One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

This film might seem like it should be kind of innocuous before you actually see it, but if you do watch it you will see that in spots it grabs you and forces you to say "wow that was creepy" or "wow that was graphic for 1959". While a bit slow at times due apparently to the director's rather anemic efforts, everyone involved in this production convinces you that they set out to to make a creepy horror film, no kidding and no doubt about that. Henry Daniell fans will love it as he gives an excellent late-career horror performance. He is relentlessly creepy and funereal, and downright scary. Always a polished and accomplished actor, he really delivers and it is worth your time to view him in this film.There are some other legit actors that stay in character and elevate this otherwise low-dollar production. Eduard Franz is a very solid classy actor. Ancient Lumsden Hare is remarkably lively as a butler despite his truly old chronological age.A well-conceived story, lots of skulking around in the shadowy lighting, a sewn-together face, shrunken heads, and some ghoulish special make-up effects related to body parts towards the end will probably leave you with a memory of this creep-fest.

After having watched "The Four Skulls Of Johnathan Drake", I am at a loss as to why MGM decided to release this on their (now defunct) "Midnight Movies" DVD line. There's no one in the cast (at least to me) who is famous, for one thing. But even if there was a genuine star in the cast, it probably wouldn't have helped. It's a very dry affair, lacking horror or tension, even when the music score seems to be telling us that what we are seeing is scary. Although the movie runs just seventy minutes, it creeps along at a very slow pace that will make you impatient. There are also a few instances of very incompetent editing. If you saw this as a kid and loved it then, keep your rosy memories intact by not watching this again.

Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake, The (1959) ** (out of 4) The Drake family has a curse on it because after the male members die their heads are removed. Before MGM released this on DVD it was pretty hard to see the film and it had a very good reputation from the few who remembered seeing it back in the day. Flash forward to my viewing and I was left very disappointed. The film has a terrific ending but everything leading up to this point is rather dull and boring. The performances are also rather annoying but this is probably due more to the screenplay. The one nice bonus was seeing Henry Daniell from The Body Snatcher fame.

I was expecting to give THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE (1959) a *** rating but I had to reduce it by 1/2 a notch because the performances of the two younger leads were pretty lifeless in my opinion: the girl did nothing but lounge around in furs all through the picture, even as her father was having his spells and assassination attempts and the detective was rather ineffectual, particularly in his first meeting with the assassin. But then, in the climax, after he is shown in one shot to be way behind Henry Daniell, in the next one he's on the roof of a cabin ready to jump on Daniell! That was rather silly, in my opinion, which is a pity because, on the whole, I found it to be quite good and enjoyable; the head-shrinking scenes were particularly effective.