The Devil Commands

(1941)

65 minutes

Horror

Directed by Edward Dmytryk

Cast:

Boris Karloff as Dr. Julian Blair
Richard Fiske as Dr. Richard Sayles
Amanda Duff as Anne Blair
Anne Revere as Mrs. Walters
Ralph Penney as Karl
Dorothy Adams as Mrs. Marcy
Walter Baldwin as Seth Marcy
Kenneth MacDonald as Sheriff Ed Willis
Shirley Warde as Helen Blair

The Devil Commands trailer

Dr. Julian Blair’s wife is killed in a car accident while occupied with an eccentric study on human brain waves. Depressed by her death, he changes his work to find if there is any way to make contact with the dead. Everyone in his life advises him to not waste his energy on something so extreme, but he ignores them all. To keep his work private, he moves to a secluded New England estate where he is supported by an infatuated fake psychic who seems to endeavor evil to the doctor. After the prying housekeeper is found dead, the authorities arrive at the estate to find answers.