Doctor Blood's Coffin (1961) Reviews

• Surprisingly interesting and well-done, considering.

  robert-blau2004-07-25

  Saw this one (again) on (Chicago's own) "Svengoolie" this weekend, and was amazed how interesting and well-done it was, considering the preposterously bizarre and grotesque underlying story. Also, how they make sympathetic, and almost get you to root for, the main character -- a guy who makes Dr. Mengele look like Hippocrates. Meanwhile, it's striking how appealing Hazel Court is. Definitely a woman with a quality, she's developed nicely since "Devil Girl from Mars" (1953). So, if you're up for a movie about a warped physician performing hellish experiments on (unwilling) human subjects, this is definitely the one to see. Mellow and affectionate.

• Doctor Blood's Coffin

  Scarecrow-882008-04-19

  Peter Blood(the dashing Kieron Moore, perfectly conveying the drive and determination of a scientist with paranoia and madness brewing inside)returns to his small village home of Grenville after extensive schooling in Vienna. What his father Dr. Robert Blood(Ian Hunter), the beloved, hardworking village physician, or nurse Linda Parker(the lovely Hazel Court), his possible love interest, neither know is just what Peter is capable of in pursuing his goal to make a living, beating heart revive a dead body. Peter takes it upon himself to choose the lowest of village folk to paralyze with a poison that removes their ability to move much or talk, enabling him to surgically remove their hearts while they remain alive, with horrified eyes revealing the only cries of help available to them. Peter has a secret "lab" in a small place within tunnels underneath the ruins of an abandoned mine. Opportunity arises for Peter to gain control of human subjects when his father must leave for nearby Plymouth, out of town, as he works in his place with access to tools, equipment, and space. But, it'll only be a matter of time before Peter will make that ultimate mistake which will reveal his evil ways. He wholeheartedly believes in what he's doing..scientists must be "ruthless and unafraid" of what the critical majority as a whole thinks, Peter feels that important people should live in place of the "inferior" beings who merely occupy space, when their beating hearts could thrive in those better suited to make the world a better place. This was actually a pleasant surprise. I thought the premise was grisly enough and the idea that Peter has trust from those in the village, creates much in the way of suspense. There's this masterstroke of a scene where this poor soul, given poison, makes his way, painstakingly, out of Peter's cavernous lair outside to an ocean embankment only to face the fact that the village is using as their physician, currently taking Robert's place, the very man who committed the sickening act to him. Hazel Court is the voice of reason, using Peter's attempts at being God against him to no avail when she suspects, and is right, that he's doing inhumane things. Kenneth J Warren is the village Sergeant Cook, who is investigating missing citizens and unusual deaths. An important scene comes in the middle portion of the film when Peter is first caught by the village's elderly coroner, attempting a surgical heart removal on a citizen in the morgue. Interrupted by coroner Morton(Gerald Lawson)while in the process of removing the heart, Peter kills him accidentally setting off a chain of events will lead to his downfall. The body he was working on dies, so he'll have to seek a second victim. Peter has to somehow hide Morton's body, take over as coroner doing autopsies which have the poison he put inside them, trying to evade curious eyes seeking answers to odd occurrences. You see, through Moore's performance, a man squirming to correct mistakes he himself made trying somehow to stay one step ahead. I'm a fan of "mad scientist" movies, and this does follow the Frankenstein model, but I liked the performances. The film is ultimately about life and death and how Peter wishes to prolong those important with the hearts of those who waste them on drink or lost dreams. I also felt director Sidney J Furie uses the ruins and tunnels effectively. I think this is so story-driven, that the low budget doesn't harm it. Only one real puzzling occurrence for me was the ending when Peter is actually successful only for the one revived from the dead(..a real nifty twist is who the corpse revived is and how they relate to Linda)to turn on him violently..I guess it follows Frankenstein in that regard as well because when one tries to play God he will reap what he sows.

• Ahead of it's time

  horrorbargainbin2002-07-30

  Dr. Blood's antics in the lab are pretty gruesome, not schlock like I expected. The dialogue is mature and not dumbed down for the kids. I found it completely entertaining, and not just as a curiosity. The Misfits should have wrote a song about this one.

• Lurid shocker

  rosscinema2003-01-01

  As you watch this film your thinking that this is just another psycho doctor movie where he's hell bent on proving his experiments are correct but then the film becomes a minor Frankenstein entry, complete with a resurrected corpse. Good location shooting in a small Welsh village add flavor to this story and good color in the type of film. You would also think that this is a film from Hammer studios, but it is not. Hazel Court is good as the nurse but veteran actor Kieron Moore who has worked in other science fiction films is pretty good also. This is one of the few times he's played the villain and not the hero that saves the day. This does have its share of blood and the overall mood of the film is effective in a grisly way. Future director Nicolas Roeg is one of the cameramen on the film. Horror film fans should check this eerie little film out.

• Do you know that I had analyzed the protein value of an acorn by the time I was six!

  sol12182005-06-16

  (Some Spoilers) Thrown out of the prestigious Vienna Medical Academy for his illegal experiments Dr. Peter Blood, Kieron Moore,is now back home in the lovely and scenic coastal town of Port Carron England to continue his work undercover and underground. Using his fathers position as the town doctor Robert Blood, Ian Hunter Peter builds a laboratory in the deserted coal mines outside the town to do his business undisturbed. While vacationing in the South American jungles Peter discovered the drug Curare from the local native tribesmen and has been using it in his experiments in his theory of eternal life. A brilliant but arrogant student Peter felt that he's smarter then all the professors and teachers in the academy put together. Which lead to him being run out of town, Vienna, on a rail. Still not learning his lesson Peter is back on the road to destruction with him kidnapping people in and around town and after knocking them out working them over, in his secret lab,by taking organs out of one and putting them in another to keep the one receiving the organ going until he needs a new transplant. Looking and acting normal on the outside the tall dark and handsome Peter attracts, his fathers Dr. Robert Blood's assistant, pretty nurse and recent widow Lnda Parker, Hazel Court,who at first falls in love with him. Peter putting on an act that he's in love with Linda takes her to his secret lab in the coal mines to, what seems to me, knock her out put her under the paralyzing drug Curare. Peter then use her in his experiments of involuntary organ donations. Lucky for Linda Peter's mad scheme is interrupted by the local town hobo Tregaye, Fred Johnson, who unknowingly to himself, and Linda, saved her life by popping up just at the right time. Actually the brilliant Peter didn't come across that smart at all in the movie with all his experiments falling flat on their faces. All of Peter's victims from mine inspector George Beale, Andy Alston, to the local town undertaker old man Morton, Gerald Lawson, to the before-mentioned hobo Tregaye didn't produce the results that he hoped for. In the end Peter ended up being the victim of one of his experiments that went very wrong for him but just right for the town and people of Port Carron. That experiment finally put and end to his insane actions once in for all.