Doctor Gore

Rating:
Summary: Amateurish exploitation
Review: "Dr. Gore" is the second, but thankfully the last, film by director and lead actor J. G. "Pat" Patterson. (Mr. Patterson reportedly died a year or so after this movie was made. I'm guessing it was from lung cancer since he smoked about 100 cigarettes in this 80-min. feature.) It's the story of a "doctor" who loses his wife and then decides to build the "perfect mate." Like a modern-day Dr. Frankenstein, he goes out and kills half a dozen or so women and then sews together the parts that he likes best. The resulting "perfect mate" is a blond, well-endowed, empty-headed, bimbo.

Everything about this film is poorly done: the direction is bad, the camera work is awful, the editing stinks and the acting is abysmal. Don't get me wrong: I'm a huge B-movie fan. But this one is so technically inept that it's more annoying than entertaining. "Dr. Gore" isn't one of those so-bad-it's-good kind of movies; it's just plain bad. Apparently, the only reason this movie was made was so that middle-aged, bad-comb-over-guy Patterson could make out with a bunch of young chicks.

Admittedly, there are a few (unintentionally) funny moments. At one point, you hear someone knocking at the door. The doctor says to his hunchbacked assistant, Gregory, "Go get that, it might be the door." Later in the film, the doctor is in prison (although no one bothers to explain why he's there). Anyway, he's talking to a female prison employee who is scrubbing the floor. The camera angle shifts and suddenly you see the movie clapboard (you know, that big black and white wooden thing with chalk writing all over it that they clap together before every scene to synchronize the picture with the sound). Somehow, they just forgot to edit that part out! There's also a full-length country-music "video" in the middle of the film. It's supposed to be part of a nightclub scene, but it's so long and so poorly integrated that you'd swear it got there by accident. I'll bet that one of the investors was a frustrated singer and told Patterson that unless he let him sing in the movie, he wouldn't give him any money.

One positive thing can be said about this Something Weird DVD: it's got a ton of special features. There are no less than three featurettes (all three of them are completely unwatchable -- avoid them), an alternate opening sequence (which is interesting because it has a special introduction by Herschell Gordon Lewis, the "Godfather of Gore"), a dozen or so trailers and more. The trailers are particularly entertaining. Most of them are for nudie movies from the late ' 50s early '60s and are positively hilarious.

One out of five stars.

Rating:
Summary: Its something weird all right
Review: Dr. Gore is one of those weird movies where scenes of fake gore are interspersed with tender country songs of love lost. Its exactly the sort of movie you either expect or deserve if you're shopping the Something Weird catalog.

A bonus feature titled "How to Build a Doll" is a lot worse but also a lot weirder. Its hard to sit through. Actors who can't deliver lines are given pages of clever dialogue. There's a scene near the end where everyone is just sitting on a couch giggling. The whole point of this movie should have been to get as many hot babes as possible in the frame for as long as possible wearing as little as possible. Unfortunately, the filmmakers decided to rely on the strength of their script, which may not have even existed.

Perhaps the most interesting feature on the disk is a short subject called Maniac Hospital. Its like a VD propaganda film on acid, or steroids, or both. There's really no way to describe it except to say its a little like the Wizard of Oz without really being anything like the Wizard of Oz.

Then there's even more stuff on this disk, including an Easter egg for a movie called Axe, which is a movie that wanted you to think of it as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, only with an axe instead of a chainsaw.

Rating:
Summary: Its something weird all right
Review: Dr. Gore is one of those weird movies where scenes of fake gore are interspersed with tender country songs of love lost. Its exactly the sort of movie you either expect or deserve if you're shopping the Something Weird catalog.

A bonus feature titled "How to Build a Doll" is a lot worse but also a lot weirder. Its hard to sit through. Actors who can't deliver lines are given pages of clever dialogue. There's a scene near the end where everyone is just sitting on a couch giggling. The whole point of this movie should have been to get as many hot babes as possible in the frame for as long as possible wearing as little as possible. Unfortunately, the filmmakers decided to rely on the strength of their script, which may not have even existed.

Perhaps the most interesting feature on the disk is a short subject called Maniac Hospital. Its like a VD propaganda film on acid, or steroids, or both. There's really no way to describe it except to say its a little like the Wizard of Oz without really being anything like the Wizard of Oz.

Then there's even more stuff on this disk, including an Easter egg for a movie called Axe, which is a movie that wanted you to think of it as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, only with an axe instead of a chainsaw.

