DR BLOOD'S COFFIN bears all the hallmarks of a classic slice of British Gothic horror: it's got an eerie setting in the deserted Cornish tin mines (also put to good use in the similar PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES), it features an actress many consider to be Britain's best scream queen (the delectable Hazel Court), and the Frankenstein-style plot features a misguided scientist who performs experiments on the living and the dead in a bid to become a pioneer heart transplant surgeon. What's not to love?Quite a lot, it actually turns out, and not least the clunky script, which routinely AVOIDS every moment of possible excitement in favour of talky, talky, boredom. A full twenty minutes or so of the running time is taken up with a guy CRAWLING – incessant, repetitive, and yawn-inducing. The potential horrors of the script are diluted and avoided, with a single snippet of bloody surgery the only horror we get until the climax, in which a fine-looking zombie (that would look great in a Hammer or Italian zombie film) shows up for some last-minute action.Before then, we get a staged romance between Kieron Moore and Hazel Court, who can really do better. There are some locals with silly accents and some nice locations in then-contemporary Cornwall, but that's about it. Sidney J. Furie, who later on made the supremely scary THE ENTITY, doesn't distinguish himself in this forgotten outing. Kieron Moore is miscast as the protagonist: we needed someone of Cushing's calibre to make this guy likable, but Moore is just a schmaltzy jerk and Court's the sole decent actor mired in a sea of muddle headed wrongness. Funnily enough, the execrable script was written by Nathan Juran – the director responsible for colourful fantasy classic THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD!

SPOILERS!!!! Story about people disappearing in a remote Cornish town. It seems the well-liked doctor Peter Blood (Kieron Moore) is killing people he thinks are not needed and transferring their hearts into the corpses of intelligent people. HOW this is supposed to bring them to life is never explained. Pretty nurse Linda (Hazel Court) begins to suspect that something is up. The plot is pretty stupid but this is an OK horror film. The scenery is beautiful (I believe it was shot in Ireland) and it moves fairly quick. Moore and Court are great in their roles which helps. If you're going to watch this for blood or violence forget it. It's not a gory film at all but there are a few shots of exposed beating hearts. The ending is silly but effective. All in all just an OK horror film. Great title though.

Peter Blood(the dashing Kieron Moore, perfectly conveying the drive and determination of a scientist with paranoia and madness brewing inside)returns to his small village home of Grenville after extensive schooling in Vienna. What his father Dr. Robert Blood(Ian Hunter), the beloved, hardworking village physician, or nurse Linda Parker(the lovely Hazel Court), his possible love interest, neither know is just what Peter is capable of in pursuing his goal to make a living, beating heart revive a dead body. Peter takes it upon himself to choose the lowest of village folk to paralyze with a poison that removes their ability to move much or talk, enabling him to surgically remove their hearts while they remain alive, with horrified eyes revealing the only cries of help available to them. Peter has a secret "lab" in a small place within tunnels underneath the ruins of an abandoned mine. Opportunity arises for Peter to gain control of human subjects when his father must leave for nearby Plymouth, out of town, as he works in his place with access to tools, equipment, and space. But, it'll only be a matter of time before Peter will make that ultimate mistake which will reveal his evil ways. He wholeheartedly believes in what he's doing..scientists must be "ruthless and unafraid" of what the critical majority as a whole thinks, Peter feels that important people should live in place of the "inferior" beings who merely occupy space, when their beating hearts could thrive in those better suited to make the world a better place.This was actually a pleasant surprise. I thought the premise was grisly enough and the idea that Peter has trust from those in the village, creates much in the way of suspense. There's this masterstroke of a scene where this poor soul, given poison, makes his way, painstakingly, out of Peter's cavernous lair outside to an ocean embankment only to face the fact that the village is using as their physician, currently taking Robert's place, the very man who committed the sickening act to him. Hazel Court is the voice of reason, using Peter's attempts at being God against him to no avail when she suspects, and is right, that he's doing inhumane things. Kenneth J Warren is the village Sergeant Cook, who is investigating missing citizens and unusual deaths. An important scene comes in the middle portion of the film when Peter is first caught by the village's elderly coroner, attempting a surgical heart removal on a citizen in the morgue. Interrupted by coroner Morton(Gerald Lawson)while in the process of removing the heart, Peter kills him accidentally setting off a chain of events will lead to his downfall. The body he was working on dies, so he'll have to seek a second victim. Peter has to somehow hide Morton's body, take over as coroner doing autopsies which have the poison he put inside them, trying to evade curious eyes seeking answers to odd occurrences. You see, through Moore's performance, a man squirming to correct mistakes he himself made trying somehow to stay one step ahead.I'm a fan of "mad scientist" movies, and this does follow the Frankenstein model, but I liked the performances. The film is ultimately about life and death and how Peter wishes to prolong those important with the hearts of those who waste them on drink or lost dreams. I also felt director Sidney J Furie uses the ruins and tunnels effectively. I think this is so story-driven, that the low budget doesn't harm it. Only one real puzzling occurrence for me was the ending when Peter is actually successful only for the one revived from the dead(..a real nifty twist is who the corpse revived is and how they relate to Linda)to turn on him violently..I guess it follows Frankenstein in that regard as well because when one tries to play God he will reap what he sows.

Doctor Blood's Coffin is a very good film that has a good cast which includes Kieron Moore, Hazel Court, Ian Hunter, Kenneth J. Warren, Gerald Lawson, Fred Johnson, Paul Hardtmuth, Paul Stockman, Andy Alston, John Romane, and Ruth Lee. The acting by all of these actors is very good. The thrills is really good and some of it is surprising. The movie is filmed very good. The music is good. The film is quite interesting and the movie really keeps you going until the end. This is a very good and thrilling film. If you like Kieron Moore, Hazel Court, Ian Hunter, Kenneth J. Warren, Gerald Lawson, Fred Johnson, Paul Hardtmuth, the rest of the cast in the film, Horror, Thrillers, Dramas, and interesting classic films then I strongly recommend you to see this film today! Movie Nuttball's NOTE: I got this film on a special DVD that has Doctor Blood's Coffin, The Brainiac, and The Fury of the Wolfman from Vintage Home Entertainment! See if you can find this winner with three bizarre but classic films on one DVD at Amazon.com today!