Corridors of Blood

Starring:Boris Karloff, Betta St. John, Finlay Currie, Francis Matthews, Adrienne Corri, Francis De Wolff, Basil Dignam, Frank Pettingell, Carl Bernard, Marian Spencer, Nigel Green, John Gabriel (III), Howard Lang (II), Yvonne Romain, Charmain Eyre, Roddy Hughes, Julian D'Albie, Anthea Holloway, Bernard Archard, Frank Sieman
Director: Robert Day
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
"Pain and the knife are inseparable!" That's what incredulous colleagues keep telling Dr. Bolton (Boris Karloff), a respected surgeon who is determined to develop a successful anesthetic to bring pain-free surgery to 1840s England, when brutal amputation is a bloody and commonplace procedure. Bolton keeps testing his latest "inhalations" on himself, and his son's warnings against addiction remain unheeded. Before long, the tenacious doctor is hooked on his own elixir, barred from further practice and the drugs needed for research, and so desperate to prove the validity of his work that he agrees to a Faustian bargain: In exchange for the necessary chemicals, he signs bogus death certificates for local body-snatchers Black Ben (Francis De Wolff) and Resurrection Joe (Christopher Lee), who earn cash by supplying medical schools with fresh cadavers.

Robert Day (who also directed Karloff in The Haunted Strangler) handles this morbid plot with professional restraint, adding some routine hallucinatory interludes when Karloff's delirium results in a barrage of fevered visions. Otherwise this is a well-crafted but rather bland affair, noteworthy for its early display of blood (which is utterly tasteful by later standards) and also for giving Karloff one of his juicier roles, which the veteran horror icon tackles with admirable vigor and appropriate obsessiveness. On the strength of his early films for Hammer Studios, Christopher Lee was given prominent billing when this film (shot in 1958) was finally released in 1962, and while his eerie presence is keenly felt, his role is a relatively minor one. Still, this makes Corridors of Blood something of a milestone in the genre, signaling the passage of Karloff's era and the beginning of Lee's. --Jeff Shannon
Description
Boris Karloff is a surgeon in search of a viable anesthetic, in the days when patients were strapped down with leather bands while fully conscious. The doctor soon becomes addicted to his newly-discovered gas. In his desperation to get the drug, Karloff must make a diabolical bargain with body snatchers to feed his growing habit. "A natural for horror addicts, if they can stand all that blood!"--Daily Cinema.

Monsters And Madmen (The Haunted Strangler / Corridors of Blood / The Atomic Submarine / First Man into Space) - Criterion Collection
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Monsters And Madmen (The Haunted Strangler / Corridors of Blood / The Atomic Submarine / First Man into Space) - Criterion Collection
Starring: Monsters & Madmen
Manufacturer: Criterion
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ASIN: B000K0YM18
Release Date: 2007-01-23

Amazon.com

For sheer entertainment value, Monsters and Madmen is a more-than-welcome addition to the prestigious Criterion Collection. Proving that well-made exploitation films deserve as much scholarly appreciation as classics of world cinema, this four-disc set lives up to its name with four enjoyable features (two horror, two science fiction, all above average) that showcase the consistent quality achieved by British producers Richard and Alex Gordon. Taking their cue from American International Pictures (AIP, which Alex co-founded in the mid-1950s) and Roger Corman's low-budget approach to profitable production, the Gordons were passionate film buffs who moved into filmmaking when Boris Karloff brought them a story property called "Stranglehold," which was eventually produced as The Haunted Strangler (1958), giving 69-year-old Karloff a much-needed respite from the forgettable programmers that plagued his later career. Directed by Robert Day, it's a superbly crafted thriller in which Karloff plays 19th-century English author James Rankin, determined to prove the innocence of a man wrongfully executed 20 years earlier. His quest turns horrifically tragic when Rankin is overtaken by the dead man's spirit, and the killer's strangulation spree continues. As part of a double-feature package, The Haunted Strangler was immediately followed by Corridors of Blood (1959), another fine vehicle for Karloff, who plays a doomed physician in 1840s London obsessed with pioneering experiments in anesthesia. It's a grim graverobber's tale, with an early role for Christopher Lee as a macabre character named "Resurrection Joe."

