Horror in broad daylight: 'Doctor Blood's Coffin'

Produced at a time when the movie horror market was dominated by the works of Britain's Hammer Films and Roger Corman's stylish Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, DOCTOR BLOOD'S COFFIN (1961) is a standout for its vivid use of location and updating of Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN. The 91-minute film shot in color plays out its Gothic horrors against an unsuspecting rural community and sun-splashed atmosphere that lends a high contrast to the evil that lunges from the darkness.


The relationship between the film's protagonist, Dr. Peter Blood (Kieron Moore) and Victor Frankenstein is evident since both young men are convinced their individual brilliance as surgeons has destined them to do something great -- namely, bring life to the dead. And no matter how much common sense and opposition are hurled at them, they are set on a course of achieving their dream, even if it costs the lives of other people. The difference posed by DOCTOR BLOOD'S COFFIN with the Shelley original is that rather do his work in a dark laboratory set in Switzerland on a storm-lashed night, Peter is forced to explore his obsession in an abandoned tin mine on the coast of England's Cornwall, near the town of his birth and where his father, Dr. Robert Blood (Ian Hunter), still maintains a practice.

A tense pre-credits sequence tells us why Peter is reduced to such curious circumstances. As he prepares to stealthily pursue his theories on a subject in a Vienna operating room, Peter is interrupted by Dr. Luckman (Paul Hardtmuth), overseer of Peter's work as part of a year-long research grant. Excoriating Peter's ideas as too rogue for established medical practice, Luckman is in turn rebuked by Peter for living in the grip of fear and superstition that hinders what he views as lifesaving techniques (again, not dissimilar from Doctor Waldman's explanation of Victor's departure from medical school in the 1931 version of FRANKENSTEIN). Ordered to leave the hospital or face a police investigation, Peter storms out, clutching an unusual bamboo container that proves key to his later activities. At this point, we are not fully aware of Peter's plans except for the official disapproval they have met.

Following the credits, played over Buxton Orr's emphatic musical score, we find ourselves in the Cornish village of Porthcarron, which is coping with sudden disappearances of its citizens. Additionally, the elder Doctor Blood's office has been burgled of supplies such as intravenous tubes and glucose. The community and Sergeant Cook (Kenneth J. Warren) of the local police constabulary are unaware that a shadowy figure has set up an impromptu lab with items filched from the doctor's office in one of the old tin mines near Porthcarron. The figure, who is, of course, Peter, is responsible for the kidnappings of local residents, keeping them drugged through oral absorption of South American curare (from the bamboo container spied in the prologue), which is only fatal if injected into the victim. Peter has already heard that Cook plans a search of the mines for the missing, with tunnel expert George Beale (Andy Alston) agreeing to guide them on their search.

His next nocturnal raid is on the home of Beale, whom Peter first chloroforms and takes back to the mines, where he's given the curare, which creates paralysis in its victims but keeps them semi-comatose. The next morning, Peter chooses to reveal his return home to the world at large, meeting dad's buxom nurse, Linda Parker (Hazel Court) and agreeing to take Beale's place on the mine search because he knows the old tunnels so well from his youth -- the better to steer them off his hideaway. Beale, in turn, not completely under the power of the curare, manages to crawl out of the cave-ridden embankment and escape Peter's notice, as he does Linda's growing interest in him.

A portion of a broken needle left in Beale's bedroom sends Peter's father off to conduct a lab analysis at a nearby larger hospital. Beale's body is found by searchers and Peter is obliged to do the autopsy in his dad's absence. Using the mortuary of the town's tipsy funeral director Morton (Gerald C. Lawson), Peter finds to his delight that Beale is still alive, meaning Peter can remove Beale's live heart to further his grand experiment. He's about to do so when Morton, asleep in an upstairs chamber, discovers Peter's deed and tries to stop him ("Think of your father!" Morton pleads). Peter shoves the man away, who conks his head fatally on the support of a circular stairway). Beale's heart expires during the struggle, forcing the increasingly unbalanced Peter to make other plans.

In the midst of all of these complications, Peter's relationship with Linda deepens. On a romantic visit to the mines, they are greeted by an old miner, Tengaye (Fred Jackson), who's eking out a living digging for tin scraps. He soon becomes another victim, and when Peter successfully harvests Tengaye's heart with the aid of the curare, his secret is discovered by Linda. Pleading his case ("All supervision has ever done is hold me back!"), she turns a deaf ear to Peter's rant, flees at first opportunity and notifies Cook and Peter's horrified father, whose bursting pride in his son is crushed.

