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Grip of the Strangler (1958)

Director: Robert Day

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From Time Out Film Guide

A Jekyll and Hyde tale set in London in the 1880s, with an immaculate performance from Karloff as a distinguished novelist and social reformer who investigates the case of 'The Haymarket Strangler' - suspecting that a sailor found guilty and executed was in fact innocent - and finds the trail leading in alarmingly compromising directions. Opening grimly with a public hanging (with callous crowd hungry for a spot of entertainment eagerly in attendance), and making evocative use of 'The Judas Hole' (a sleazy music hall whose scantily-clad girls become the target for murder), the whole film is powerfully underpinned by the repressive nature of Victorian society. Uncommonly gripping, wonderfully atmospheric, it has a real touch of the Val Lewtons.

Author: TM 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide


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