Search - Mansion of the Doomed on DVD

Pretty good horror flick with Richard Basehart

GreatMovieCriticForever | 12/04/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This movie is prety gruesome but almost has no gore

or blood, instead by using some really gruesome

topics (eyeball transplants),a good music score

(though rather short and repetitive), and good

acting (Basehart plays it straight) this is a good

horror movie.



Gloria Grahame, the late Grahame who was a big

movie star at one point (like Basehart) is his

helper as the good old Dr. Chaney (Basehart) looks

for hapless victims to give their eyes for his

daughter who went blind after an accident.



His an accredited scientist who keeps misdoings

a secret, and lures people he knows including

another doctor (played by a young Lance Henriksen

early in his movie career), a real estate agent

and a prostitute to name a few.



He is only trying to blow his ego by proclaiming

new improvements in eye research which take a big

nosedive when his daughter starts rejecting

the eye donor transplants. Of course this doesn't

stop the doctor from getting more victims.



Of course that's another gruesome area as he doesn't

kill them, after plucking out their eyes he "stores"

them in his underground lab with other lab animals.



These scenes were the most chilling and most

effective as you see these people trying to get

out but not having their eyes provides a big

obstacle.



The ending is pretty satisfying though, and the

movie overally is good. I would check it out."

DARK EYES

Michael Butts | Martinsburg, WV USA | 04/06/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"A rarely seen movie from 1976, MANSION OF THE DOOMED suffers from a poor video transfer, but even state of the art technology can't compensate for the overall quality of this film. The late Richard Basehart (TV'S VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA) portrays Dr. Chaney, an eye surgeon whose daughter is blinded in an auto accident. He decides a total eye transplant will cure her blindness so he tricks her boyfriend (Lance Henriksen's screen debut) and removes his eyes, gives them to daughter Nancy and imprisons the now blind Lance in his basement. He is aided by his current wife, the late Gloria Grahame (a screen siren of the 40s and 50s). Nancy regains her sight, but it's only temporarily, so Basehart starts acquiring eyes from strangers, imprisoning them all in his basement prison.

The story's been told many times and this movie did mark the debut of makeup great Stan Winston and future director Andrew Davis (THE FUGITIVE). But the chills are few, although the scenes of the blinded prisoners is quite disturbing."