Corridors of Blood

Karloff is great in this tale of a compassionate surgeon who is looking to relieve the pain and suffering that he inflicts through his life-saving surgery. In the process of developing an anesthetic, he becomes addicted to his formula and is used as a pawn of criminals.

This is not a horror film at all but a good story about the historical problems facing surgery before anesthetic. There are murders for profit, there is the suggestion of painful bloody surgery but they do not really show it. There are no real disturbing scenes. This movie was billed as horror but most horror fans would probably object to this classification. It is, however, a good solid movie about a very real problem, surgery before anesthetic and a man who looked to find the secret to painless surgery.

If you are looking for a horror movie, you wont find it here...but you will find a pretty good movie with the bonus of Christopher Lee as a ruthless criminal killer called Resurrection Joe.

Boris Karloff gives a decidedly compassionate performance as a London surgeon madly trying to develop a gas of some kind to use in operations to relieve his patients of the inevitable pain that comes with surgery. The film chronicles much of the trial and error, ridicule from colleagues, and unfortunate reliance on opium based gas that surrounds Dr. Bolton, Karloff's character. Karloff walks in two circles: the first is at the hospital where he works with his son and is surrounded by other doctors and students - the second is a very poor part of the city where he helps the poor and is taken advantage of by a section of thieves and killers led by Black Ben(nice performance by Mr. De Wolf) and Resurrection Joe(played in a characteristically eerie fashion by Christopher Lee). Lee and De Wolf have a side business of killing wayward drunks and selling their bodies to the hospital. All they need is a signature from a doctor...that is where Karloff comes in. Although the film is not a "horror" film, it has some horror elements. Karloff really gives a nice, in-depth portrayal of a man destined to find a new way. The film has a great cast of British stalwarts such as De Wolf, Lee, Finlay Currie and Nigel Green. Production values are low, but the quality of film based on the budget used is exceedingly good.

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.

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.