O Médico Vampiro

I purchased a Goodtimes Video of this film in 1989 for $8.99. The jacket promo includes a statement claiming, "Weird scientists murder young girls to prolong life." Ah well, it turns out the jacket is far more exciting than the film. Young inmates of a women's minimum security prison continue to die of "heart failure." This becomes a little too obvious and the handsome young corrections psychiatrist, William Hudson as Dr. Rogers, is called in to investigate. The good doctor finds out that Dr. Murdock (Victory Jory) and the rest of the prison staff are all over 200 years old and must renew themselves from time to time with new life energy. It has been determined that young females are the best sources of this new energy, thus Murdock and his confederates have placed themselves in charge of a women's prison. All ends happily, however, after Dr. Rogers saves his lady love, the kind-hearted social worker Carol, played by Charlotte Austin, from Murdock's murderous clutches. Films such as this must be judged in context to it's genre, the time that it was filmed in (1957), and budget, which in this case it is obvious the budget was very modest. The sets are mediocre, the film is somewhat grainy and production values iffy at best and that is being kind. In short, this is another 1950's era horror / sci-fi B-film which could have been done much better in a different time and with greater financing. Not even the presence of that fine character actor Victor Jory, (a fine player for many years who never received the acclaim he deserved), could lift this one very high, but even with its limitations it is enjoyable to fans of this type of film. Today, the setting and story plot would tempt a director to include nudity and perhaps soft core porno scenes, which would change the tone of the story dramatically and this would be a shame, because the story itself is pretty good. Of course, I am prejudiced. Anything that has to do with time travel interests me greatly and immortality is, to me, a form of time travel. This one is of interest to fans of this type of film only, but don't let that stop you from catching it on late night TV if you can. If nothing else, it is an excellent example of the lesser B films of the era, an era far more interesting to serious students of film than most of the general public today realizes.

While "The Man Who Turned to Stone" may at first look like just another schlocky horror film, it turns out to be highly original and well worth watching! Sure it is a bit schlocky...but most enjoyably so!

The story is set at a women's reformatory. Too many of the young ladies seem to be dying by accidents or suicides and Dr. Rogers decides to look into the matter. Through the course of the film, he learns that the folks running the facility are actually incredibly old...over 200 years old! It seems that they came upon a way to transfer the life essence from a young lady into them...allowing them to seemingly live forever. However, if they don't get the transfer of energy, these folks become mindless and soon turn to mummies (complete with really cool make-up). Can he get to the heart of things before evil Dr. Murdock (Victor Jory) or his minions stop him?

What I really liked about the movie is that they managed to make a ridiculous story idea seem plausible. It also had a well thought out plot and was clever and engaging throughout.

Perhaps I've seen way too many overblown and pretentious would-be cult movies lately, but I really enjoyed "The Man Who Turned to Stone" a lot and therefore I reward it with a rating higher than it probably deserves… The plot of this modest '50s production – courtesy of the legendary Sam Katzman – is definitely interesting and compelling, albeit highly unoriginal and full of holes and illogicalness. Victor Jory leads a group of selfish scientists that discovered the secret to immortality and have been around since the 18th Century. In order to unnecessarily prolong their own precious lives, they need the life-extract of other human beings; preferably fertile young women. And what place is better to scout for fertile yet disposable young women than a women's prison? The administrative employee Carol Adams grows suspicious of all the sudden and unnatural deaths at the prison and receives help from an acclaimed state psychiatrist. Although close to getting caught the alchemists must continue their treatments, otherwise their skins literally petrify… The central idea is quite derivative, as the quest for immortality at the expense of innocent people is an often recurring horror movie theme, but the "turning to stone" aspect is a nifty little gimmick. The film also features the cool sub plot about one of the scientist group members – Eric – being a lot less resistant and in need of receiving the treatment more frequently than the others. It's Eric who often roams around the prison's dormitory at night with a half-stoned face and causing mayhem. The script naturally features many holes and dumb elements as well. Why aren't these alchemists relocating more frequently, for instance, or even more importantly, why aren't they sedating their victims in order to prevent them from screaming their lungs out? The filming location is very unconvincing, as the place doesn't look like a prison but merely resembles a campus college or an all-girls summer camp. At first I even assumed it was a summer camp because two of the leading ladies are talking about boxes of Girl Scout cookies… The acting performances are collectively wooden and uptight, but I admit that's also part of the '50s horror charm. The actor who depicts Eric, Friedrich von Ledebur, is menacing enough and the film never once bored me throughout its (short) running time of 70 minutes.

THE MAN WHO TURNED TO STONE is a typical B-movie effort from the late 1950s, made amid a welter of similar looking and sounding titles. This one straddles the science fiction and horror genres in the tale of a group of cadaverous men who are prolonging their lives by literally draining the life energy of various unwilling young women, killing them in the process. Victory Jory makes for a suitably gaunt and sinister villain, but the rest of the cast are undistinguished here and the special FX are typically limited to some grey face makeup that reminded me of the cemetery zombie in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

This 1957 movie from Columbia has an interesting premise...several scientists, who are over 200 years old, are running a girl's "reform school" so they can obtain energy from the young women to sustain their unnaturally long lives.

This is a typical low budget 1950's picture...cheap sets and no big name actors. William Hudson, most famous for playing the cheating husband in the class sci-fi thriller, "Attack of the 50 ft Woman", portrays Dr. Jess Rogers, who has been sent to the reform school to investigate several mysterious deaths of young women at the school. Charlotte Austin plays Carol Adams, an idealistic social worker at the school who starts to suspect foul play when so many healthy young woman suddenly die of "heart failure".

Several of the "girls" at the school look like they are being played by actresses who are way too long in the tooth to be teenagers or young woman. Despite this fact, the movie is interesting in it's premise. Victor Jory portrays the sinister head of the reformatory, Dr. Murdock. He is responsible for the "experiments" that end up with the murder of the girls at the school. When the 200 year old scientists are ready for a transfusion they start to turn to stone, hence the title of the movie. The make-up used to show the scientists turning to stone is not at all scary, actually it's laughable.

I liked this movie and thought it was fun. It's definitely not academy award winning material, but if you enjoy "b" movies from the 1950's you should enjoy this one.