Growing up in Italy, Charles Band aspired to get into the film industry much like his father, Albert Band. He came back to the States in the early 70s with hardly any money and started working various odd jobs. One day, he found an ad that someone in Dallas had acquired several volumes of The New York Times. Encompassing 35 years of the newspaper, he was selling them for $300, so Band took the offer. He decided to sell them to high-end clients for $50 each based on their date of birth. Within a few weeks, Band managed to raise $300,000, so he decided to use it to fund a feature film. Charles hired writer Frank Ray Perilli and director Michael Pataki, having worked with them on Last Foxtrot in Burbank. Originally titled The Eyes of Dr. Chaney, the film was released in 1976 as Mansion of the Doomed.
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Synopsis
After his daughter Nancy (Trish Stewart) loses her eyesight in an accident, Dr. Chaney (Richard Basehart) vows to fix it. He decides the optimal solution would be to replace her damaged eyes with new ones, but there’s a problem. According to his assistant Katherine (Gloria Grahame), there’s no way to perform such surgery without damaging the optic nerve. Chaney must extract the entire eyeball from a living donor for the surgery to work and restore Nancy’s eyesight. When Nancy’s fiancée Dr. Bryan (Lance Henriksen), visits, Chaney drugs him and takes his eyes for the surgery. At first, the surgery is a success and Nancy can see, but unfortunately, she loses it soon after. Because of this, Chaney starts kidnapping various people, extracting their eyes, and trying to restore Nancy’s eyesight with similar results. The eyeless victims are locked in the basement, struggling to escape from this Mansion of the Doomed!
Review
Mansion of the Doomed is a sadly forgotten and underrated grindhouse thriller that deserves to be more well-known. While not exactly a horror classic, this is still a fairly well-constructed and effectively creepy film that’s worth a watch. Though the film was most likely inspired by the 1960 film Eyes Without a Face, it’s still fairly unique. Given that he was mostly known as a character actor, Michael Pataki does a solid job behind the camera. He makes great use of darkness and shadows to give a very foreboding atmosphere, and the film’s fairly well-paced. The cast largely does a solid job, Richard Basehart giving a great performance as a surgeon plagued with guilt. While his methods are wrong, he wants to help his daughter, so you at least understand his perspective. His performance elevates the role from being the stereotypical mad scientist to a more sympathetic yet flawed character.
Trish Stewart, though not given much to do, is equally sympathetic as the blind daughter wanting her sight back. Gloria Grahame, though clearly washed up after It’s A Wonderful Life, does the best she can with the material. However, the big stand-out is a then-unknown Lance Henriksen, who really shows signs of the great actor he’d become. Speaking of stand-outs, this was one of the first films that special effects legend Stan Winston worked on. While clearly working with a low budget, the make-up used to make people eyeless is pretty impressive. The score by Robert O. Ragland is effectively creepy and perfectly complements the overall tone and style of the film. Admittedly, there are plenty of slow spots, especially scenes with Chaney wandering the streets with droning voiceovers alongside these scenes. Overall, Mansion of the Doomed, while not a classic, is still an underrated gem worth seeking out.
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