It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Any film that boasts Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee or both together promises a great deal. Corridors of Blood marks the first time with them in the same film and together and is a very good one. There is actually very little wrong with Corridors of Blood though the ending is overly-sentimental and the film plods slightly at the end. There is so much to like and even love. Corridors of Blood may be low-budget, but you actually can't tell because it's professional and has such atmosphere to it. The photography is beautiful and the sets give off a real sense of creepiness. The music is unobtrusive and never obvious, instead it's haunting and understated, not an amazing score but suits the film well. The dialogue is intelligent and sounds as though there was thought put into it, while the story is a good mix of gas-lit melodrama, pseudo-histrionic science and gruesome body-snatcher antics, and they're well balanced. The horror elements is more reliant on atmosphere than anything else, which is fine because the atmosphere is so well done and one of the best aspects of Corridors of Blood. The characters carry the story well, though we don't see very much of Resurrection Joe, and the direction is pitched just right. Boris Karloff is outstanding here, refined and compassionate but his presence is magnetic and his addiction and laughing gas moments make for a nice change to what we usually see from him. Christopher Lee is loathsome and creepy as he ought to, he isn't on screen for very long but his performance is still memorable. The rest of the cast are great, particularly Francis De Wolff and Finlay Currie. To conclude, very good and very effective in almost all areas. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Karloff is great in this tale of a compassionate surgeon who is looking to relieve the pain and suffering that he inflicts through his life-saving surgery. In the process of developing an anesthetic, he becomes addicted to his formula and is used as a pawn of criminals.This is not a horror film at all but a good story about the historical problems facing surgery before anesthetic. There are murders for profit, there is the suggestion of painful bloody surgery but they do not really show it. There are no real disturbing scenes. This movie was billed as horror but most horror fans would probably object to this classification. It is, however, a good solid movie about a very real problem, surgery before anesthetic and a man who looked to find the secret to painless surgery.If you are looking for a horror movie, you wont find it here...but you will find a pretty good movie with the bonus of Christopher Lee as a ruthless criminal killer called Resurrection Joe.

This was Karloff's second film for Director Robert Day in 1958, the other being Grip Of The Strangler. That movie ain't bad but this is certainly the better offering of the two.Boris Karloff is excellent as Dr. Thomas Bolton, operating with great speed to minimise pain for those under the surgeon's knife in the London of 1840. Convinced that chemical inhalation can separate agony from the knife, dedicated Boris uses himself as a test subject - and whoops, is that tincture of opium being added to the mixture? It isn't long before Bolton becomes addicted to the gas, falling under the control of inn-keep Black Ben (an agreeably seedy Francis De Wolff). With Christopher Lee in tow as his side kick Resurrection Joe, they fancy they have a nice littler earner by getting Bolton to forge death certificates, and providing the corpus delicti to the local hospital for a nice fat fee.This is a film with more than a hint of Oliver Twist, and a touch of Karloff's own earlier triumph The Body Snatcher. Yet it works extremely well, capturing the atmosphere of 1840s London effortlessly. Karloff is well aided by his supporting cast, including a quietly creepy Lee, Francis Matthews as Bolton's son and Adrienne Corri. M.G.M. apparently had a change of management after the film was delivered and buried the movie for four years before giving it a limited release. Shame, as this is a very good drama with some stand-out horror moments. Well worth seeing.

Another from the Criterion Madmen and Monsters set. Here Boris Karloff is a doctor trying to find away to end pain during surgery. Regrettably he becomes addicted to his drugs and all sorts of havoc ensues.Better in many way than the co feature Haunted Strangler, this boasts a super performance from Christopher Lee. The problem is that this is tough going when viewed close to the Haunted Strangler since in some ways its more of the same (which isn't too far off since the films were made somewhat back to back). Watching them back to back, as one is prone to do with double feature sets I found my attention wandering, which is very unfair because this is a good movie.Heavily censored upon initial release this is a dark and cold film where everyone appears to be on the make or damaged in someway. (The cut material is included as an extra in the Criterion set; which also has an excellent commentary).I really do like the movie, I only wish I had watched it spaced days apart from its co feature not minutes.