JinRoz
For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!
Zlatica
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
gavin6942
Dr. Thomas Bolton fights for the use of anesthetic in surgery and uses himself as a guinea pig but soon finds himself addicted.After the success of "The Haunted Strangler", producer Richard Gordon looked at making a follow up with Boris Karloff. At one stage a color remake of Dracula was discussed as was an adaptation of The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar. Eventually producer John Scott discovered a screenplay by Jean Scott Rogers based on the early days of anesthesia, originally called Doctor from Seven Dials.From what I can gather, the film was put on hold for a few years between shooting and release, and ultimately made a very small profit. This is unfortunate, given the casting of Karloff and Lee, but there is no denying that this film is somewhat inferior to "Haunted Strangler". The fact it was marketed as terrifying seems a bit odd and false... it has some horror elements, but is definitely not scary in any sense.
callanvass
(Credit IMDb) In an effort to relieve the suffering of surgery patients, Dr. Thomas Bolton painstakingly develops an opium-based anesthetic, to which he gradually becomes addicted. In order to provide a continual supply of chemicals to continue his experiments and support his addiction, he falls in with a den of murderers who use his signature to sell cadavers to the local hospital. I found this online the other day, and decided to watch it. I'm a big Boris Karloff fan, and will watch almost anything he stars in. Apparently, this wasn't released until 1962, and I can see why. It has a heavy message going for it. It was back around the time where surgery wasn't nearly as advanced as it is these days, so they did some pretty ballsy stuff. Back then, you didn't have anesthesia like you do now. It was not only painful, but often frightening. The thought of surgery is scary enough as it is, even with anesthesia, but it's even more terrifying without it. My problem with this movie is that it failed to maintain my interest. In fact, it's almost lifeless at times. Boris Karloff's drug addiction was somewhat riveting at certain points, don't get me wrong. But it was a bit too bland, despite how deeply they delved into it. Boris Karloff gives a bravura performance. He is by far the best thing about this movie. I felt for him. I just wish they gave him more to work with. Many of the films he made as he got older, didn't deserve a man of his talents. This movie is one of them. Christopher Lee is quite chilling as well, I just wished he and Karloff had more screen time together. Overall, I don't grasp why this movie is well liked. It's boring, rather depressing, and hard to get into. I respect people's opinions, so maybe you'll get more out of it than I did4.6/10
DJAkin
I DVR'd this movie and liked it a great deal. Boris delivers the goods as a doctor who performs surgery in a THEATER. He does not use anesthesia because it had not been invented yet. So he has to cut people while they squirm in pain. Eventually he invents an anesthesia and gets hooked on it. The more he inhales the stranger he becomes. IN once scene he laughs hysterically and cuts his arm. Yes, he FEELS NO PAIN. There is a large BLUTO looking guy who hoodwinks him into coming to his strange house of sin. At this house there are TONS of wounded people who hobble around. There is this one guy who smothers folks with pillows and sells the bodies to the local hospital. Meanwhile the BORIS KARLOFF continues to dwindle into the depths of madness. Great movie!!
zetes
Definitely the highlight of Criterion's Monsters and Madmen set (although I have yet to see the fourth film, The Atomic Submarine, but I can't imagine I'll like it as much as this), and another undervalued Boris Karloff picture. Karloff in this one plays the (fictionalized) surgeon who discovers anesthesia. Unfortunately, he experiments on himself, and finds himself addicted to the concoction (which includes morphine and opium). This problem leads him into the manipulative hands of two murderous crooks (Francis De Wolff and a young Christopher Lee), who will steal the ingredients that he needs in exchange for the doctor's signature on the death certificates of their murder victims, whose corpses they are selling to medical researchers. Of course, this part of the film is inspired by the Burke and Hare murders, which was the subject of Boris Karloff's crowning achievement, The Body Snatcher. I would imagine that the makers of this film were very familiar with The Body Snatcher, and Corridors of Blood has that kind of literate air that Val Lewton injected into his pictures. It's not quite on the level of that film, or most of the other Lewton films, either, but it's a gem. And I needn't really say this anymore, but Karloff is outstanding. I almost feel sorry for the guy, getting stuck in the horror genre as he did. He was easily one of the finest actors who ever lived, but one who will always be ignored by mainstream critics.
