Coventry People sometimes complain that horror movies nowadays lack originality, and that most of them are uninspired and blatant imitations of just a few half-decent films. Well, that may be correct, but it's definitely not a phenomenon that only popped up now. Shameless rip-offs always existed, and here's an example of the late 50s/early 60s to prove it! Sidney J. Furie's "Dr. Blood's Coffin" clearly got made to cash in on the tremendous success of Hammer Studio's first real horror production; - "The Curse of Frankenstein". It must be said that, in spite of the obvious budget restrictions, "Dr. Blood's Coffin" is a grisly little flick with reasonably gruesome make-up effects and quite a bit of violence. On the other hand, "The Curse of Frankenstein" was gruesome as well and, unlike "Dr. Blood's Coffin", it also had a solid screenplay, terrific scenery, great acting and a continuously tense atmosphere. Furie's film is rather incompetent and overall boring, to be honest. The film opens with a feeble attempt to keep the identity of the mad doctor secret, but after ten minutes or so, they realize that idea was just dumb and unfeasible. Dr. Blood Jr. (with a name like that, you're just destined to make a career in mad science) gets kicked out of the medical university in Vienna for conducting unorthodox experiments on deceased patients, although he personally prefers to think of them as revolutionary and courageous. He returns to his hometown in Cornwall, where he settles at his father's small doctor's practice and flirts with the widowed nurse. His main objective naturally remains to complete his research, and thus Peter Blood paralyzes unsuspecting villagers with curare and subsequently drags them to an improvised laboratory in an abandoned mineshaft. Personally, I don't think it's very smart to kidnap people in a town with a population of barely 50 people and I also don't really see the added value of killing people only to revive them via primitive heart transplants. But hey, the idea is sick enough for a horror film and there are filthy make-up effects, especially during the utterly grotesque climax with a revived zombie husband! The rest of the film is unfortunately dull and endlessly repetitive. One of Blood's victims escapes, for example, and the poor sucker spends the next fifteen minutes crawling over the ground. Dr. Blood himself whines so much about his cowardly fellow scientists that he forgets to seduce the nurse! "Dr. Blood's Coffin" is passable Brit-horror from the early sixties, only worth seeking out in case you already watched all the much more superior Hammer, Amicus and Tigon productions from the same era/decade.

ctomvelu1 Slow-moving, low-key mad scientist flick about a young doctor joining his father's practice in a small Cornish town. The young doctor sets up a secret lab to pursue unorthodox experiments involving transferring organs from living victims into corpses. No wonder he got thrown out of university. What makes this modest effort mildly interesting is the actor who plays the mad scientist: Kieron Moore, a James Bond lookalike who exhibits a perfectly charming side when he's not butchering the townsfolk. The luscious Hazel Court is his nurse and love interest. I cannot honestly recommend this movie to even the most devout horror fan, even with a suave mad scientist. Of course, seeing Hazel Court in anything is OK by me. She and the equally beautiful Barbara Steele were the horror movie queens of the early 1960s.

lastliberal There are no surprises here in this quaint tale of a mad scientist, Dr. Peter Blood (Kieron Moore - The Day of the Triffids), who was run out of Vienna, and is now killing in the English countryside.Nurse Parker (Hazel Court - Curse of Frankenstein) falls in love with him, of course, but that doesn't help her when he needs another body to cut on.BAFTA winner Sidney J. Furie (The Ipcress File) was very capable in his direction, but he didn't have much to work with. The actors were capable, but the script was just another Frankenstein story.Love these old classics!

sol1218 (Some Spoilers) Thrown out of the prestigious Vienna Medical Academy for his illegal experiments Dr. Peter Blood, Kieron Moore,is now back home in the lovely and scenic coastal town of Port Carron England to continue his work undercover and underground. Using his fathers position as the town doctor Robert Blood, Ian Hunter Peter builds a laboratory in the deserted coal mines outside the town to do his business undisturbed. While vacationing in the South American jungles Peter discovered the drug Curare from the local native tribesmen and has been using it in his experiments in his theory of eternal life. A brilliant but arrogant student Peter felt that he's smarter then all the professors and teachers in the academy put together. Which lead to him being run out of town, Vienna, on a rail. Still not learning his lesson Peter is back on the road to destruction with him kidnapping people in and around town and after knocking them out working them over, in his secret lab,by taking organs out of one and putting them in another to keep the one receiving the organ going until he needs a new transplant. Looking and acting normal on the outside the tall dark and handsome Peter attracts, his fathers Dr. Robert Blood's assistant, pretty nurse and recent widow Lnda Parker, Hazel Court,who at first falls in love with him. Peter putting on an act that he's in love with Linda takes her to his secret lab in the coal mines to, what seems to me, knock her out put her under the paralyzing drug Curare. Peter then use her in his experiments of involuntary organ donations. Lucky for Linda Peter's mad scheme is interrupted by the local town hobo Tregaye, Fred Johnson, who unknowingly to himself, and Linda, saved her life by popping up just at the right time. Actually the brilliant Peter didn't come across that smart at all in the movie with all his experiments falling flat on their faces. All of Peter's victims from mine inspector George Beale, Andy Alston, to the local town undertaker old man Morton, Gerald Lawson, to the before-mentioned hobo Tregaye didn't produce the results that he hoped for. In the end Peter ended up being the victim of one of his experiments that went very wrong for him but just right for the town and people of Port Carron. That experiment finally put and end to his insane actions once in for all.