Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

THE DEVIL COMMANDS boasts one of Karloff's best performances ever: he's extremely sympathetic as a doctor driven by Love to reestablish contact with his dead wife. The use of a graph to visualize the brainwaves (so as to differentiate between the brainwaves of various subjects) was a bit of a Master Stroke, if you ask me: it's simple in the extreme and makes clear exactly what's happening when "contact" is made. It's interesting (story-wise AND character-wise) that Karloff's LOVE for his dead wife is used against him- by the duplicitous "Medium"-, which results in his deviation from The Right Path to a career in crime. Not a lot of Fright Films can make such a boast- and not very many actors could pull it off the way Karloff does here. One genuinely feels for his character.

Boris Karloff plays a scientist trying to communicate with his dead wife via her brain waves, which he believes live on after the body dies. Despite the warnings of his colleagues and concerns of his daughter, he pushes ahead with his experiments no matter the consequences. Karloff made quite a few mad scientist movies during the late '30s and early '40s. This is one of the best and most unique. The first time I saw it, as a teenager just getting into classic horror and sci-fi films, I was disappointed with the misleading title. There's no devil anywhere in this; not even a hint of one or a Satanic cult or anything. But I appreciate it more now. I love the pseudo-science of these old movies, not to mention all the nifty gadgets and equipment the scientists' laboratories were always stocked with. This one's rich with that stuff.Karloff is excellent. He gives a sympathetic performance, like he almost always did. Even while the movie is telling you he's wrong you can't help but hope he succeeds. It helps that none of the 'right' people in the movie are all that likable. The daughter's narration is unnecessary and a little annoying but I've seen this movie so often I've grown used to it. Anne Revere is very good as a phony medium Karloff enlists to help with his experiments who quickly starts calling the shots. It's a fun 'B' sci-fi/horror film with good atmosphere, nicely directed by Edward Dmytryk. Exciting electro-séance scenes are highlights. Karloff fans should love it.

I got to review this fine motion picture off 'Creepy Classics' and it was enjoyable. "When the DEVIL commands....Karloff obeys!" is the catch phrase to this film. 1940 film is a semi-forgotten great from Columbia Pictures. A riveting mad doctor movie with Boris trying to communicate and bring back the should of his beloved dead wife. He finds a way to do that with mystical women medium and several corpses. He thinks he can talk to his dead wife. When a vortex to the other side is established. He hears his wife and reads her brain waves to confirm the connection while his daughter looks on in terror. He puts the dead corpses seance members in electronic robot suits and it becomes a electronic-age seance not to be missed.

Devil Commands, The (1941) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Boris Karloff plays a scientist working with brain pulses. Once his wife dies he learns that even after death her brain still has these pulses so he tries to contact her. Decent, if not overwhelming, horror thriller features a good performance from Karloff but that's about it. The supporting cast is rather dull and the middle of the film really drags down, which isn't good when you consider the film is only 65-minutes. Worth watching if you're a fan of Karloff but not worthy of $20.