The Haunted Strangler aka Grip of the Strangler (1957)

‘Their wild beauty marked them for death by…’

The Haunted Strangler – aka Grip of the Strangler – is a 1957 – released 1958 – British-American horror film directed by Robert Day (The Initiation of Sarah; First Man into Space; Corridors of Blood).

The film was adapted from “Stranglehold”, a story that screenwriter Jan Read had written specially for Boris Karloff, and was shot back-to-back with producer Richard Gordon’s Fiend Without a Face. In the US, both films were released as a double-bill by MGM.

Read’s script was rewritten by John Croydon who brought in the idea of making the killer a Jack the Ripper-style murderer and having the transformation be physical (in the original draft Rankin was only possessed by the killer’s spirit).

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According to John Hamilton, writing in X-Cert: The British Independent Horror Film: 1951 – 1970, “Croydon also wrote in many of the elements considered by filmmakers to be essential features with a Victorian backdrop: floggings, graveyards and chirrupy chorus girls cavorting in French knickers.”

Twenty years after Edward Styles – labelled the “Haymarket Strangler” – was tried and executed for killing five women, James Rankin (Boris Karloff), a novelist and social reformer, launches an investigation to prove that Styles is innocent.

His search for clues leads him first to the sleazy Judas Hole music hall, where the Strangler picked his victims from the resident can-can dancers and loose women, and then to the prison cemetery at Newgate where Styles was buried – in order to exhume his body.

When the killings resume again, Rankin’s theory seems to be vindicated. However, his growing obsession with the case signals a most unwelcome revelation as to the true identity of the murderer…

Reviews:

“Not surprisingly, Karloff is the best thing about this late ’50s thriller; here, the horror legend injects a real watchability into the oft-used premise of a mild-mannered gentleman transformed into a hideous creature of impulse.” The Terror Trap

“The performance that Karloff gives, where he seems to twist one side of his face up into an exaggerated snarl and put his arm into a claw, cannot help but seem absurd.” Richard Scheib, Moria

“It’s bloodier and has a nastier edge than you would expect from a Karloff vehicle, but it has some unexpected and quite interesting story twists. Unfortunately, this is one of the very few Karloff performances I don’t like; he seems to me to be somewhat over the top, almost hysterical…” Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings

“Though The Haunted Strangler makes pretenses of being about greater social issues, it’s the luridness of the plot and the setting that dominates […] Multiple scenes of cancan girls and a champagne spilled down Vera Day’s cleavage also add to the idea that The Haunted Strangler wasn’t really a high-falutin’ social drama. Screams and titillation are the order of the day!” Jamie S. Rich, Criterion Confessions

“A dual personality that without the knife is incomplete.” Exactly. Grip of the Strangler is bizarre, quite likeable, a bit slow, and strange. I’d recommend it, but as a bizarre oddity.” British Horror Films

“The movie could have benefited from some type of exploration of the mental problems Rankin was suffering from and his own attempts to reconcile what he was and what he was becoming again with the rather prosaic life he was currently leading. Instead, they wanted to get “Boris Karloff the Horror Icon” out there and have him running around like Mr. Hyde hacking up strippers and dumb wives.” MonsterHunter