The 1961 British horror film "Doctor Blood's Coffin" is here given the DVD treatment by an outfit called Cheezy Flicks, but I believe that appellation does this film an injustice. Far from cheesy, it is, rather, an intelligently written, well acted and atmospherically shot picture that makes excellent use of its English coastal locale. In it, Kieron Moore plays Dr. Peter Blood (hey, wasn't that Errol Flynn's character's name in the 1935 swashbuckler "Captain Blood"?!?), a modern-day research scientist who returns to his hometown in Cornwall after his experiments on bringing the dead back to life with still-living hearts cause him to be kicked out of Vienna. Back home, he enters into a relationship with his father's pretty nurse assistant, Linda, played by Hazel Court (in the late '50s and early '60s, surely one of the prettiest actresses the U.K. had to offer), and secretly continues his work, using several of the town's unwilling test subjects. Moore is just fine in the lead role as the dedicated but quite insane scientist, Court is gorgeous as usual (especially when shown in a low-cut sundress), and Australian character actor Kenneth J. Warren (who will always be Emma Peel nemesis Z.Z. von Schnerk to me!) is quite sturdy as the local police sergeant trying to get to the bottom of all the mishegas. The film gets increasingly bizarre as it progresses, especially when Dr. Blood decides to prove his case by bringing Linda's late husband back as a nice surprise. There are several mildly gross surgical sequences to please all the gorehounds out there, and, for me, the highlight: a fine and heated discussion between Blood and Linda regarding the moral consequences of his work. This three-minute scene provides possibly the best thesping I've ever seen either actor give us. Ultimately, this supposedly "cheesy flick" turns out to be anything but, and is highly recommended for all fans of levelheaded British horror.
Review of Doctor Blood's Coffin
