"Cauldron of Blood" (aka "Blind Man's Bluff") is a badly-made crime thriller that wastes poor, ailing Boris Karloff and doesn't really succeed in any other respect, either. Karloff portrays a famous sculptor who was blinded and partially crippled in a car accident years before. Sadly, there wasn't much acting involved in this role; the beloved British actor was seriously ill and it showed. As his snarling wife, Viveca Lindfors steals the show. Unbeknownst to Karloff, who thinks she's merely robbing graves, Lindfors (along with her thuggish lover) is actually murdering young women and giving their skeletons to Karloff, who uses them as armatures for his sculptures. If this doesn't sound like a very frightening or suspenseful premise, that's because it isn't. You're never shocked or scared or inclined to sit on the edge of your seat while watching "Cauldron of Blood", though it might be of some interest if you like watching weird, rude Europeans who begin every other sentence with the words "Between you and me..." As far as I'm concerned, the only intriguing elements of the film were Lindfors' creepy, leering lesbianism (and Nazi bondage nightmares), the animated title sequence, and the picturesque Spanish shooting locations. Even Karloff completists will be asking themselves why they bothered to see this one.
Review of Cauldron of Blood
