Corridors of Blood

This is a deceptive little film. First off, because it was made and sat for four years before release, you might be inclined to think it is a dud--but that's far from true. The film is very good--good enough to almost earn an 8. Second, while the film has some horrific scenes and features Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee, it is not a horror film but more of a drama. So if you see it, don't expect monsters or madness--instead, there are just bad people and good people doing bad things.

The film is set in 1840 and Karloff plays an exceptionally skilled surgeon who is dismayed that there are no drugs to alleviate the suffering of patients during surgery. Basically, people were wide awake and felt EVERYTHING during surgery and amputations! This is true, as the first anesthesias didn't come about until around 1850. Despite his concerns, other doctors didn't share his enthusiasm for change, so Karloff foolishly begins experimenting on himself--inhaling a mixture of various chemicals (including opium). Not surprisingly, he becomes addicted and this once sweet man becomes an unwilling pawn in the seedy underworld.

The film gets very high marks for construction, writing, direction and the performance of Karloff. There isn't much I'd change about the film, though fans of Christopher Lee might be disappointed that his role isn't that big and his character isn't that interesting (despite the fact he's a cold-blooded murderer). Give this intelligent little film a watch--it's really very good.

Corridors of Blood (1962) is the story of a doctor trying to discover the secret of painless surgery. While less a horror film and more a study of the decline in an individual caused by drug addiction, it does have several creepy and frightening moments. Some of the surgery sequences are gruesome. And, any film with both Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee has got to have its share of horror moments.

The basic story - Karloff plays the doctor. He experiments on himself with the gas he is developing to be used in surgery. He becomes addicted to the narcotics he is using. Soon, he is unable to function and is released from his position as a surgeon. He meets up with a couple of baddies played by Lee and Francis De Wolff who agree to help him get the drugs he needs. All Karloff has to do is sign some blank death certificates. Revealing anymore of the story would be too much.

Karloff is terrific as the doctor. You can feel his anguish and pain as he realizes what the drugs have done to him. But, you can also see the underlying need he has for the gas. Lee is so incredibly ruthless. His character (Resurrection Joe) kills with no remorse or qualms. This is one character I would have liked to see more of in other films. Also present is an excellent supporting cast lead by De Wolff and Nigel Green.

Corridors of Blood excels at atmosphere. Even with the small budget, the director (Robert Day) is able to portray the seediness and depravity of the Seven Dials area. Perfect! Not a great film, Corridors of Blood is, however, good and very watchable. Karloff's performance alone is reason enough to see this film.

This finely-crafted minimalist film stars two of the most legendary horror stars of all time, yet it is without any supernatural elements. I suppose it is classified as horror because it is steeped in the creepy atmosphere of a 19th century operating theater and clinic for the poor, and because Christopher Lee plays a serial killer.

Into the final decade of his career and life, Boris Karloff gives a typically excellent performance of a good and compassionate man who defies the conventional wisdom of his time, such wisdom being the belief that since god intended humans to suffer to administer pain-killing drugs for surgery is to defy god's will.

The creepy, claustrophobic, impoverished world of this film is an appropriate setting for the business of a horror film, as well as a peak into the vast inequities between the upper and lower strata of society. Karloff is an upper-class doctor who once a week operates a free clinic for the poor.

While being thoroughly satisfying as a psychological horror film in its own right, this picture also provides a realistic portrayal of drug addiction and other issues of social relevancy.

Probably somewhat mistitled to sell movie tickets, this is really not a horror film. Karloff plays Dr. Thomas Bolton, a 19th century surgeon at a time before anesthesia, who is renowned for his speed and accuracy. This is needed as the patient must be strapped down and is screaming the entire time the operation is in progress.

Bolton wants to come up with a drug that will allow painless surgery, but his colleagues seem unmoved by the patients' pain, and even say weird puritanical things like the pain is necessary for healing. In a parallel plot, a group of blackguards who inhabit a filthy bawdy pub in a poor part of London have discovered that smothering very drunk people who will not be missed and selling their bodies to doctors is an easy way to make good money.

So, going it alone, Bolton concocts a potion that he thinks might work, trying it out on himself as he tweaks the formula. While he is under the influence of this potion he is in a dream like state, and when he regains full consciousness he feels that whatever he did was a dream. What he doesn't realize until it is too late is that he is becoming addicted to these drugs - it effects his mind and hands to the point where he is a danger in the operating room. The hospital suspends him, and cuts off his supply of drugs. This is where the doctor and the murderers find they can help each other out. Bolton HATES what he is doing - signing off on death certificates of murder victims saying they died of natural causes in return for the criminal gang stealing drugs for him- but his addiction is ruling him as it rules all addicts.

This is satisfying if you know what you are getting yourself into. It's how the noble pursuit of a humane physician goes completely awry. If you are literally looking for corridors of blood you will be disappointed. And apparently that was what happened when this film was released four years after its production, in 1962 on a B horror double bill. Made by MGM when it was in its downward spiral, for some reason it is not in the Turner Classic Movies library.

Boris Karloff, as usual, is a joy to watch, as is Christopher Lee, who was right on the verge of becoming a big star in the Hammer films. This film is also notable for strongly evoking the grimy atmosphere of those out-of-the-way areas in 1800's England, worthy of comparison to David Lean's "Oliver Twist" (1948). Coincidentally, not long after seeing this film I happened to read the true life story of Horace Wells (1815-1848), a Connecticut dentist who experimented on himself with ether, chloroform, and laughing gas in an effort to discover a painless method of oral surgery. He succeeded, but became an addict in the process; his behavior subsequently became so violent that he was placed in prison, where he committed suicide. I wonder if Karloff's character in this film is at least partially based on Horace Wells.