"THESE WOMAN HAVE JUST SEEN THEIR DOCTOR"
A curious mixture of 1960's Gothic horror and 1970's California shag carpeting occult this garishly colorful effort features turtlenecks, huge sideburns, ties wide enough to land a jet on, baby doll nighties, and & splashy red blood. It was directed by busy asst. director/producer Eddie Saeta (who had been doing second unit stuff since the '30s) features an over the top performance from prolific TV actor John Considine (COMBAT!) and enough 70's Day-Glo colors to fry your retinas.
Lawyer Fred Saunders (Barry Coe JAWS 2) is heavily despondent over the recent death of his wife Laura (Jo Morrow TERMINAL ISLAND) and since she has promised to come back to him in the afterlife (we see her as a skull-faced ghost in the opening credits) he's hellbent on making this happen ASAP. Ignoring the come-on advances of his secretary Sandy (Cheryl Miller DAKTARI -who does everything sort of throwing herself naked upon his desk) he seeks out the help of seemingly every crackpot in greater Los Angeles including fake seances and a group of monks who keep the rotting corpse of a member's wife hanging about.
Much to the concern of his doctor friend Greg (Stewart Moss THE BAT PEOPLE), he meets up with "Dr. Death" (Considine) whose assistant Marta is played by Florence Marly who most people will know as the blood-sucking alien from Curtis Harrington's QUEEN OF BLOOD from 1966. Dr. Death puts on a demonstration for Fred and a select group of individuals whereupon he transfers the soul of a woman with a hideously scarred face to a beautiful one recently deceased. Unfortunately, the donor also must be not amongst the living so this gives the Dr. an opportunity to whip out the old sawing the girl in half magic trick which here isn't a trick, and the young woman is dispatched and her soul transferred.
Intrigued, Fred hires the good doctor (for $50,000!) to transfer a recently departed soul to his wife. Fred has a sort bit of concern over the use of a living donor for the process but this is put aside after he follows the ghost of his wife through a graveyard and makes out with her in the crypt. The doctor and his scared henchman Thor (Leon Askin -General Burkhalter from HOGAN'S HEROES) procure a young hippie girl which Laura's corpse rejects during the transfer procedure (with Considine intoning "enter that body!!" with all the dramatic flourish of a Shakespearean actor)
Fred decides to call off the process after failure (and sleepless nights hearing his wife's voice) but the Doctor has become infatuated with the resurrection of Laura and continues racking up a startling body count while the oblivious Fred begins romancing his secretary with a falling in love montage complete with soft-focus picnics, Frisbee and horse rides. It doesn't take too long to see who the Doctor has in mind for his next victim with Fred racing against time to stop him.
DOCTOR DEATH fits into that genre of 70's California occult/horror with films like COUNT YORGA (1970) and DEATHMASTER (1972) while in fact, it would be easy to see the star of those films Robert Quarry in the title role here. DOCTOR DEATH, however, does employ a healthy dose of humor and black comedy with even Three Stooge Moe Howard making a cameo appearance as an audience member who eagerly volunteers to see if a female from the Doctor's stage show is truly really dead. Saeta had worked as asst. director for Columbia on many Stooge shorts and this was his first and along with a couple of TV episodes only directing credit. There's also an amusing sequence where the Doctor relates his past life and origins which stretch back thousands of years with various male and female donor bodies.
Filled with vivid splashes of bright red blood and oozing flesh wounds & gore make-up including a decapitated dead and in a surprising move, the doctor's blood can dissolve flesh all of which help dissipate the made for TV look the film ventures into sometimes. All the actors fade into the background with the over the top performance from Considine and the film really kicks into high gear whenever he's on-screen with the exception of the enigmatic Marly who brings a touch of class and old-world aristocratic atmosphere to her extended cameo and hold her own against the almost endless cavalcade of young female victims.
Intrigued, Fred hires the good doctor (for $50,000!) to transfer a recently departed soul to his wife. Fred has a sort bit of concern over the use of a living donor for the process but this is put aside after he follows the ghost of his wife through a graveyard and makes out with her in the crypt. The doctor and his scared henchman Thor (Leon Askin -General Burkhalter from HOGAN'S HEROES) procure a young hippie girl which Laura's corpse rejects during the transfer procedure (with Considine intoning "enter that body!!" with all the dramatic flourish of a Shakespearean actor)
Fred decides to call off the process after failure (and sleepless nights hearing his wife's voice) but the Doctor has become infatuated with the resurrection of Laura and continues racking up a startling body count while the oblivious Fred begins romancing his secretary with a falling in love montage complete with soft-focus picnics, Frisbee and horse rides. It doesn't take too long to see who the Doctor has in mind for his next victim with Fred racing against time to stop him.
Filled with vivid splashes of bright red blood and oozing flesh wounds & gore make-up including a decapitated dead and in a surprising move, the doctor's blood can dissolve flesh all of which help dissipate the made for TV look the film ventures into sometimes. All the actors fade into the background with the over the top performance from Considine and the film really kicks into high gear whenever he's on-screen with the exception of the enigmatic Marly who brings a touch of class and old-world aristocratic atmosphere to her extended cameo and hold her own against the almost endless cavalcade of young female victims.
Considine was great in this and The Thirsty Dead from 1974.
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty amazing how much stuff he pops up in!
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