When I hear the title Corridors of Blood, I think this:
You know... it's really not even that drastic. But I feel like there should be some blood. Maybe sprayed on the walls of a few corridors. Because someone's throat got cut or a limb got hacked off. Something like that. Something that in some way features blood and corridors intersecting somehow. What I don't expect is the tale of a man seeking a way to perform painless surgery who tests his concoctions on himself and becomes addicted to the newfound drugs with a side story that kind of, sort of intersects with his about a small collective who kill drunken revelers to sell their bodies to science. There's hardly a corridor to be seen and certainly none of blood.
Once I got passed the idea that Corridors of Blood was going to be a bit more cerebral than its name suggests, I found it to be a pretty cool little movie. I've seen Boris Karloff in many movies (most of which he's covered in makeup) and I've heard him narrate How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but I feel like I've never seen him give the type of performance he gives here. He's solid through and through and riveting to watch. I'm trying not to sound like I'm denigrating his other roles and performances, but it's a little unusual to see someone who is known for one or two iconic roles in a performance so different from what made him famous. I definitely need to check out more of his work (though did he always speak with a lisp?).
Dr. Thomas Bolton's (Karloff) effort to anesthetize his patience is met with skepticism, derision, and even laughter. If this is truly the case that people used to mock the forward thinking so openly, it's a wonder anything ever got done (and I've no doubt we're still doing it). I can't fathom why people wouldn't support his efforts to make surgery less painful. All they've got now is performing surgery as fast as possible.
Bolton's spiral into addiction is well done, though I wish the filmmakers had done something to show his fever dreams while high. To be fair, I believe the film was using his exploits with Black Ben (Francis de Wolff) and his cadre to be the dreams Bolton thought he was having. If I have any complaints about Corridors of Blood, it's that the who subplot dealing with Black Ben is poorly developed. At no point does Bolton ever need them and they really only stand as plot devices to make certain things happen. With how abruptly the wraps up, it feels like more time could have been spent developing that plot and interweaving it with Bolton's decent a bit better. Still, it's always cool to see Christopher Lee pop up and his character has an awesome name: Resurrection Joe. Also, there's an incredibly busty maid who keeps interrupting the seedy business and it seems like she's going to have something to do with their downfall, but apparently she listens well to instructions and keeps quiet about the goings on. Must have been the girlfriend of one of the cast...
It's interesting to think what it must have been like living in the time before painkillers. Doubly so if scientists really did experiment on themselves as freely as Bolton. I loved the scene when Karloff and his daughter-in-law celebrate an enormous gash on his hand he obtained while high because he didn't feel a thing. It's not really scary, which is probably why the Black Ben stuff is in there at all, but it's classy and the cinematography is amazing.
And here's the Trailers from Hell take:
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