Devil Commands, The
Entry updated 30 October 2023. Tagged: Film.
US film (1941). Columbia Pictures. Based on William Sloane's The Edge of Running Water (1939). Directed by Edward Dmytryk. Written by Robert Andrews and Milton Gunzburg. Cast includes Dorothy Adams, Amanda Duff, Boris Karloff, Kenneth MacDonald, Ralph Penney, Anne Revere and Shirley Warde. 65 minutes. Black and white.
The narrator, Anne Blair (Duff), does not know where her father Dr Julian Blair (Karloff) is now, but "for one brief, terrible moment he tore open the door to whatever lives beyond the grave". Seven years previously, as the head of Midland University's Science Department, he had demonstrated his new Invention – a metal helmet with wires attached – to a group of Scientists, arguing it proved "the human brain gives off an impulse that can be recorded", the end result being a jagged line on graph paper, unique to each individual. He asserts that one day "we may be able to record and read the thoughts of every human brain without a word being spoken" (see Communications; Psionics) and perhaps even unlock the secrets of the mind. Later that night his beloved wife, Helen (Warde), a guinea pig for testing the equipment, dies in a car accident.
Sometime after, forlorn in his laboratory, he idly turns the metal helmet on: it begins to record thought waves – and to Dr Blair's astonishment they are identical to his wife's. He tells his colleagues this is proof of life after death (see Eschatology): communication between the living and the dead might be possible, so removing the fear of death from humanity. They are politely doubtful but suggest that, even if such a link could be made, we do not know what evil might lurk behind the veil; another insists "there are things human beings have no right to know". Angered by their pity and scepticism he dismisses them – Anne too, who has pleaded with him to rest. His driver Karl (Penney) offers to introduce him to Mrs Walters (Revere), a medium; after voicing reluctance, he agrees to attend a séance. Dr Blair is not fooled and exposes Mrs Walters's trickery, but when he mentions an electric current felt during the séance, she insists no electricity is used in her performance. Wondering if this is significant, he asks if he may perform tests at the laboratory; when payment is offered she agrees. These tests seem to suggest she has the potential to channel communications from the dead, but Karl is brain-damaged during one such experiment; Mrs Walters persuades the doctor not to get help, but instead to set up his laboratory elsewhere, away from the scrutiny of the university or the law.
Two years later, in a cliffside house on the New England coast, the obsessed Dr Blair continues with his work; Mrs Walters prevents interruptions and Karl shuffles about the house. The county sheriff (MacDonald) visits, enquiring about the five corpses that have disappeared over the last two years, but they brush him off. Citing the need to allay the fears of the hostile locals, the sheriff persuades the housekeeper, Mrs Marcy (Adams), to investigate the laboratory. One night she does so, to find five corpses encased in diving suit-like attire, seated in a circle and surrounded by equipment: in her shock she knocks some switches – an upside-down triangle of light forms above the circle, a great wind builds and the corpses lean forward. The doctor rushes in to find her dead; at Mrs Walters suggestion they fake her having fallen from the nearby cliffs.
Matters come to a head. Dr Blair has been wiring Mrs Walters up to the ring of corpses: believing himself close to success, one experiment is taken too far and she dies – but not before he seemingly hears Helen's voice. Anne has arrived to ask why her letters have not been answered: the doctor did not received them and realizes Mrs Walters had been intercepting them. Another realization is that messages from his wife only occur when Anne is nearby. He manages to pressure her to take part in an experiment. Meanwhile, a lynch mob led by Mrs Marcy's husband approaches – the sheriffs attempt to stop them fails and they enter the house, but retreat when it begins to collapse from the forces unleashed by Dr Blair. He has vanished, but Helen is rescued from the laboratory's ruins; she tells us, "When he seemed to be so close to what he sought something reached out for him. A warning that human beings must not try to reach out beyond death? I don't know. Yet perhaps the time will come when the door to infinity will open, perhaps, perhaps."
With his obsession with contacting his wife and the manipulation of Mrs Walters, Dr Blair eventually wanders into Mad Scientist territory; but although he performs reprehensible acts, he retains the audience's sympathy. Aside from a strong performance by Karloff, there is also good work from Revere as the manipulative Mrs Walters. The strangely suited corpses and the laboratory equipment help provide an appropriately disturbing atmosphere for the final scenes, whilst Anne's final words aren't the familiar "science should not meddle here" message, but instead almost convey a sombre Sense of Wonder. Though the science is often incoherent and there are lapses into Cliché, The Devil Commands – whose title seems irrelevant – is a notable example of Horror in SF. [SP]
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