The Haunted Strangler

The Haunted Strangler is a 1958 film about a researcher investigating a notorious serial killer hanged twenty years earlier who seemingly becomes possessed by the long dead strangler.
 * Directed by Robert Day. Written by John Croydon and Jan Read, based on Read's short story "Stranglehold."

Their wild beauty marked them for death by. . . The Haunted Strangler (taglines)

James Rankin

 * You mean he killed while in some sort of trance?


 * I'm sorry, Barbara, but a man must do the work in which he believes!

Dialogue

 * Supt. Burk: I don't know why you social reformers always want to play detective to prove your theories.
 * James Rankin: Because you detectives always leave such gaps in your investigations.


 * Supt. Burk: I've been back over the records, and given you at least a dozen cases -- why on Earth choose this one?
 * James Rankin: It's the one clear case that'll prove my point! If Styles had had the money to buy an adequate defense, he never would have hanged.


 * Barbara Rankin: How much longer are are these investigations going on?
 * James Rankin: Oh, I'm afraid the end isn't quite in sight, Barbara.
 * Barbara Rankin: But it's all past. That man was dead and buried 20 years ago. Let him rest.
 * James Rankin: I know I can't bring Styles back from the dead, but one could force a change in the legal system so that a poor man would have a lawyer to defend him. Styles was a typical case, and there'll be plenty of others...

Taglines

 * Their wild beauty marked them for death by . . . The Haunted Strangler
 * Karloff-KING OF MONSTERS-In His New Picture of 1,000 Horrors!
 * KING OF THE MONSTERS! KARLOFF IN HIS NEW HORROR HIT!

Cast

 * Boris Karloff — James Rankin
 * Jean Kent — Cora Seth
 * Elizabeth Allan — Barbara Rankin
 * Anthony Dawson — Superintendent Burk
 * Vera Day — Pearl
 * Tim Turner — Dr. Kenneth McColl
 * Diane Aubrey — Lily Rankin
 * Max Brimmell — Newgate Prison Turnkey
 * Leslie Perrins — Newgate Prison Governor
 * Jessica Cairns — Asylum Maid
 * Dorothy Gordon — Hannah
 * Desmond Roberts — Dr. Johnson
 * Michael Atkinson — Edward Style
 * Peggy Anne Clifford — Kate