Although Peter has fallen for Linda, he senses he cannot replace her husband Steve, for whom she still grieves following a road accident in which he perished two years ago. Now a fugitive and with little left to lose, Peter disinters Steve's body from the cemetery, performs the critical surgery using Tengaye's heart and proves his point, bringing Steve back to life if not physically improved after a couple of years in the grave. Peter abducts Linda to gloat over his achievement, but when she condemns Peter for not creating a man but a "creature from hell," Steve attacks her. Peter frees Linda but is in turn strangled by the walking corpse, who then expires from chemical fumes released from bottles broken in the melee. Linda finds an exit from the cave and is rescued by a search party.

The closing image of Linda fleeing the darkness into brilliant morning sunshine -- and a return to normalcy -- sums up DOCTOR BLOOD'S COFFIN's thematic intent of terror being imposed on a placid setting, nicely executed by director Sidney J. Furie and the camerawork of Stephen Dade, which offers breathtaking views of the coastline in which the movie was shot and at the same time plumbs the depths of gloom provided by the mine tunnels and Peter's anything-but-sterile lab. Peppered with existing old mine entrances and collieries that resemble 18th Century high rises, the locations where DOCTOR BLOOD'S COFFIN were filmed are similar to those featured in the original BBC-TV serialization of Winston Graham's POLDARK novels on PBS's MASTERPIECE THEATER in 1975-1977 and the current version also airing on MASTERPIECE.

Jerry Juran, better-known as Nathan H. Juran, the director of such science fiction/fantasy classics as TWENTY MILLION MILES TO EARTH (1957) and THE 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1958), crafted the screenplay from his original story as adapted by James Kelly and Peter Miller, suspensefully setting the stage for a FRANKENSTEIN variation that slowly leads the audience to Peter's motives. It also convincingly creates the bewilderment of Porthcarron's citizens when confronted by missing neighbors and thefts from the doctor's office. Staying true to the source, Peter meets his doom for meddling in forbidden subjects as did Victor Frankenstein -- both dispatched by their "creations."

DOCTOR BLOOD'S COFFIN was director Furie's fourth feature film, the second since his emigration from his native Canada to England in the late 1950s. Working in different genres at the time, the experience allowed Furie to indulge a visual flair that became more evident as his career took off in the mid-'60s. Yet even with DOCTOR BLOOD'S COFFIN, which he shot for George Fowler's Caralan Productions, Furie developed a means of using items on the set as a counterpoint to the action. For example, Peter and Linda flirt in his father's office in front of a Red Cross poster encouraging blood donations, a droll hint at where the film is going. Later, Peter calls for the strength and surgical skills he needs for his unholy grand plan in front of a crucifix in the funeral home. As the extent of Peter's crimes become known, Linda gives his father a consoling pat on the shoulder as he reads the letter from Dr. Luckman praising Peter's abilities in the operating room. Although similar in formula to Hammer product of the time, Furie limited the gore content to Peter's removal of Beale's blood-drenched heart.

Furie (born 1933) expanded on his own filmic style with such social dramas as THE BOYS (1962) and THE LEATHER BOYS (1964) when he was called upon to direct the stylish spy drama THE IPCRESS FILE (1965), launching a move to Hollywood distinguished by his work on the Marlon Brando vehicle THE APPALOOSA (1966) and the criminally underrated Frank Sinatra thriller THE NAKED RUNNER (1967). Subsequent successes for Furie included LADY SINGS THE BLUES (1972) with Diana Ross and THE BOYS IN COMPANY C (1978), an early Vietnam War picture which some critics have favorably found to be a precursor to Stanley Kubrick's more celebrated FULL METAL JACKET (1987).

