Mansion of the Doomed

How far would you go to cure your beloved Daughter's blindness, this is the plot of this low budget but very enjoyable 70's horror movie. Richard Basehart plays the deranged ophthalmologist and is well supported by a horror movie stalwart, Lance Henriksen. It's not in the least bit scary, but was fun.

I was prepared to see the worst when I pushed the play button, but this early Charles Band production turned out to be a lot better than I thought! It shamelessly steals the plot of Franju's masterpiece `Les Yeux sans Visage', but I hardly see this as an obstacle since the great Jess Franco did the same thing for his Dr. Orloff. It's the macabre fable about a doctor who causes a car-accident, and his daughter loses her sight in it. Driven by love and feelings of guilt, the doctor start to kidnap ‘eye-donors' to cure his daughter Nancy. Charles Band adds very few to the original plot except for a lot of inhuman cruelty and nasty images. The shots of the eyeless people in the basement were pretty disturbing to me, and I like to think I can handle quite a share of morbidity! By the way, the gory images of the cut out eyeballs were the work of Stan Winston, who grew on to be one of Hollywood's most respected make-up artists. The film also proves that acting performances CAN make a difference in these little low-budget gems! Richard Basehart is really good as the surgeon who slowly goes insane and Gloria Grahame is adorable as the devoted assistant. Unfortunately, this underrated actress died a few years later. Mansion of the Doomed also stars Lance Henriksen in an early role. Mansion of the Doomed is especially recommended for being a modest - but very decent - little gem, that doesn't portrays itself as highly original...just as good and gruesome entertainment!

One of Charles Band's earlier produced movies. A must for a Full Moon/Charles Band fan. Nice to add to your DVD collection though the quality is pretty bad even though it says Digitally Mastered. If this was mastered, I'd hate to see what it was before they worked on it. But the story is a gem of a horror for a low budget film. Also notice that in the end credits Richard Band was an assistant producer. And the screenplay was by their father Albert Band. And fans know where this combination went to. Empire Pictures and Full Moon Pictures. The B-movies improved along with musical scores to form a legendary team for several great videos such as the Puppet Master series and Subspecies, Trancers series as well as the well known Re-animator and From Beyond Lovecraft classics. Being a great fan of Charles Band, it was worth buying for my collection and the cost was reasonably low to purchase. Someone needs to see about getting some of the Paramount/Full Moon pictures released as well. Some of Band's finest videos are not available due to past problems with them. A real shame!

A little more disturbing than you'd expect for it's time, but this movie features two greats, Richard Basehart and film noir actress Gloria Grahame, or three if you want to throw a young Lance Henricksen in there. There's nothing light-hearted in this gruesome movie, and Vic Tayback plays it straight forward as the cop. Basehart and Grahame are great here, and all the lesser known actors are really good too. The story involves a surgical genius eye doctor trying to help his daughter who he's accidentally blinded. Madness ensues. You can get nice fresh eyeballs all over the place, but what do you with the leftovers?

Richard Basehart plays a doctor whose daughter is blinded in a car accident; the remainder of the film focuses on Basehart's attempts to restore his daughter's sight by kidnapping people and removing their eyes for unsuccessful transplants. Not bad horror flick, and very well-acted for such a low-budget effort. Basehart registers strongly as the determined doctor, as does '50's 'bad girl' Gloria Grahame as his devoted assistant, even though she is given very little to do. But be warned, this film is not for those with weak stomachs.