

  This seemed to borrow heavily from Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde but it’s a solid supernatural crime thriller starring the inimitable Karloff. He does a fine job playing an innocuous late 19th century novelist/social reformer/crime investigator, but really begins to ham it up with a deranged, possessed, partially-paralyzed criminal lunatic alter ego bit.

  The cinematography is dynamic, with close-ups on ghoulish expressions and unsettling angles with engaging foreground/background staging.

  The sound design was fun too, e.g., ghastly ambient screams coming from the interiors of the criminal asylum, intense strings in the score.

  The weakest aspect is believing so many women would get strangled by a half-paralyzed batshit weirdo.

  It was quite funny hearing the characters discuss a specific victim named “Martha Stuart,” and there is a bawdy dance hall called the “Judas Hole.” Not being British I also kept hearing “Newgate” as “Nougat” Prison.