Dr. Julian Blair (Boris Karloff) is experimenting with brain waves, and determines to continue his work especially after his wife (Shirley Warde) dies. His daughter Anne (Amanda Duff) and his young associate Dr. Sayles (Richard Fiske) try to make him see reason. Meanwhile, Julian hooks up with a (mostly) phony medium (Anne Revere) and a hulking brute (Cy Schindell), and moves to a new town so as not to get in trouble with the law.
"The Devil Commands" has its entertaining, unusual touches, such as the sight of various corpses propped around a table, clad in what can only be described as space suits, in mockery of a traditional seance. But it's basically a routine B movie in the end, albeit capably directed by Edward Dmytryk, who was still years away from mainstream success with films such as "The Caine Mutiny".
"The Devil Commands", taken from a story by William Sloane, has a very tight running time of 65 minutes, and tells its tale in a concise enough manner. It does have an adequate amount of atmosphere for any sci-fi / horror tale from the era, with some effective looking equipment. But Karloff remains the primary reason to watch, as he did with so many of the B pictures that he headlined. He's just so wonderfully sincere and plaintive, that your heart does go out to him ever so slightly, no matter if he is as mad as mad scientists get. The supporting cast is fine in general, especially Ms. Revere. Dorothy Adams has appeal as a housekeeper in the doctors' employ, and Kenneth MacDonald is solid as a sheriff trying to keep a mob from enacting some vigilante justice that, for all he knows, might possibly be unjustified.
A decent viewing that won't take up a lot of your time.
Six out of 10.
"The Devil Commands" has its entertaining, unusual touches, such as the sight of various corpses propped around a table, clad in what can only be described as space suits, in mockery of a traditional seance. But it's basically a routine B movie in the end, albeit capably directed by Edward Dmytryk, who was still years away from mainstream success with films such as "The Caine Mutiny".
"The Devil Commands", taken from a story by William Sloane, has a very tight running time of 65 minutes, and tells its tale in a concise enough manner. It does have an adequate amount of atmosphere for any sci-fi / horror tale from the era, with some effective looking equipment. But Karloff remains the primary reason to watch, as he did with so many of the B pictures that he headlined. He's just so wonderfully sincere and plaintive, that your heart does go out to him ever so slightly, no matter if he is as mad as mad scientists get. The supporting cast is fine in general, especially Ms. Revere. Dorothy Adams has appeal as a housekeeper in the doctors' employ, and Kenneth MacDonald is solid as a sheriff trying to keep a mob from enacting some vigilante justice that, for all he knows, might possibly be unjustified.
A decent viewing that won't take up a lot of your time.
Six out of 10.