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Not thought of as a "Spanish horror
movie," EL COLECCIONISTA DE CADAVERES, otherwise known as
BLINDMAN'S BLUFF and CAULDRON OF BLOOD, is certainly one, with a Spanish
director, Santos Alcocer (using Edward Mann as a signature for the
export prints) and a Spanish production behind it. American money was
also pumped into the film, via Robert D. Weinbach Productions.
Of course, under its generally known English titles EL COLECCIONISTA DE
CADAVERES is chiefly recognized as being one of the last films to star
Boris Karloff and suffers in reputation as a movie not much better than
the ill-regarded quartet of Mexican horror films that Karloff made
toward the end of his life. This is unfortunate, as the film has a
superb textural performance by the Swedish actress Viveca Lindfors
(playing the dominatrix wife of the crippled and blind Karloff
character, Franz Badulescu) and moments of truly grotesque and
disturbing horror.
The plot idea of using recent dead cadavers for a work of art is nothing
new in film, but the central axis of EL COLECCIONISTA is Tania Badulescu (Lindfors), who is compelled by her dysfunctionalism to
further the career of her sculptor husband and add to the money pot she
is collecting for herself. This is Lindfors' film, therefore, and
Karloff is merely around for splendid window dressing. (Claude Rains was
originally considered for the Karloff role, but was too sick to take it
on.)
There are several delicious moments. Every scene inside the basement
cave that contains "the cauldron of blood" (actually an acidic
vat meant to fizz away meat from its bone) is sharp with creepy
atmosphere and suspense, and the entire sequence involving Elga (played
by Polish sex kitten Dianik Zurakowska) inside the Badulescu house is
handled with a successful manipulation of suspense and subtle kinkiness.
Not that the film is without problems. Director Santos Alcocer manages
to make the first thirty minutes rather difficult to sit through, as he
changes the film's mood every two minutes or so before settling in to
tell his story. The very 1960s-style musical score by Ray Ellis is
inconsiderate and even harmful, except in a few romantic passages, where
it becomes pleasingly haunting. I'm not sure if this score was actually
a replacement used for the English-language version, as another
composer, Jose Luis Navarro, is listed on Spanish production notes.
I viewed the film via the old Vidcrest video, which is filled with pops
and crackles in the audio and exhibits a none too glorious, almost dupey-looking
picture. There is brief nudity from Zurakowska, and signs that there may
have been more, as a couple of scenes have a telling jump cut when
Zurakowska is about to show more flesh. (One unkind cut comes after the
soap pops out of Dianik's hands as she is taking a bath and she's about
to get up to retrieve it!) There's a video out now on the Republic
label, but I don't know if the print/beta master it is sourced from is
in better shape than the one used for the long out of circulation
Vidcrest tape. A widescreen, uncut print available on DVD is
recommended. Of course.
-- Reviewed by Mirek
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El Coleccionista de Cadaveres
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