The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959)

Memorable, crazy movie

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Jonathan Drake, while attending his brother's funeral, is shocked to find the head of the deceased is missing. When his brother's skull shows up later in a locked cabinet, Drake realizes an ancient curse placed upon his grandfather by a tribe of South American Jivaro Indians is still in effect and that he himself is the probable next victim.So far the reviews on this seem to be average, or just above average. I would actually place it much higher. Though not a well-known film by any means, I would argue it is among the best horror films of its time, and certainly on par with the work Vincent Price was doing in this period.While the subject matter could easily be comedy (ala Scooby Doo), it is treated seriously and has a creepy vibe to it. Tame by today's standards, I imagine it was actually rather shocking in its own way once upon a time.

Back in the early 1960s, "The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake" (1959) used to be aired quite often on NYC television. But somehow, I managed to miss all those many showings, although my young mind couldn't help feeling that the film boasted one of the coolest-sounding titles that I'd ever heard. And then, as happened with so many other cheaply made "B" films of the time, it seemed to disappear, and remained virtually impossible to see for many years to come. Flash forward 50 years, and "Four Skulls" is now a breeze to catch at any time on home video, thanks to MGM's Midnite Movies DVD series. Cohabiting a disc with the 1957 Boris Karloff picture "Voodoo Island," it reveals itself to be a genuinely grisly and highly satisfying entertainment. Although the Karloff film boasts beautiful Hawaiian scenery (in B&W) and several well-known stars, it is not the least bit scary or suspenseful, and its conclusion is dull and somewhat disappointing. On the other hand, although "Four Skulls" was completely shot (again, in B&W) in the studio and features only one (character) actor who may be familiar to viewers, it is very often frightening AND suspenseful, and its final 10 minutes are quite exciting and satisfying. To be succinct, it is the superior picture, as compared to its DVD neighbor, and one that I am very happy to have finally caught up with.In the film, Eduard Franz (who some viewers may recall from his role in 1951's "The Thing From Another World") stars as the eponymous Drake, an aging, gentle-mannered professor of the occult. Drake lives in perpetual fear of his family's curse, under which all the males die at age 60 of heart failure, and their corpses are later decapitated by some mysterious agency. When his brother Kenneth passes away in precise fulfillment of the curse, Jonathan and his pretty young daughter, Alison (played by Valerie French), travel to the family estate to investigate. They are aided by a local police officer, Lt. Rowan (Grant Richards), and--since a shrunken head, a so-called "tsantsas," has been found hanging in Kenneth's window--by a nearby expert on the Amazon and Indian customs, Dr. Emil Zurich (the always hissable Henry Daniell). As is soon revealed, the Jivaro Indians of Ecuador, along with their "chingui" (witch doctor), have a long-standing, 200-year-old grudge against the Drake clan, and now Jonathan has been targeted as its last surviving male member....Clocking in at a mere 70 minutes, "Four Skulls" is certainly a compact affair, with little flab and nothing unnecessary to get in the way of the fun. Whereas the Karloff film is burdened down under the weight of a seemingly inevitable romantic subplot, the 1959 picture is not; the potential for such shenanigans between Alison and the lieutenant is, admirably and fortunately, never realized. The film is straightforward and absolutely serious, and indeed, I don't believe a single character so much as smiles once in it. The film looks just fine for a studio-bound "B," and director Edward L. Cahn and DOP Maury Gertsman manage to create an unsettling atmosphere with their limited budget. Among their film's numerous horrifying bits are a quartet of floating skulls, what amounts to a how-to lesson on the shrinking of human heads (we do get to see the process, and are later told that it involves "hot sand, smoke and heated pebbles"), that headless corpse, poisoning by curare, and a pair of sandals made of human skin. But perhaps the film's most lingering horrific image is the face of the character named Zutai (played by Paul Wexler), a Jivaro Indian whose mouth has been sewn tightly shut, the sutures dangling down to his chin. And as for the Daniell character, viewers who have seen this great character actor in such films as "The Great Dictator," " The Sea Hawk," "The Body Snatcher" and various Sherlock Holmes outings know what a marvelously malevolent presence he can be. The great English actor, 65 years old at this point and four years before his passing on Halloween Day '63, certainly does add a touch of nasty class to the proceedings here. How much more threatening he is than the voodoo chieftain in the 1957 Karloff film! The bottom line is that "The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake" is a marvelous little chiller, and great fun for all ages. Trust me, after watching the film, you will NOT want to emulate Zutai, and keep your mouth shut about it!

The Drake family is suffering from a nightmarish curse in which various members are not only murdered, but also beheaded. Rugged, no-nonsense police Lieutenant Jeff Rowan (well played with steely resolve by Grant Richards) investigates the case and discovers that sinister voodoo-practicing archaeologist Dr. Emil Zurich (marvelously essayed with deliciously wicked relish by Henry Daniel) is committing said gruesome murders in order to achieve immortality. Director Edward L. Cahn, working from a pleasingly macabre script by Orville H. Hampton, relates the interesting story at a steady pace, does a nice job of creating and sustaining a spooky flesh-crawling mood, and stages the lively and rousing conclusion with reasonable aplomb. Moreover, the cast play their parts with admirable seriousness: Valerie French as the concerned Allison Drake, Edward Franz as the austere, but scared Jonathan Drake, Lumsden Hare as loyal butler Rogers, and Paul Wexler as Zurich's creepy mute servant Zutai (Zutai's sewn-shut mouth and silently menacing presence are genuinely unnerving). Maury Gertsman's crisp black and white cinematography makes nifty use of wipes and dissolves. Paul Dunlap's shuddery ooga-booga chillshow score likewise hits the spine-tingling spot. The levitating skulls are pretty gnarly and the shriveled-up shrunken heads are fairly ghastly. Better still, there's an earnest quality to the whole movie that's both refreshing and engaging in equal measure and at a tight 70 minutes this picture never overstays its welcome. An enjoyable horror quickie.

What we have here is a film that could have been a fascinating slice of classic B-movie cinema, but unfortunately relegates itself to the mundane thanks to some extremely uninspired handling. The film features the usually fascinating themes of voodoo and ancient curses, and it's given an extra dimension of intrigue thanks to the idea of shrunken heads, which provides the film with a lot of its more unpleasant moments. The film is hardly shocking nowadays, but back in 1960, I don't doubt that the scenes featuring severed heads were distressing for the audience. These scenes are brilliantly offset by the fact that most of the film is very old-school, and wouldn't have been out of place with a release in the 1930's. The plot follows the Drake family; who were lumbered with a curse after one of the ancestors decided to kill a bunch of Indians on the Amazon two hundred years ago. The film isn't on for long, lasting only 70 minutes, but that's actually a shame as while the film we do have is never entirely fascinating; with a better script and a bit more ambition from all concerned; The Four Skulls of Jonathon Drake could have been a great film. None of the actors are particularly worth mentioning; but the ensemble performance does fit the movie in that nobody is willing to go that extra mile. Overall, I would say that this film is just about worth seeing; but it's not a major priority, and there are certainly a lot of better horror flicks from the same period.