Released in the UK in January 1961, DOCTOR BLOOD'S COFFIN was not seen by American audiences until May 1962, more than a year after Furie and Fowler collaborated on another horror entry, THE SNAKE WOMAN, issued almost simultaneously in England and the USA by United Artists in the spring of 1961. A costume piece set in the latter 19th Century, THE SNAKE WOMAN looked as if DOCTOR BLOOD'S COFFIN had absorbed most of Caralan's capital to produce, shot in monochrome, more studio-bound and running almost 30 minutes shorter than DOCTOR BLOOD'S COFFIN. Yet Furie and company still made the film an efficient piece of work as a Scotland Yard man (John McCarthy) probes a series of deaths in a rural setting caused by snakebites, leading him to a mysterious young woman (Susan Travers) who may be an embodiment of a curse leveled on the community some years before. Two decades later, Furie returned to horror -- and entered the ranks of cult film devotion -- with his production of THE ENTITY (1982), the harrowing (and reportedly true) account of a woman (Barbara Hershey) repeatedly violated for years by the title creature.

The work of the cast is unfailingly professional and engaging. Despite the promise shown in his early lead roles in MAN ABOUT THE HOUSE, MINE OWN EXECUTIONER and ANNA KARENINA (1947-1948), Irish-born Kieron Moore's career had settled into supporting parts when the role of Peter Blood came his way, which he performed in true cinematic mad scientist manner. Charming one moment and ruthlessly determined to have his his way in others, Moore lends an intensity to his work that's key to the character's descent into madness. Although lacking the dark humor Peter Cushing's Baron Frankenstein displayed in the Hammer series built around Shelley's hero, Moore does engender some sympathy as a brilliant researcher tragically carried away by his obsession to restore life to the dead. Leaving acting behind in the 1970s, Moore, a devout Catholic, worked for the church for nearly a decade in overseas development until retiring for good. He was 82 when he died in 2007; Moore had been married to Barbara White, his co-star in MINE OWN EXECUTIONER, since 1947.

Hazel Court's Linda is strong but sensitive. Her character's attraction to Peter is understandable, but Linda cannot overlook the enormity of Peter's crimes and his dream's corruption of medical ethics, or when confrontred by her reanimated but rotting husband, the result of Peter's mad quest. At the time of DOCTOR BLOOD'S COFFIN, Court was well on her way to becoming the "horror queen" of 1950s and '60s thrillers, a title she used for her autobiography, HAZEL COURT -- HORROR QUEEN, that appeared following her 2008 passing at 82. Entering films at 18 in 1944, Court had made scattered appearances in such genre films as GHOST SHIP (1952, co-starring with her then-husband, Dermot Walsh) and DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS (1954, the title role played by Patricia Laffan) when Hammer tapped her for a lead role as Elizabeth, fiancee of Baron Frankenstein in its groundbreaking CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957). She went on to another Hammer, THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH (1959) and impressive roles in three of producer-director's Roger Corman's Poe adaptations, THE PREMATURE BURIAL, THE RAVEN and MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (1962-1964). Divorcing Walsh in 1963, she married U.S. actor-director Don Taylor the same year. The union lasted until Taylor's death in 1998.

As Peter's dad, an unassuming but up-to-date country physician, Ian Hunter lends a benevolence to his role and a clear devotion to his errant son, rendering pathos to his realization the young man has become a criminal. Such restrained but evident emotion was the result of decades of work on the stage and in London and Hollywood studios. Hunter made his first film in 1924 and was directed by Alfred Hitchcock in two of the suspense master's non-thrillers of the silent era, THE RING (1927) and EASY VIRTUE (1928). Making a successful transition to sound technique, Hunter was placed under contract by Warner Bros., making his debut for the studio in its class production of 1935, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. Prominent roles followed opposite Errol Flynn in THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD and Bette Davis in THE SISTERS (both 1938), and he freelanced for other studios in Twentieth Century-Fox's THE LITTLE PRINCESS and Universal's TOWER OF LONDON (both 1939) before contracting with M-G-M. Lending solid support to Clark Gable and Joan Crawford in STRANGE CARGO (1940) and Spencer Tracy in DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1941), Hunter left Hollywood to join the war effort. After completing his service, Hunter retrenched into the British stage and screen, staying busy until his retirement in 1963. The touch of the studio era golden age he brought back with him offered a reassuring presence to his limited screen time in DOCTOR BLOOD'S COFFIN. Hunter was 75 when he passed in 1975.

Considered old-hat and by the numbers by some contemporary reviewers, DOCTOR BLOOD'S COFFIN remains a compelling piece of work, a modern-day FRANKENSTEIN variant that earns points for both updating and respecting the tenets of the Shelley original.