THE HAUNTED STRANGLER - Buxton Orr - Jean Kent - "Enjoy The View" (1958)

Not to toot my own horn, but Beep, Beep!! Has this not been a great month of titles or what? I learn things daily around here, and sometimes I have to admit it's truly amazing, and speaking of amazing, tonight we've got another delight from the crown prince of the double entendre, probably one of the nicest guys who ever inhabited this planet, and also a master of the macabre, Boris Karloff, in the 1958 feature "The Haunted Strangler"!!!

Originally released as "Grip of the Strangler," it all starts with a murderer's execution!

The lovely Yvonne Buckingham is the uncredited whore in attendance, and what a dance it would be to attend to!! Yvonne was one of the many class acts who appeared in the early 60's "Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre" TV show that I forget to mention half the time! Cue the wolf whistle!!

With an exuberant crowd like this, it really makes a guy kind of nostalgic for a good old fashioned public execution!! Yeehaw!!!

Oh, Shit!! What if he wasn't guilty of the crime!!!

I defy you to tell me this isn't in tribute to "La Mort de Marat," the classic 1793 painting by Jacques-Louis David!!

Cut to 20 years later, and our hero Boris at the age of 71, still looking great, and all prepared for what would be his first shot at the role of what is basically the "Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde" storyline! Boris is an author who thinks the hanged man was possibly innocent, and is bent on proving it!

So freakin' Boris goes and digs up the guy's grave, and finds this knife, and............

.....the next damn thing you know, well, I guess he wasn't so innocent after all, because his spirit has overtaken the kindly Boris and turned him into a hideous and ruthless killing machine!!

Meanwhile back at Boris's favorite hangout, "The Judas Hole," there's a party going on, and the wine is flowing like water!!

Hey, what kind of movie is this, anyway? How many degrees? Vera Day as Pearl gets doused with wine by this drunken fool, months earlier she was Sally Norton in "The Womaneater!"

Now that's what I call entertainment!!!

Meanwhile backstage, all the girls are talking about the killer on the loose!!

All right, now it's time for the headliner, Jean Kent as the marvelous Cora Seth to come out and do her song and dance schtick! "Cora, Cora, all the boys adore A," Man, that thing will get embedded in your mind as bad as "Hey Mickey!" The musical credits go out to Buxton Orr who we've raved about before for his work on "Corridors Of Blood," First Man Into Space," Dr. Blood's Coffins" and "Fiend Without A Face" but Jean Kent gets the award for her Coraformance!

For a minute there, I almost forgot this was a horror movie, Boris's personality swings are just getting worse, and he literally crashes the party, and the show at "The Hole!"

They were trying to figure out how to do Boris's makeup cheaply when he himself came up with the idea of simply removing his dentures! What a sport!!

Going from having a pretty good time to no fun at all, Boris takes the most extreme turn for the worst and even kills his own loving wife!!

Pretty bawdy and wild for 1958, and further proof positive that Boris Karloff, despite any present day claptrap, will always be known as one of the best actors of any era, period!! Great movie!!