Corridors of Blood is set in 'London 1840 before the discovery of anaesthesia' where prominent surgeon Dr. Thomas Bolton (Boris Karloff) is convinced that 'operations without pain' are possible as having your leg sawn off without any anaesthesia is rather painful. Bolton feels that by experimenting with different combinations of drugs he can create a gas which will render the patient numb & not able to feel a thing as the sharp steel of the saw & knife slices through flesh... Not everyone is convinced about his ideas though & after a terrible demonstration which fails Bolton finds lots of resistance to his idea but he carries on with his experiments & becomes addicted to the drugs he creates, after he is forced to take a 'holiday' & his privilege's are revoked he has to turn to local thugs to acquire the drugs he needs...
This British production sat on the self & remain unreleased for 4 years was directed Robert Day & to be fair to it it's a pretty decent film. The first thing to say is that the inappropriate & unjustly exploitative title is very misleading & that Corridors of Blood is more a historic drama than a horror film, in fact apart from some uneasy surgery scenes there is no horror in this film. The script by Jean Scott Rogers chronicles the invention of anaesthesia in an entirely fictional story, it's a fairly interesting & watchable film but I felt it was a bit dull & not much stood out for me. It has a leisurely pace, I'm not sure whether it was conceived as a horror film & I get the impression that anyone going 'blind' into this film on the back of it having Boris Karloff & Christopher Lee in it along with it's attention grabbing title will be disappointed. The character's are OK, the dialogue is alright although I didn't think that much of the overly sentimental ending. It's a decent enough film but that's it.
Director Day does OK but it suffers from the limitations you think a black and white film of this vintage would. The sets are cosy enough, the period recreation looks good but it's all rather static & a bit bland. The couple of surgery scenes are pretty grim even though they're not graphic a it's more the thought of what's going on than what is actually seen. Forget about any scares as it's just not that sort of film, there's no exploitation either.
Technically Corridors of Blood is fine, it's a reasonably well crafted film with good production values. The acting is good, Karloff puts in his usual commanding performance & a young up & coming actor named Christopher Lee makes for an effective villain in an early role.
Corridors of Blood is a perfectly watchable film although I'm not really sure who it's meant to appeal to, for me I was hoping for a horror film because of the title & instead I got a fictional historic drama & frankly I'd rather had spent the time watching a horror film. Worth a watch but nothing that special.
This British production sat on the self & remain unreleased for 4 years was directed Robert Day & to be fair to it it's a pretty decent film. The first thing to say is that the inappropriate & unjustly exploitative title is very misleading & that Corridors of Blood is more a historic drama than a horror film, in fact apart from some uneasy surgery scenes there is no horror in this film. The script by Jean Scott Rogers chronicles the invention of anaesthesia in an entirely fictional story, it's a fairly interesting & watchable film but I felt it was a bit dull & not much stood out for me. It has a leisurely pace, I'm not sure whether it was conceived as a horror film & I get the impression that anyone going 'blind' into this film on the back of it having Boris Karloff & Christopher Lee in it along with it's attention grabbing title will be disappointed. The character's are OK, the dialogue is alright although I didn't think that much of the overly sentimental ending. It's a decent enough film but that's it.
Director Day does OK but it suffers from the limitations you think a black and white film of this vintage would. The sets are cosy enough, the period recreation looks good but it's all rather static & a bit bland. The couple of surgery scenes are pretty grim even though they're not graphic a it's more the thought of what's going on than what is actually seen. Forget about any scares as it's just not that sort of film, there's no exploitation either.
Technically Corridors of Blood is fine, it's a reasonably well crafted film with good production values. The acting is good, Karloff puts in his usual commanding performance & a young up & coming actor named Christopher Lee makes for an effective villain in an early role.
Corridors of Blood is a perfectly watchable film although I'm not really sure who it's meant to appeal to, for me I was hoping for a horror film because of the title & instead I got a fictional historic drama & frankly I'd rather had spent the time watching a horror film. Worth a watch but nothing that special.