THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE REVISITED (PART 1)

I have a number of favorite low-budget B-horror films. THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE is among them and high on that list. It was released on May 15, 1959 on a double-bill with INVISIBLE INVADERS. Let's get right to the story . . .

Eduard Franz

Valerie French

Grant Richards

Henry Daniell

Grant Richards

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THERE IS A CURSE that lingers over the Drake family name, a curse that has its beginnings almost 200 years ago. Captain Wilfred Drake, while on an expedition deep in the Amazon jungles of South America, mercilessly murdered an entire village of Jivaro Indians. All died save one – the tribal Witch Doctor. This is the man who enacts the sinister curse that will loom over the ancestors of the Drake family for generations. Now, it is Death that comes calling, inexplicably, inescapably, to each male member of the family on the eve of their 60th birthday.

Jonathan Drake (Eduard Franz) ponders his horrifying destiny as he stares, almost hypnotized, at the hideous shape of the shrunken head that he holds in his hand. He studies it almost as if it were alive. He mutters, “The evil that men do lives after them,” a line from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. “Is it possible,” he wonders, “for the evil that a man does to survive after his death?” He looks up to see three white skulls appear out of thin air, right in front of his very eyes! The skulls hover for a moment in the air, and then begin to dance, almost mockingly. Suddenly, he realizes that the dreaded family curse is about to strike again!

His daughter, the lovely Alison Drake (Valerie French), enters the study, interrupting his morbid musings. He confides in his daughter, remembering all the while of the dread family legacy – and that each victim is found grotesquely beheaded after their death! He asks, “Suppose the power of good dies after the mind dies? Then . . . only evil lives!”

Jonathan has desperately tried to get word to his brother, Kenneth Drake (Paul Cavanaugh) in hopes of averting disaster – but he is too late. When he arrives at his brother’s house, he is told by Rogers the butler (Lumsden Hare), that his brother has inexplicably succumbed and died . . . on his 60th birthday! Dr. Bradford (Howard Wendell), the family physician, declares the death a result of heart failure. A man, unknown to Jonathan, is introduced as Dr. Zurich (Henry Daniell), a “family friend”. Dr. Zurich concurs with the findings.

Jonathan now realizes that he is next in line for the curse to strike, as his own 60th birthday is not long off. The casket of his brother lies in the drawing room of the house. Jonathan notices it is closed. For what reason? He demands the lid to be opened. When it is lifted, Jonathan gasps in horror to see that the body inside has had its head cut off!

Jonathan tries to explain things to his daughter. He takes her to the Drake family crypt and shows her the vault where resides the cabinet that holds the skulls of his ancestors. These skulls have mysteriously appeared after the headless bodies had been interred in the crypt. Opening the cabinet he is shocked to discover a third skull, which can only be Kenneth’s!

Lt. Rowan (Grant Richards) of the local police department is assigned to the weird case. At first he finds little to go on. Meanwhile, Jonathan is attacked in his bed as he is convalescing from his ordeal. He is accosted by the menacing figure of a ghostly silent Jivaro Indian! Zutai (Paul Wexler) pricks Jonathan ever so slightly on the neck with the blade of a bamboo knife. Jonathan becomes immediately paralyzed! Zutai then commences the grisly ordeal of cutting off Jonathan’s head, but he is interrupted by Rogers, who is now serving as caregiver to Jonathan. The murderous Jivaro escapes out the window, leaving a hideous calling card swinging to and fro . . . that of a shriveled, shrunken head!

Lt. Rowan is called in and takes a blood sample to the police crime lab where the technician reveals a startling discovery – the chemical that caused Jonathan Drake to become paralyzed is identified as curare, a poison only used by the Jivaro Indians of South America. The hospital where Jonathan is staying is called to administer the antidote for curare poisoning.

In the meantime, Dr. Bradford decides to pay a visit to Dr. Zurich, who seems to be hiding some information about the nefarious activity being perpetrated on the Drake family. Dr. Zurich explains that he is not only a student of the occult sciences, but is also an expert on South American customs, especially of the indigenous tribes and their ritual practices. Zurich pontificates upon his favorite subject, the singular practice among the Jivaros, the art of making Tsantsas . . . otherwise known as head shrinking! He also discloses that his servant Zutai, is a Jivaro Indian, and, through a bizarre procedure, has been enslaved to do Zurich’s bidding. His lips are sewn shut so that he cannot voice disagreement or displeasure. Horror-stricken, Dr. Bradford attempts to leave, but is overcome and killed. Dr. Zurich leaves for the Drake house, so that he can fulfill his mission and dispatch the last of the Drakes as soon as possible.

Lt. Rowan has put two-and-two together and pays a visit to Zurich’s house. He enters unannounced and discovers a blood stain on the floor rug. He lifts up the rug and finds a hatch that leads to Dr. Zurich’s secret underground laboratory. During his search he discovers the shrunken head of Kenneth Drake and the head of Dr. Bradford in a freezer! He leaves, thinking that Zurich might be after Drake or Alison.

In the meantime, Alison is lured to Dr. Zurich’s underground lair under the pretense that her father is failing in the hospital. Jonathan surprisingly shows up and threatens to kill himself and break the curse. Zutai strikes and tries to keep Jonathan from killing himself. Rowan comes back on the scene. He fires a shot a Zutai. Zutai then attacks Lt. Rowan. In the ensuing struggle, Rowan pushes Zutai back into the boiling head-shrinking pot. Zutai explodes into a puff of smoke! Dr. Zurich tries to run. Rowan grabs him, pulling open his lab coat. The horrible truth is revealed as we see that Zurich has the body of a “jungle Indian” and the head of a white man. It can be no other than the reanimated form of the Jivaro Witch Doctor from almost 200 years past. Dr. Zurich breaks free and escapes.

There is a chase. Both Jonathan and Lt. Rowan take up knives from the lab that are coated with deadly curare. Dr. Zurich is found at the Drake family crypt! Lt. Rowan jumps down from above and fights with Zurich. Rowan manages to prick Zurich with his knife. Dr. Zurich is finished! He falls back as paralysis from the curare sets in. Drake takes the bamboo knife that was intended for him and, in a bizarre twist of irony, instead removes Dr. Zurich’s head from the torso of the murderous and vengeful Witch Doctor. When the grim deed is done, the body turns instantly to dust. All that is left is a head, bleached white and devoid of skin and hair. Jonathan Drake, knowing that the terrible curse on his family is finally over intones: “The fourth skull!”

CONTINUED TOMORROW!