The Devil Commands

"The Devil Commands" is a 1941 American horror film directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Boris Karloff as Dr. Julian Blair, a scientist obsessed with communicating with the dead after his wife's tragic death in an auto accident. His research assistant, Dr. Richard Sayles (Richard Fiske), warns him of the dangers of his work, but Dr. Blair is not deterred. When their experiments are discovered by a curious housekeeper, her subsequent death brings the local sheriff to investigate the strange occurrences at the isolated New England mansion where Dr. Blair conducts his research.