O Médico Vampiro

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.

Even though I don't often use the term, this 1950s B horror has become a favorite "guilty pleasure" of mine. It's has an enjoyably weird and sordid premise, even if it's loaded with plot holes and requires a heaping suspension of disbelief. A detention center for women is experiencing an unusually high rate of random heart attack deaths by healthy young female inmates. It turns out that the newest staff of eccentric middle-agers now running the prison are actually centuries-old people who kidnap the girls, and then drain their life forces in order to keep themselves from aging further. The problem is, if they miss their latest energy boosts, they start to turn into stone. A kindly social worker (Charlotte Austin, later in FRANKENSTEIN 1970) and psychiatrist William Hudson (the bad hubby of ATTACK OF THE FIFTY FT. WOMAN) investigate the strange occurrences. Victor Jory is suitably creepy as the head villain. This has some disturbing moments considering its era, and is just offbeat enough to remain consistently interesting. **1/2 out of ****

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.

Man Who Turned to Stone, The (1957)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Low key Columbia horror film about a 200+ year-old doctor who keeps himself alive by having his assistants kill off girls at a detention center. When his assistants try and turn against him, the man becomes a walking piece of stone and seeks revenge. This is a very low budget movie but it's pretty good throughout due in large part to some strong direction by Laszlo Kardos. The ending is very well done and there's a large amount of atmosphere throughout the picture even though it's really nothing original. The make up effects are also pretty good considering the budget and with the proper lighting the monster too comes off well.

Now that billionaires are becoming increasingly obvious in their ambition to live forever the search for the elixir of youth seems as topical now as it's ever been.

As screenwriter Bernard Gordon was a casualty of the Hollywood blacklist it might not be too presumptuous to read an allegory into 'The Man Who Turned into Stone' for amoral capitalists exploiting innocent youngsters and state-sanctioned abuse of psychiatry.

Students may think that a generation gap divides them from their elders, but that Victor Jory and his ghoulish confederates wear wing collars is a bit of a giveaway; while Ann Doran as a bluestocking with her hair tied in a bun is a worthy antecedent of Alida Valli in 'Eyes without a Face'