Gaining momentum, the Gordons also produced First Man into Space and The Atomic Submarine (see previous DVD releases for detailed reviews), a pair of 1959 releases that took timely advantage of Cold War headlines, the space race, and advances in nuclear-sub exploration of the polar ice caps. The former involves a cocky test pilot's ill-fated exposure to a strange alien substance which turns him into a blood-sucking predator; the latter is a sci-fi adventure that culminates in an encounter with an ill-tempered alien beneath the ice of the Arctic Circle. All four films guarantee a welcome trip down memory lane for long-time genre buffs, and DVD collectors of all ages will enjoy the enthusiastic expertise of Tom Weaver, whose delightfully reverent commentaries with Richard and Alex Gordon--along with video interviews with primary cast and crew members from all four films--serve as detailed testament (owing to Richard Gordon's wonderfully vivid recollections) to the lasting appeal of these "B-movie" relics. Theatrical trailers, radio spots, and exploitative print advertising place the films in proper historical context, and accompanying booklets offer appreciative essays by producer John Croydon and critic/historians Maitland McDonagh, Bruce Eder, and Michael Lennick. Anyone with a passion for '50s sci-fi and horror will quickly accept Monsters and Madmen as a crucial addition to their DVD collections, well in keeping with the expansive Criterion legacy. --Jeff Shannon

Description

Launching us from a grave past to a space-age future, these two thrilling double features, from producers Richard and Alex Gordon, spin classic tales of hair-raising homicidal mania and intrepid, death-defying exploration. Featuring The Haunted Strangler, Corridors of Blood, The Atomic Submarine, and First Man Into Space.

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Corridors of Blood
Starring: Boris Karloff , Betta St. John , Finlay Currie , Francis Matthews , and Adrienne Corri
Director: Robert Day
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 6305080259
Release Date: 1998-07-08

Amazon.com

"Pain and the knife are inseparable!" That's what incredulous colleagues keep telling Dr. Bolton (Boris Karloff), a respected surgeon who is determined to develop a successful anesthetic to bring pain-free surgery to 1840s England, when brutal amputation is a bloody and commonplace procedure. Bolton keeps testing his latest "inhalations" on himself, and his son's warnings against addiction remain unheeded. Before long, the tenacious doctor is hooked on his own elixir, barred from further practice and the drugs needed for research, and so desperate to prove the validity of his work that he agrees to a Faustian bargain: In exchange for the necessary chemicals, he signs bogus death certificates for local body-snatchers Black Ben (Francis De Wolff) and Resurrection Joe (Christopher Lee), who earn cash by supplying medical schools with fresh cadavers.

Robert Day (who also directed Karloff in The Haunted Strangler) handles this morbid plot with professional restraint, adding some routine hallucinatory interludes when Karloff's delirium results in a barrage of fevered visions. Otherwise this is a well-crafted but rather bland affair, noteworthy for its early display of blood (which is utterly tasteful by later standards) and also for giving Karloff one of his juicier roles, which the veteran horror icon tackles with admirable vigor and appropriate obsessiveness. On the strength of his early films for Hammer Studios, Christopher Lee was given prominent billing when this film (shot in 1958) was finally released in 1962, and while his eerie presence is keenly felt, his role is a relatively minor one. Still, this makes Corridors of Blood something of a milestone in the genre, signaling the passage of Karloff's era and the beginning of Lee's. --Jeff Shannon

Description

Boris Karloff is a surgeon in search of a viable anesthetic, in the days when patients were strapped down with leather bands while fully conscious. The doctor soon becomes addicted to his newly-discovered gas. In his desperation to get the drug, Karloff must make a diabolical bargain with body snatchers to feed his growing habit. "A natural for horror addicts, if they can stand all that blood!"--Daily Cinema.

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