Rainey Dawn This one was a fun watch. Lots of horror eye candy from floating skulls, decapitation, voodoo, shrunken heads, head in a pot, a madman and all with a unique story to tell. One of the better horror films of the late 1950s - and it's graphic for the time era. I really enjoyed this one.This is the story of Jonathan Drake and South American Jivaro Indians. Jonathan went to his brother's funeral and was told his brother died of natural causes but when he noticed a closed casket that aroused his suspensions. Jonathan insisted the coffin lid to be opened, when the lid was opened he saw his his brother's head was decapitated - that's when he knew that the curse of the Jivaro Indians was still upon his family. He must put an end to it - he knows he will be the next victim.Really a fun watch. Recommended to those that enjoy these types of films.8.5/10

MartinHafer The film begins with a man being killed by a goofy looking South American Indian. And, after his death, the man's head disappears from the coffin! Well, it turns out that this sort of death and beheading is the norm for this family and when folks turn 60, they have this as their fate. How and why is this family cursed and who is behind all this? Okay...first you need to admit that this movie is NOT Shakespeare or a film you'll see in the Criterion Collection! No, it's a slightly cheesy horror film that is entertaining...and a tad silly. Now this is NOT a criticism--just a fact that the film is entertaining on a basic level. Sure, if you think about it, zombies and head shrinking are a bit silly--but this film manages to make it work. The writing, for what it is, is pretty good and the villain is quite nice. Overall, a good time to be had...provided you know what you are in for and aren't expecting more.By the way, as you watch the knife fights late in the film, watch the blade--it's obviously rubber and you can actually see it wiggling!

Michael O'Keefe From United Artists, a very interesting black & white horror flick. Somewhat predictable, but atmospheric and haunting...you really want to take the invitation to be chilled. Jonathan Drake(Eduard Franz), a professor specializing in the occult and the eldest male descendant of the cursed Drake family, arrives for his last living brother's funeral and it is discovered he has been decapitated right before the services. This continues the curse, and its a doozy that has lasted 200 years; the curse is the work of angry head-shrinker Dr. Emil Zurich(Henry Daniell), who survived a South American jungle massacre led by one of Jonathan's ancestors.Kudos to director Edward L. Cahn for making writer Oville H. Hampton's story put a little chill down our spine and satisfy that thing inside us that draws us to horror films. Sometimes you just can't turn away. And especially those oldies in beautiful black & white. The rest of the cast features other B-film stars you'll recognize; Paul Cavanagh, Grant Richards, Valerie French and Howard Wendell.

MARIO GAUCI 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.