drumax-759-417828 Karloff is great in this tale of a compassionate surgeon who is looking to relieve the pain and suffering that he inflicts through his life-saving surgery. In the process of developing an anesthetic, he becomes addicted to his formula and is used as a pawn of criminals.This is not a horror film at all but a good story about the historical problems facing surgery before anesthetic. There are murders for profit, there is the suggestion of painful bloody surgery but they do not really show it. There are no real disturbing scenes. This movie was billed as horror but most horror fans would probably object to this classification. It is, however, a good solid movie about a very real problem, surgery before anesthetic and a man who looked to find the secret to painless surgery.If you are looking for a horror movie, you wont find it here...but you will find a pretty good movie with the bonus of Christopher Lee as a ruthless criminal killer called Resurrection Joe.

Prichards12345 This was Karloff's second film for Director Robert Day in 1958, the other being Grip Of The Strangler. That movie ain't bad but this is certainly the better offering of the two.Boris Karloff is excellent as Dr. Thomas Bolton, operating with great speed to minimise pain for those under the surgeon's knife in the London of 1840. Convinced that chemical inhalation can separate agony from the knife, dedicated Boris uses himself as a test subject - and whoops, is that tincture of opium being added to the mixture? It isn't long before Bolton becomes addicted to the gas, falling under the control of inn-keep Black Ben (an agreeably seedy Francis De Wolff). With Christopher Lee in tow as his side kick Resurrection Joe, they fancy they have a nice littler earner by getting Bolton to forge death certificates, and providing the corpus delicti to the local hospital for a nice fat fee.This is a film with more than a hint of Oliver Twist, and a touch of Karloff's own earlier triumph The Body Snatcher. Yet it works extremely well, capturing the atmosphere of 1840s London effortlessly. Karloff is well aided by his supporting cast, including a quietly creepy Lee, Francis Matthews as Bolton's son and Adrienne Corri. M.G.M. apparently had a change of management after the film was delivered and buried the movie for four years before giving it a limited release. Shame, as this is a very good drama with some stand-out horror moments. Well worth seeing.

flapdoodle64 This finely-crafted minimalist film stars two of the most legendary horror stars of all time, yet it is without any supernatural elements. I suppose it is classified as horror because it is steeped in the creepy atmosphere of a 19th century operating theater and clinic for the poor, and because Christopher Lee plays a serial killer.Into the final decade of his career and life, Boris Karloff gives a typically excellent performance of a good and compassionate man who defies the conventional wisdom of his time, such wisdom being the belief that since god intended humans to suffer to administer pain-killing drugs for surgery is to defy god's will.The creepy, claustrophobic, impoverished world of this film is an appropriate setting for the business of a horror film, as well as a peak into the vast inequities between the upper and lower strata of society. Karloff is an upper-class doctor who once a week operates a free clinic for the poor.While being thoroughly satisfying as a psychological horror film in its own right, this picture also provides a realistic portrayal of drug addiction and other issues of social relevancy.

bob the moo Dr Thomas Bolton is determined in his quest to find a way to relieve the suffering of patients by somehow disconnecting the brain from the process and thus removing the experience of pain. His experiments have so far been failures and he has become somewhat of a joke between his peers. Self-experimenting with an opium-derived anaesthetic, Bolton gradually succumbs to addiction that only further feeds his drive for success in his studies. This addiction and destructive ambition leads him to the shadows of the criminal world and into the clutches of a den of those that would exploit him for all they can get.I recently watched a later film that featured Karloff and Lee (Curse of the Crimson Alter) and I assume that BBC2 must have been doing something of a mini season of such films because the following week they showed this film in the same slot. Corridors of Blood is a much better film than Crimson Alter due to much stronger material. The horror here is based on the descent of the main character into addiction and the world of Black Ben; a world of murder for small financial gains and a world that Bolton finds he needs for an increasing number of reasons. The addiction is the only "monster" of the film and to my pleasant surprise it is very well delivered by Karloff. I expected ham and what I got was actually quite restrained and engaging – his fall is built on good intentions and it is human and believable. The men he falls in with are also a convincing blend of man and monster as they murder and exploit for small rewards, they are sinister characters and they add another layer of darkness to Bolton's fall.De Wolff is good as the bear-sized boss of the group but of course most memorable is Christopher Lee, who is a gaunt figure all in black but gets most impact from the look of sheer dark menace that he manages not only to put on his face but also deep in his eyes. Day directs well and with his crew manages to build a good atmosphere while telling this human story. I'm not suggesting that it is a perfect film or incredibly insightful but it does well for what it is, providing an engaging character at the heart of the story. Well worth seeing for Karloff fans.