''The Haunted Strangler'' (also known as ''Grip of the Strangler'' and originally titled ''The Judas Hole'') is a 1958 British horror film directed by Robert Day. It was adapted from "Stranglehold", a story which screenwriter Jan Read had written specially for

Boris Karloff William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film '' Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established ...

, and was shot back to back with producer Richard Gordon's '' Fiend Without a Face'', with both later being released as a double feature by

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

.Stephen Jacobs, ''Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster'', Tomahawk Press 2011, p. 410-412

Plot

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

-London, Edward Styles is accused of being the notorious Haymarket Strangler, the brutal killer of five women. He is tried and executed for these crimes. As he is being buried, an unknown person slips a knife into his coffin. Twenty years later, James Rankin (Boris Karloff), a novelist and social reformer, launches an investigation to prove that Styles was innocent. His search for clues leads him to the sleazy Judas Hole music hall, where the Strangler picked his victims from the can-can dancers and loose women. Rankin comes to believe that the real murderer was a doctor named Tennant, who was institutionalized after Styles was executed, then disappeared with a nurse from the hospital. He sets out to find Tennant. Rankin goes to Newgate Prison cemetery, where Styles was buried and disinters his body. He finds the knife in the coffin and holding it causes a physical transformation: his face is distorted and his left arm is paralyzed. He is now a crazed murderer, and he returns to the Judas Hole where he kills a dancer. Alternating between himself and the killer, Rankin kills others, finally coming to realize that he is, in fact, Tennant, the person he's been looking for. His wife confirms this, telling him that she spirited him away from the hospital twenty years earlier because she had fallen in love with him. Again taking up the knife, he kills her and escapes his house. When he returns, as Rankin, he confesses that he is the killer, but no one believes him. Thinking he has gone insane, the authorities commit him to an asylum. There he again assumes the persona of the killer and escapes. He returns to his house and attempts to kill his daughter, but stops himself and becomes Rankin again. Confronted by the police, he leaps out a window and goes back to Newgate cemetery to put the knife back into Styles' grave. The police find him there and kill him.

Cast

as James Rankin *

Jean Kent Jean Kent (born Joan Mildred Field; 29 June 1921 − 30 November 2013) was an English film and television actress. Biography Born Joan Mildred Field (sometimes incorrectly cited as Summerfield) in Brixton, London in 1921, the only child of va ...

as Cora Seth * Elizabeth Allan as Barbara Rankin * Anthony Dawson as Superintendent Burk *

Vera Day Vera Day (born 4 August 1935) is an English film and television actress. She was born in London just before the war and grew up in Forest Gate, East London. Early career Leaving school at 15, she had various jobs before finding employment in ...

as Pearl *

Tim Turner Tim Turner (7 September 1924 – 1987) was an English actor who performed during the 1950s and 1960s. Life and career He was born John Freeman Turner in Bexley, Kent. Before becoming a film and television actor, Turner was a popular leading ...

as Dr. Kenneth McColl * Diane Aubrey as Lily Rankin * Max Brimmell as Newgate Prison Turnkey *

Leslie Perrins Leslie Perrins (7 October 1901 – 13 December 1962) was an English actor who often played villains. After training at RADA, he was on stage from 1922, and in his long career, appeared in well over 60 films. Hobbies Perrins and wife Violet w ...

as Newgate Prison Governor * Jessica Cairns as Asylum Maid * Dorothy Gordon as Hannah *

Desmond Roberts Desmond Roberts (5 February 1894 – 11 January 1968) was a British stage and film actorLeibfried & Lane p. 105. who also played first-class cricket, 1913–1936, for Surrey. He was born in Hampstead, and died in Eastbourne. Partial filmograph ...

as Dr. Johnson * Michael Atkinson as Edward Style *

Peggy Anne Clifford Peggy Ann Clifford (23 March 1921 in Poole, Dorset – 26 May 1986, in Kensington), was an English film, stage, and television character actress. She was born Peggy Anne Hamley Champion. Her mother's maiden name was Clifford. She appeared in two ...

as Kate

Production

The film was originally going to be called ''Stranglehold'' and was written by Jan Read, a friend of Boris Karloff's. He gave the script to producer Richard Gordon, who was looking to make a horror movie in the U.K. Gordon set up Amalgamated Productions with Charles Vetters and had started providing U.S. funding and talent for eight pictures shot in Britain. Amalgamated went into partnership with British producer

John Croydon John Croydon (3 November 1907 – February 1994) was a British film producer and production manager. He was employed at Ealing Studios for a number of years during the Michael Balcon era. He then moved to Highbury Studios in the late 1940s to h ...

and negotiated a deal with distributor Eros Films who agreed to guarantee 70% of the film's budget after delivery of the final product. The remaining 30% of the budget was provided by the

National Film Finance Corporation The National Film Finance Corporation (NFFC) was a film funding agency in the United Kingdom in operation from 1949 until 1985. The NFFC was established by the Cinematograph Film Production (Special Loans) Act 1949, and further enhanced by the ...

.John Hamilton, ''The British Independent Horror Film 1951–70'', Hemlock Books 2013, p. 29-34 The agreement with Eros was conditional on Amalgamated providing a second film, so Gordon arranged to make '' Fiend Without a Face'' back to back with a different cast and director. MGM picked up both films for release. Gordon later estimated the cost of the two movies together was approximately £80,000 exclusive of the costs of imported American stars. Read's script was rewritten by John Croydon, who brought in the idea of making the killer a

Jack the Ripper Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in the autumn of 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer w ...

-style murderer and having the transformation be physical (in the original draft, Rankin was only possessed by the killer's spirit). The film was shot in

Walton Studios Walton Studios, previously named Hepworth Studios and Nettlefold Studios, was a film production studio in Walton-on-Thames in Surrey, England. Karloff was paid $27,500 for four weeks, with an option to make a second film for Amalgamated.Tom Weaver, ''The Horror Hits of Richard Gordon'', Bear Manor Media 2011, p. 26-40 Executive producer Richard Gordon and interviewer Tom Weaver talk about the making of ''The Haunted Strangler'' on the audio commentary of the Criterion DVD, available as part of the 2007 box set ''Monsters and Madmen''.

Reception

According to MGM records, this film and '' Fiend Without a Face'' together earned $350,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $300,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit to the studio of $160,000.

References

External links

* * * *
''In Praise of Karloff the Uncanny''
an essay by

Maitland McDonagh Maitland McDonagh () is an American film critic and the author of several books about cinema. She is the author of ''Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento'' (1991) and works of erotic fiction and erotic cinema, as well ...