El coleccionista de cadáveres (1967), Blindman's Bluff (USA title), Cauldron of Blood (UK title), The Corpse Collectors (Spanish title translation)
Country: Spain/USA
Production Company: A PC Hispamer Films Madrid, Robert D Weinbach Productions Inc New York Picture
Producer: Robert D Weinbach
Associate Producers: Donald Havens Jr, Gilbert Simmons
In Charge of Production: Sergio Newman
"Realizador": Santos Alcocer
"A Film By": Edward Mann
Screenplay: John Melson, Edward Mann (Spanish version: J.L. Bayonas)
Music: Ray Ellis (Spanish version: José Luis Navarro)
Theme: "Blindman's Bluff" by Bob Harris
Theme: "There's A Certain Kind of Woman" by Edward and Marilyn Mann
Cinematographer: Francisco Sempere (in Panoramico)
Additional Photography: Robert J Patterson Jr
Editor: José Antonio Rojo
Art Director: Gil Parrondo
Production Manager: Angel Rosson
Assistant Director: Julio Sempere
Special Effects: Thierry Pathé Special Effects Laboratory
Make-up: Manolita Garcia Fraile
Wardrobe: Manolita Iglesias
Sound Editor: Peter Parascheles
Sound Effects: Luis Castro
Props: F Garcinuño, F Yague
Fight Arranger: Scott Miller
Acknowledgements: Pan American World Airways; Mercedes-Benz; Cessna Aircraft; Endur, Madrid-Suede Creations
Locations: Torremolinos; Estudios Roma, Madrid
Length: 99 mins.
Release Dates: Spain: 16 February 1970. UK: April 1971. USA: 1 August 1971.
Cast: Jean Pierre Aumont (Claude Marchand), Boris Karloff (Badulescu), Viveca Lindfors (Tania), Rosenda Monteros (Valerie), Milo Quesada (Shanghai), Dyanik Zurakowska (Elga), Rubén Rojo (Pablo), Jacqui Speed (Pilar), Mercedes Rojo (Gypsy Queen), Mary Lou Palermo (Stewardess), Manuel de Blas (Lenny), Eduardo Coutelen (Domingo).
The later work of Boris Karloff has never received much love from critics or fans and usually for very good reason. As part of Pierre Fournier's Boris Karloff Blogathon, I will cover some of his more obscure and/or reviled films from the last few years of his career, uncover some of the background to their making, see if they deserve their obscurity, and if they're as bad as we've been led to believe.
Viveca Lindfors and Rosenda Monteros camp it up at the dive bar.
Synopsis: Magazine reporter Claude Marchand is assigned to Spain's Costa del Sol to interview the sculptor Franz Badulescu. Blind and lame following a car accident caused by his wife Tania, Badelescu is creating tableaux based on famous paintings, but unbeknownst to him Tania and a mysterious henchman are killing locals, dropping the victims in a cauldron of acid, and using the skeletons as armatures. Following the deaths of a beach attendant and a dog, Tania turns her sadistic attention to Elga, a friend of Marchand's companion, Valerie.
"Now zat's what I really call afeeshent servees" Jean Pierre Aumont charms Mary Lou Palermo
Review: Between Michael Reeves' The Sorcerers (1967), filmed in the UK and Peter Bogdanovich's Targets (1968), made in California (where he also shot an episode of "The Girl from UNCLE"), Karloff headed to southern Spain to make this Spanish/US co-production which has received little coverage over the years – Peter Underwood's seminal Karloff simply lists it in the filmography, while Cynthia Lindsay in Dear Boris: The Life of William Henry Pratt aka Boris Karloff (Limelight Edition, 1995) mentions it only in passing – and is often lumped in with the Jack Hill Mexican quartet as unwatchable garbage, best forgotten.
While it has to be said that the piece is an unholy mess, it's not without the odd moment of tension and features an elegant (if under-used) Karloff, a barking mad, whips-and-uniform performance by Viveca Lindfors (The Damned, Creepshow) and a very much of its time musical score (at least in the English language version) by Filmation composer Ray Ellis (who would re-use the score for "Shazam", in 1974).
"'Til death us do part, I suppose." Karloff rises above it all.
For many years the film was credited to Santos Alcocer, working under the pseudonym Edward Mann, thanks mostly to a review and credits by David Pirie in the April 1971 issue of The Monthly Film Bulletin (this is also the cause of reviewers naming Karloff's character "Charles" rather than "Franz", and the US title being listed as Blind Man's Bluff, rather than the onscreen Blindman's Bluff). Alcocer and Mann are in fact two different people, but the mistake is understandable thanks to the unusual credit "Realizador: Santos Alcocer. A film by Edward Mann". Alcocer was a Production Manager turned Writer/Director who went on to helm El enigma del ataud/The Orgies of Dr. Orloff (1969) and ran his own production company, while Mann, screenwriter of Terence Fisher's Island of Terror (aka Night of the Silicates, 1966), was a jack of all trades, known (according to Tim Lucas) for adding his name where credit wasn't always earned, including as co-writer on Oliver Stone's debut Seizure (1974), a film dogged by rumors of money laundering by Michael Thevis, a gangster and murderer known as "The Scarface of Porn".
