'Come on sit down.'
Welcome back to my Dark Corner of this Sick World.
We’re looking at The Man Who Turned to Stone.
‘What’s wrong with this one?’
Less than you’d think. This is a surprisingly watchable B movie.
‘You’re not going all soft and spooky on me are you?’
set in a women’s reformatory where the inmates are dying mysteriously,
#SCREAM# - pretty good scream we give it a 7/10
Yet loudly. It’s happening so often they’re getting a bit blasé about it.
‘Oh, just screams’
It’s probably got something to do with Eric,
who takes the girls by night up to the secret lab of the prison administrators.
‘We’re going to give you kind of a test, like an electrocardiogram for your heart.’
Now hold still while we tie you up and gag you.
She is wired up to Eric and...
his make-up comes of.
‘How many young lives are you going to drain to keep this senseless brute alive?’
Ah, come on, he’s sitting right there.
But how can they dispose of the body?
#SCREAM# a little weaker this one 5/10, but the background screams are very poor, we give them 3/10 - they a more gasps.
There’s a roomful of people, did no one else notice?
‘You shut up’
This suspicious death, alongside all the others, catches the attention of social worker Carol Adams.
‘There’s something strange, something unnatural about the number of girls who suddenly dying.’
who is quickly ousted in favour of psychiatrist Jess Rogers.
‘Weren’t you sent here to white wash the prison administration?’
In the hope that he will be more willing to turn a blind eye.
‘I was sent here to get the truth’
'You can't handle the truth.'
Turns out to be an error, and it’s not the only one the administrators make.
‘We picked it up for a hundred dollars in Amsterdam in 1850’
'1850?'
1850?
‘I mean of course 1950’
I’m not draining women’s life force!
The lead couple incidentally are played by Charlotte Austin of the Bride and the Beast
and William Hudson of Attack of the 50ft Woman –
please subscribe to see our reviews of those and many more 50s B movies.
‘Much of it sounds preposterous. But some of it doesn’t.’
Dr Cooper now has a fit of conscience and gives Jess a demonstration.
'Cooper!'
‘Look at it, not even a mark. Now go’
What do you mean go? You haven’t said what’s going on yet.
‘A story you won’t be able to understand or believe’
Well not if you don’t explain it, no!
‘He says I’ll find his diary under a large rock by the cliffs’
Could have just told me but sure, let’s make it a scavenger hunt.
Oh, great, which rock?
'Dear Red, if you are reading this you have gotten out and if you have come this far, maybe you are willing come a little further.'
No, nothing here but a letter from Andy Dufresne.
Nah, it’s his diary.
‘I was born in Hampshire county England in 1733’
That would be quite the surprise if not for the previous scene.
‘220 years is too long for any man to live.’
So how are you still alive?
‘We discovered that it is possible to transfer bioelectric energy from one individual to another.’
These people have arrested the aging process by draining the life force of girls.
But, again, not really new information.
'How many more lives are you going to drain to keep this senseless brute alive?'
What about the thing with the scissors?
‘A peculiar side effect is as we use up our borrowed life energy there are dramatic changes in our bodies externally we develop and petrified sheathe harder than stone.'
That is peculiar, but again...
We saw this already.
We learn everything ahead of Jess and Carol, then have to listen to the voiceover explanation.
And while Jess is reading...
#MANY SCREAM# they vary in 3/10 to 7/10
Panty raid!
He leaves the door open so...
‘Half the women are running around here loose.’
Great line. Now, frankly I have been nit-picking here, this holds up well for what it is.
‘It’s not as bad as all that’
Until the end.
In the lab, time catches up with Eric.
But he has already captured Jess and Carol and…
‘No Dr Rogers we haven’t attached the electrodes yet but I’m glad to see you understand.’
Here’s the problem; he has nothing they want,
all they have to do is kill him.
Instead they are threatening him with eternal life.
But they have reckoned without Jess’s masterplan,
earlier, in the basement, he took out the fuse...
'What happened to the lights.'
'must be a fuse, get some candles.'
and turned off the water essential to the process.
So now...
Killers From Space is the only other film we’ve reviewed in which good triumphs by cutting off evil’s utilities.
And it really doesn’t help the stakes.
'Alight Dr Rogers, you made the choice.'
I’m going to shoot your girl in the head unless you reveal the location of our water valve.
‘Water valves next to the fuses in the cellar.’
Dr Freneau goes to turn the water back on.
I can’t believe my plan didn’t work.
But, in the cellar...
You dropped your candle.
That went bad fast. And…
Here come the inmates, security here is terrible.
‘Kill him first, kill him!’
That would have been great advice a few minutes ago but now the building is burning down.
‘I must complete my records.’
A scientist always goes down with his lab.
So good does triumph, but neither Jess nor Carol had anything to do with it and they now have a prison break to deal with.
‘Come on girls, back to the domitory.’
Yes everyone be cool, no trying to escape, I’ll be very disappointed in you.
‘Shut up you big slob’
As B movies go, The Man Who Turned to Stone is fun enough, but the ending is just stupid.
'To my mind this is a very unhealthy conversation.'
Thanks for watching. Don’t forget to hit the like button. This was released on a double-bill with The Zombies of Mora Tau
– which we have also reviewed –
what would be your ideal horror double-bill? Let us know in the comments below.
'Next week lets have one of those jail break pictures huh?'