Saturday is Horror Day #209 - The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake

 The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake

Anthropologist Jonathan Drake (Eduard Franz) has a recurring nightmare about shrunken heads. He believes that the men in his family are cursed because of a longstanding feud with a tribe of South American Indians. Concerned about his only brother, Kenneth (Paul Cavanagh), he decides to visit him. But he arrives to find a funeral for his brother in progress! When he demands the coffin be opened, he is horrified to discover his brother's head is missing!

Drake's only child, Alison (Valerie French) is concerned about her father, as his Dr. Emil Zurich (Henry 

Daniell), a fellow anthropologist. The police are baffled, when they do bother to take the situation seriously. The investigation is being led by Police Lieutenant Jeff Rowan (Grant Richards). It quickly becomes clear that his interest in the case is primarily due to the presence of Alison. One night, her father is attacked and seems to be dead. But closer inspection shows this is no natural happening, but a poisoning! It's a race against time to learn what has happened to Drake. When it is discovered to be curare, the investigation is turned in a completely different direction. Now Drake's life is even more on the line than before, although they are no closer to discovering the person behind this series of events. A possible hypothesis was disregarded as preposterous but they might have to consider it now!

Before I discuss the film itself, there are factors to take into consideration. First, it was made in 1959, 

and it looks it. Black and white (not a problem for me, sometimes adds to the ambience of a horror film). The acting is indicative of the time. Not that it's bad, but stiffer than we might be used to now. Also, the writing. Naturally, it is not gory, and any violence, including heads being sliced off, are off screen. That being said, that could have been a little more smoothly.  There is a character named Zutai, who belongs to the same South American tribe and resembles a living shrunken head, with rather gruesome makeup. Charles Gemora did not only the makeup for the film, but also designed and sculpted the shrunken heads.

It was probably pretty scary back in the day. I didn't find it frightening, but I thought it was interesting to watch. Two of the actors were well known and very well respected, Eduard Franz and Henry Daniell). I have seen both in other things, especially Daniell. I think he does horror well. That being said, no, not a great film, but something a little different in the horror genre. How often do you see shrunken heads as the subject of a film? Beetlejuice doesn't count, although that was a great shrunken head! I'll give this film 2.75 Stars.