MANSION OF THE DOOMED

Using authentic surgery footage is the cheapest, lowest ploy an exploitation picture can take. Still, nothing gets a reaction from an audience quicker than splicing in a few seconds of a medical training film. They'll either run for the exits or sit stunned and take it in, but one way or another, it won't be forgotten. With this in mind, those who feel squeamish about their eyes being touched (pretty much everyone, right?) should understand that Mansion of the Doomed includes frequent shots of real-life orb surgery, and a little goes a long way. Supplemented by some H.G. Lewis-style sheep eyeball effects, the film never fails to induce a wince or two, and other disturbing flourishes make it memorable despite a hackneyed premise. As the obsessed surgeon Chaney, Richard Baseheart gives a reliably professional performance and little more, but he's perfectly slimy in the film's most uncomfortable scene, which finds him luring a little girl away from a playground with the promise of Disneyland. Any appearance from Vic Tayback is welcome, but he's too subdued as a police investigator to make any impression here. As Chaney's long-suffering assistant and accomplice, Oscar winner Gloria Grahame looks haggard and exhausted; hopefully, that's just acting. The best performances come from the blinded victims, as each confused, terrified "patient" awakens from the anesthesia and realizes their eyeballs have been removed. There's an intensity to these scenes that the bigger names don't reach for, and the interaction between the captives is usually more interesting than the good doctor's furrowed brow and introspective walks along the ocean. Marilyn Joi, best known for Al Adamson films like Nurse Sherri and The Naughty Stewardesses, appears as one of the unfortunates, and Lenny Bruce's mother Sally Marr makes a very brief cameo as a landlady. Director Michael Pataki gives Mansion of the Doomed some eerie atmosphere with bright, distorting light effects, but he doesn't move the film along fast enough to qualify as a true lost classic. — Fred Beldin