'60s Trash: Doctor Blood's Coffin (1961)

 A case of a good Title...but not what is actually promised.  This is Doctor Blood's Coffin, a 1961 Thriller which promises alot.  Who is Doctor Blood?  He's a Frankenstein-style Doctor who wants to cure death.  He's...evil?  Well, he is, but his motives sound good at first.  What's up with his coffin?  Well, I'll get to that later. Sufficed to say, this is not the bloody, ghastly chiller that it sounds like.  The actual Plot involves a small Village in England dealing with missing people?  Who's responsible?  Well, the Film plays coy...for about 20 minutes- tops.  In an interesting move, we know who the bad guy is for most of this and follow him around.  It's not 100% unique, but pretty rare for the time.  Does it work?  The Film comes to us from Sidney J. Furie, a long-time Director with lots of stuff on his Resume.  Granted, some of that is Superman IV, Detention (with Dolph Lundgren) and Rodney Dangerfield's My 5 Wives.  This Film is also notable for being one of the first Zombie Films in Color.  I'll get into that later too though.  To find out how this great Title...I mean, Film is, read on...

In a Cold Open, a Doctor is kicked out of his University for doing an experiment on an unwilling subject.

Weirdly, he leaves without killing his Teacher who stops him.  Odd, no?

In a small Village, random people are going missing.  Who is to blame?

It's Dr. Blood...specifically his Son, that is.

We find out, as noted, quickly and then see him try to do his work in secret.
It helps when people just implicitly trust him and look into nothing he does or says.

In between his playing God, he also tries to hook up with a Nurse.  

She's sad because her Husband is dead, but I'm sure that won't come up later.

She eventually begins to suspect that some of what he's saying doesn't add up.

The fact that other people are going missing and he's acting more erratic doesn't help.

She catches him in the act- well, not working on his master plan fully- and he comes clean to her.  He's one of those 'I think that I'm helping' kind of villains.

She doesn't believe in his work and runs away.

He flees to his Cave- which they checked earlier, but trusted him when he said it was empty- and finishes his work.  She shows up again and it's good, since his masterpiece is the revival of...

Her Husband.

Dun dun dun!

Naturally, he kills the Doctor and she runs off as the Film just kind of stops.

It has so much promise- the Title that is.  No, I won't let this go!

The Title promises something like the Blood Island Series and, boy, does it not deliver.  You basically get a Frankenstein Film with no Monster until the last few minutes (making the First Zombie Film in Color achievement kind of hollow).  The Lead- Kieron Moore- does a good enough job as Doctor Blood.  He just doesn't have anything extra going on with him.  He wants to do his work.  People don't want him to.  He doesn't like that.  I've seen Bruce Willis drowned in puddle's less shallow than his motivations!  The Acting, as a whole, is fine.  No complaints really.  Nobody stands out per se either though, to be fair.  The Pacing is fine, building up to the reveal nicely.  Ultimately though, there's not enough substance to keep things interesting throughout.  Decent Film.  Great Title.  Bad VHS Box Art.

Next time, a weird Vampire Film that doesn't quite end up like you think.  It's the kind of arty stuff that I'd normally dump in Bob's lap...yea?  Stay tuned...