A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

"Just because a man has an M.D. after his name... can he do as he pleases with human lives?" That quote from the film is exactly what you will ponder while viewing it.Boris plays Dr. Leon Kravaal a doctor who has created "frozen therapy"... basically a slightly primitive version of what we call cryogenics today. Dr. Kravaal is awakened after being frozen for 10 years to find that he is accused of murder while conducting his experiment for a cancer cure. Did he murder someone? Did he find a cure for cancer? Is Dr. Kravall mad? You will simply have to watch the film to find out... I will not give it away.This is a wonderful sci-fi film that I am calling "The Man With Nine Stars"... really the film is that good!! 9/10

From the vantage point of today (6/21/2014) as I write this, it seems incredible that a film made in 1940 treated the subject of cryogenics as if it were as common as, well, the common cold. The opening scroll mentioned that medical science agreed that disease can be arrested and life can be prolonged by freezing human beings. I'm aware that the concept is still being researched with significant results, as in lowering body temperature to treat victims of drowning, but you'd think a whole lot more progress might have been made by now.Well I'm surprised it took me so long to run across this little Karloff gem. It turned up this morning of all places on Antenna TV, generally better known for it's airing of old TV programs from the Sixties. Actually it was in the Sixties when my dad gave me the run down on actors like Karloff, Chaney and Lugosi and I've been a fan ever since. The film includes elements of horror and sci-fi with a little bit of murder mystery to boot, featuring Karloff once again as a mad, but seemingly normal scientist working for the betterment of humanity. It's only when his work is threatened that he resorts to killing an antagonist. Actually, the scene where he shoots Bob Adams (Stanley Brown), in the back no less for destroying his formula, seemed to me to be a bit over the top. Granted, I'd be PO'd too, but gee, I don't think I'd kill anybody over it.Probably the best part of this flick was the set design of Dr. Leon Kravaal's (Karloff) impressive lab, one of the better ones this side of Frankenstein. And not just one, he had multiple labs in different parts of his house. Which made me wonder, how long would it have taken the good doctor to set up his working lab through a secret tunnel and another hundred feet under ground? That's some kind of dedication.There were other things I had to think about as well as the story got under way. Why would Dr. Mason (Roger Pryor) and his nurse/fiancée Judy Blair (Jo Ann Sayers) embark on their mission to find Dr. Kravaal's missing research wearing business suits. That seemed just a little too formal for me, particularly when they started crawling around through Kravaal's tunnels and labs. Not that this was unusual for films of the era, but I don't understand what would motivate anyone to be attired that way.But you know what really blew me away? When the doc and his assistant rented the boat from old Pete Daggett (Ernie Adams), do you know what the fee was - twenty five cents per hour plus a dollar deposit!!! Holy smokes, and I thought the whole concept of freezing human bodies was scary!

Or so the film should have been called to be totally accurate! This is a decent Karloff B film, one of five he made for Columbia which collectively became known to the trade as "The Mad Doctor" series, as they have similar plots.In this one Karloff plays Dr. Leon Kraval, thawed out after 10 years to prove his theory that cryogenics can cure cancer. It's an interesting idea, one the film treats seriously, and the big K delivers a good performance. His forcing his experiments on human guinea pigs is quite harrowing, and as in many of these movies seems to have an unwitting prophecy of Nazi-type concentration camp experiments. A fear in the collective unconscious, perhaps? Anyway his victims are all unsympathetic types. They are THE ONES WHO REFUSED TO LISTEN.The film benefits, for once, from some good support acting. It is, at 73 minutes, rather too long for it's subject and the second half looks drab (it all takes place in an underground laboratory) and overstretched. But this is not a bad B as these things go, and Boris certainly has a field day.

Dr. Leon Kraval (Boris Karloff) has developed a radical means of treating cancer using a freezing therapy. But before he can prove the success of his procedure he is accused of murder. An accident in his lab locks him, his accuser, the judge, the coroner, and the sheriff in his hidden freezing chamber. All are declared missing and presumed dead. Ten years later another doctor is onto the same research and decides to visit the now derelict home of Dr. Kraval in search of his secrets. What he doesn't expect to find is Dr. Kraval, frozen but alive, and ready to continue his experiments on his human guinea pigs.Anytime a new Boris Karloff movie that I haven't seen is set to release on DVD, there's reason for me to rejoice. It's rare that the man and his work have ever let me down. To say that I was under whelmed by The Man with Nine Lives would be an understatement. There's just not much here to get excited about. I wasn't expecting the second coming of Karloff's Frankenstein monster, but I had hoped for a lively, engrossing story. To put it kindly, much of the the movie is dull. A portion of the enjoyment I was able to derive from the movie came from my almost fanboy like appreciation of Karloff and his work. The man simply amazes me every time I see him on screen. Which makes it amazing to me that my favorite part of the movie was the exploration of the Kraval's house that actually takes place before Karloff makes his appearance.It wouldn't be fair to discuss The Man with Nine Lives without mentioning the set design. It's the real highlight of the movie. I've already mentioned the house. In old, dark house fashion, it's riddled with secret passages and mysterious locked doors. But the best part of the set design had to be the freezing rooms that were supposedly carved out of a glacier. To my untrained eye, I found them very believable and authentic looking. Very nice.