Along with Spain-based American Producer Robert D Weinbach (later owner of Vidcrest Home Video, who released the VHS under review), Mann would write and direct interracial love romp Hot Pants Holiday (aka Tropical Heat, 1972) and co-write (with Weinbach) Jack Cardiff's memorable The Mutations (aka Freakmaker, 1974). It's not known whether Mann and Alcocer shared directing duties, or whether Mann simply took the credit, nor indeed do we know how much involvement he had in the script, which is also credited to John Melson, who wrote Battle of the Bulge (with considerable input from Philip Yordan and Milton Sperling) and Juan Piquer Simón's dire Journey to the Center of the Earth (aka Where Time Began, 1976). To further complicate matters, the Spanish version is credited to José Luis de las Bayonas (Un dollaro per 7 vigliacchi/Madigan's Millions, 1968) leaving the real provenance somewhat obscure.
A neat bit of foreshadowing in an otherwise mad dream sequence.
By 1967, at 80 years old, Karloff was very ill. Crippled with back pain and arthritis and often finding it difficult to breathe due to emphysema, he should by rights have been enjoying retirement in the Hampshire village of Bramshott where he had settled with his sixth wife, Evelyn. Instead he was in the midst of one of the busiest periods of his life and by my rough calculation, between the year 1964 and his death in February 1969, he appeared in 12 movies, provided the voices for three more (including Mad Monster Party and the TV special "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas"), appeared in 10 TV shows, around five TV commercials, and made three LPs, as well as regular recordings for Reader's Digest. Quoted by Lindsay in Dear Boris…, he said "I'm not really alive when I'm not working … to know I would never work again would be something like a death sentence."
He definitely appears frail here, his tired eyes obscured by heavy dark glasses or inexplicable make-up and his gait unsteady. Most uncomfortable of all is a scene where Viveca Lindfors as his wife, administers an injection against his wishes, with his feeble protestations hitting a little too close to home (ironically, Karloff replaced Claude Rains, who was too ill to take the part). But it's still Karloff, that wonderful voice intoning hammy, badly written lines such as "I once fathered a gryphon, you know" and "Now, I suppose, like Beethoven I'm doomed never to see the beauty of my own creations." He still exudes an air of quiet authority, which sets him apart from Aumont's "let us 'ave an orgy" playboy and Lindfors' bonkers bisexual.
Jewelry holds out better than skin in this acid bath.
While Blindman's Bluff/Cauldron of Blood is just about worth it for Karloff's appearance and a brief but effective animated opening title sequence, the rest of the film is largely a disaster, with too many unresolved strands, several loose, ends, and the heavy hand of Franco's censors particularly obvious in a ham-fisted (and unnecessary) rape sequence which plays out in stop motion stills and ends with stock footage of a lightning bolt, repeated a few minutes later to mask an abrupt transition to night. On the plus side, Dyanik Zurakowska (La marca del Hombre Lobo/Frankenstein's Bloody Terror, 1968) is a delight to behold and the sequence where she is stalked through the Badalescu mansion by Tania and her henchman does approach some sense of atmosphere – cameraman Francisco Sempere would go on the shoot Non si deve profanare il sonno dei morti/The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue (1974).
David Pirie's MFB review states "Its heavy Freudian symbolism becomes almost laughable in conjunction with the wooden dialogue and ludicrous situations…" and he wraps up with "…here the only visible consolation is the chance to see Karloff again, coping bravely with the uninteresting role of the sculptor." And you can't say fairer than that.
El coleccionista de cadáveres/Blindman's Bluff/Cauldron of Blood is unavailable on Region 1 DVD but can be found on a Region 2 release in the UK, from Orbit Media (along with an episode of "Colonel March Of Scotland Yard" from 1956), on out-of-print VHS releases from Vidcrest and Republic, and is currently available on YouTube here.
Reference
David Pirie, Monthly Film Bulletin, Issue 447, April 1971.
Peter Underwood, Karloff, Drake Publishers, 1972.
Cynthia Lindsay, Dear Boris: The Life of William Henry Pratt aka Boris Karloff, Limelight Edition, 1995.
Tim Lucas, Video Watchblog, January 2007.
Eric Cotenas, Lovelockandload – Euro Cult Movie Goodness (date unknown).
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