Corridors of Blood (1963)

Absolutely the worst movie.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

(Credit IMDb) In an effort to relieve the suffering of surgery patients, Dr. Thomas Bolton painstakingly develops an opium-based anesthetic, to which he gradually becomes addicted. In order to provide a continual supply of chemicals to continue his experiments and support his addiction, he falls in with a den of murderers who use his signature to sell cadavers to the local hospital. I found this online the other day, and decided to watch it. I'm a big Boris Karloff fan, and will watch almost anything he stars in. Apparently, this wasn't released until 1962, and I can see why. It has a heavy message going for it. It was back around the time where surgery wasn't nearly as advanced as it is these days, so they did some pretty ballsy stuff. Back then, you didn't have anesthesia like you do now. It was not only painful, but often frightening. The thought of surgery is scary enough as it is, even with anesthesia, but it's even more terrifying without it. My problem with this movie is that it failed to maintain my interest. In fact, it's almost lifeless at times. Boris Karloff's drug addiction was somewhat riveting at certain points, don't get me wrong. But it was a bit too bland, despite how deeply they delved into it. Boris Karloff gives a bravura performance. He is by far the best thing about this movie. I felt for him. I just wish they gave him more to work with. Many of the films he made as he got older, didn't deserve a man of his talents. This movie is one of them. Christopher Lee is quite chilling as well, I just wished he and Karloff had more screen time together. Overall, I don't grasp why this movie is well liked. It's boring, rather depressing, and hard to get into. I respect people's opinions, so maybe you'll get more out of it than I did4.6/10

Any film that boasts Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee or both together promises a great deal. Corridors of Blood marks the first time with them in the same film and together and is a very good one. There is actually very little wrong with Corridors of Blood though the ending is overly-sentimental and the film plods slightly at the end. There is so much to like and even love. Corridors of Blood may be low-budget, but you actually can't tell because it's professional and has such atmosphere to it. The photography is beautiful and the sets give off a real sense of creepiness. The music is unobtrusive and never obvious, instead it's haunting and understated, not an amazing score but suits the film well. The dialogue is intelligent and sounds as though there was thought put into it, while the story is a good mix of gas-lit melodrama, pseudo-histrionic science and gruesome body-snatcher antics, and they're well balanced. The horror elements is more reliant on atmosphere than anything else, which is fine because the atmosphere is so well done and one of the best aspects of Corridors of Blood. The characters carry the story well, though we don't see very much of Resurrection Joe, and the direction is pitched just right. Boris Karloff is outstanding here, refined and compassionate but his presence is magnetic and his addiction and laughing gas moments make for a nice change to what we usually see from him. Christopher Lee is loathsome and creepy as he ought to, he isn't on screen for very long but his performance is still memorable. The rest of the cast are great, particularly Francis De Wolff and Finlay Currie. To conclude, very good and very effective in almost all areas. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Another from the Criterion Madmen and Monsters set. Here Boris Karloff is a doctor trying to find away to end pain during surgery. Regrettably he becomes addicted to his drugs and all sorts of havoc ensues.Better in many way than the co feature Haunted Strangler, this boasts a super performance from Christopher Lee. The problem is that this is tough going when viewed close to the Haunted Strangler since in some ways its more of the same (which isn't too far off since the films were made somewhat back to back). Watching them back to back, as one is prone to do with double feature sets I found my attention wandering, which is very unfair because this is a good movie.Heavily censored upon initial release this is a dark and cold film where everyone appears to be on the make or damaged in someway. (The cut material is included as an extra in the Criterion set; which also has an excellent commentary).I really do like the movie, I only wish I had watched it spaced days apart from its co feature not minutes.

ANYONE who goes to see "Werewolf in a Girls Dormitory" deserves exactly what he gets. To give you an idea, this gory mess of pottage from Britain has a jumping rock 'n' roll theme song titled "The Ghoul in School." Oxford, watch out! Rather surprisingly, the first quarter of the second item on this "horror" DVD bill, is pretty good. The title of this one is "Corridors of Blood." For a while it suggests those gaslit melodramas of Old London in the early nineteen-forties, starring Boris Karloff, as happens here. Horror they had, also a serious, underlying purposefulness."Corridors" starts with Mr. Karloff, as an altruistic surgeon determined to prove, through experiments, the existence of anesthesia.Opposing him are some selfish, bigoted colleagues. Some dregs of Old London are also blackmailing the poor guy, whose only aim is to benefit mankind. This portion is forthright, picaresque and carries ugly conviction, and Mr. Karloff is a persuasive, if lamblike, protagonist.Then the film turns into a plodding, shuddersome exercise in blood and pain. It's the old one-two, strictly for the sake of shock. That's the bargain in store for any customer lured by the pair of titles.