Quinoa1984

Overall, The Eagle I'm sure was evem more spectacular for its time and it has some fun moments of adventure a century later - my favorite set up and payoff was with the bear in the cellar and how that attack unfolds when our Black Eagle under duress fights back very easily against it (bearly you might say...) - and it's simplicity in the main bones of the story is its charm. Brown also has some clever lighting effects and staging at times, like when we see the Black Eagle framed in a room as he's entering and his shadow casts a pall over the figure in the bed he's going in to attack.

The thinness of the narrative does make it a little less than a classic, at least for me, and the acting from much of the supporting players (like the guy playing Kyrilla) is rather broad and hasn't held up so well over time. And the ending isn't quite so believable given what we've seen and know about at least one key character. But Valentino is dashing and entertaining and suave and all the things that come with a name like, well, Valentino (doesn't that already sound like someone who comes packing with a romantic adventurous swagger?) Not to mention it isnt just resting on the looks or mannerisms, it's a real performance with layers of physicality and in how he shifts between his created personas.

I don't think I'd seen a film with him in the lead before, and this was not a disappointment as far as a vehicle in being different figures in one film (as the fallen Russian lieutenant, as the vigilante and as another character, seemingly... a French Count!) The more I think on him and the movie as a whole the more I like it. Also, that shot, and you know the one as it's around 40 minutes into the film and because of the seemingly seamless and spellbinding power of the moving camera as it goes over that dinner table that has around 30 people end to end, is one of the truest examples of why cinema is its own distinctive medium (and a darn good one at that)! 7.5/10.

Corridors of Blood (which is so good I'm surprised it isn't a title used repeatedly as a fake movie that other characters go to see like in a Slasher or something) is driven by Boris Karloff's mesmerizing performance as a man with a conscience who becomes consumed by his addiction and his obsession with the potential of his experiments. It's entirely on how he shows through so much of his training and experience as a performer that makes this more than just the B movie curio it purports to be; while a number of the other performers are fairly standard for this material (not counting for sure Christopher Lee or Adrienne Corri), Karloff takes this character and makes him fully tragic and pitiable.

The title may even be somewhat misleading to make this like another of his Horror films - and why not, it was his bread and butter and he was one of the guys on the Cereal Box - but what's important to remember is that Karloff was classically trained as the best of them and found his niche in the world of the Gothic and suspense. And this film, while not so great when it focused on some of the secondary characters (ie I didn't care that much about the younger doctor and his romance with Dr. Bolton's daughter), it almost doesn't matter because of how he gradually and incrementally peels this man down to a knub, even as he is still at heart and good doctor and man.

I also need to note about Christopher Lee, who does also take this up a notch every time he's on screen. At the same time he appeared as Dracula he also performed as this character, and while the Count is the more notable figure forever and ever for genre fans his Resurrection Joe may be the more intense performance; he never lets you have a second where you can relax watching him, and since he's very much a human being as opposed to an undead wine/women/music connoisseur it makes his deeds and attitude all the more ugly and sinister.

Bottom line, it's pretty cool it's something you could just get from a Criterion Closet to boot. That said, any time Lee in this as "Resurrection Joe" gets his hands on a pillow of death I just recoil completely. 7.5/10.