Rating:
Summary: Maybe this film will help you get your zzzzzzzz.
Review: That's right, kiddies. As I viewed 1973's "Doctor Gore," (AKA "The Body Shop") I was trying in vain to keep my sleepy eyes open. However, by the film's second half, I nearly died of a horrible case of cinematic boredom. The reason I chose to watch "Doctor Gore" in the first place was to observe the grisly work of director/writer J.G. Patterson, a former T.V. horror host who worked as a production assistant to the Godfather of Gore himself, H.G. Lewis. I once thought that since Lewis's best movie, "The Wizard of Gore," came out in 1970, and that he retired after "The Gore Gore Girls," Patterson would have been the perfect man to pick up where his maniacal mentor left off. Unfortunately, I was wrong. DEAD wrong. With its sparse, soft porn dialogue, dismal acting, cheesy sets, and crummy editing, "Doctor Gore" is an abysmal amateur mess. Viewers can obviously tell that poor Patterson had a VERY tight budget to handle.
I may as well unveil the synopsis for you. Patterson stars under his chain-smoking stage moniker, Don Brandon; he plays a plastic surgeon with a gargoyle composure and a mad scientist's lab conveniently installed in his North Carolina mansion. He is also assisted by a groaning, Igor-like humpback with grimy red hair and a beard (Roy Mehaffey). Oh, did I forget to mention that this fellow's name is Greg?! Anyway, after his wife (a pin-up model) dies in a freak accident, Don exhumes her corpse, wraps it up in aluminum foil, and tries to reanimate her tissue with a generous helping of electricity. In this scene, you will hear the clapping of thunder, despite the fact that the long-range camera shots of the mansion are in BROAD DAYLIGHT! When the experiment fails, Don and Gregg decide to stitch together a shapely model from other ladies' body parts. With his handsome looks and charms, the demented Doctor wins the hearts of many pretty blonds and brunettes. Along the way, the audience's attention is briefly drawn away from the plot courtesy of a country blues performance by Bill Hicks. Later on, like a skilled butcher, the Doctor slices off the victims' arms, hacks off their legs, and even extracts one woman's eyeballs! Eventually, he and Greg assemble the required pieces and bring a blond bombshell named Anitra (Jenny Driggers) to life. The moment when her eyes peer out from under the bandages was obviously stolen from "The Bride of Frankenstein." Of course, the Doctor tries to keep Anitra all for himself, isolating her behind the walls of his house. However, after Don teaches Anitra how to provide the best domestic services to a man, she eventually starts sleeping with any available bachelor she can find. The Doctor himself ends up in behind bars, although how he got there is never explained.
"Doctor Gore" is perfect fodder for the wisecracking robots on "Mystery Science Theater 3000." Unless such a situation happens, I beg you not to buy the DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Maybe this film will help you get your zzzzzzzz.
Review: That's right, kiddies. As I viewed 1973's "Doctor Gore," (AKA "The Body Shop") I was trying in vain to keep my sleepy eyes open. However, by the film's second half, I nearly died of a horrible case of cinematic boredom. The reason I chose to watch "Doctor Gore" in the first place was to observe the grisly work of director/writer J.G. Patterson, a former T.V. horror host who worked as a production assistant to the Godfather of Gore himself, H.G. Lewis. I once thought that since Lewis's best movie, "The Wizard of Gore," came out in 1970, and that he retired after "The Gore Gore Girls," Patterson would have been the perfect man to pick up where his maniacal mentor left off. Unfortunately, I was wrong. DEAD wrong. With its sparse, soft porn dialogue, dismal acting, cheesy sets, and crummy editing, "Doctor Gore" is an abysmal amateur mess. Viewers can obviously tell that poor Patterson had a VERY tight budget to handle.
I may as well unveil the synopsis for you. Patterson stars under his chain-smoking stage moniker, Don Brandon; he plays a plastic surgeon with a gargoyle composure and a mad scientist's lab conveniently installed in his North Carolina mansion. He is also assisted by a groaning, Igor-like humpback with grimy red hair and a beard (Roy Mehaffey). Oh, did I forget to mention that this fellow's name is Greg?! Anyway, after his wife (a pin-up model) dies in a freak accident, Don exhumes her corpse, wraps it up in aluminum foil, and tries to reanimate her tissue with a generous helping of electricity. In this scene, you will hear the clapping of thunder, despite the fact that the long-range camera shots of the mansion are in BROAD DAYLIGHT! When the experiment fails, Don and Gregg decide to stitch together a shapely model from other ladies' body parts. With his handsome looks and charms, the demented Doctor wins the hearts of many pretty blonds and brunettes. Along the way, the audience's attention is briefly drawn away from the plot courtesy of a country blues performance by Bill Hicks. Later on, like a skilled butcher, the Doctor slices off the victims' arms, hacks off their legs, and even extracts one woman's eyeballs! Eventually, he and Greg assemble the required pieces and bring a blond bombshell named Anitra (Jenny Driggers) to life. The moment when her eyes peer out from under the bandages was obviously stolen from "The Bride of Frankenstein." Of course, the Doctor tries to keep Anitra all for himself, isolating her behind the walls of his house. However, after Don teaches Anitra how to provide the best domestic services to a man, she eventually starts sleeping with any available bachelor she can find. The Doctor himself ends up in behind bars, although how he got there is never explained.
"Doctor Gore" is perfect fodder for the wisecracking robots on "Mystery Science Theater 3000." Unless such a situation happens, I beg you not to buy the DVD.

Rating:
Summary: He's not a real doctor.
Review: The five stars rating is for the movie itself (not the whole package).
This flick is total grade B with all the cliche's : every single expression and line of the acting seems pretentious and unatural.
Pat Patterson appearantly made this film so he could paint himself as some sort of leading man ( he's a real nerdball ) and so he could grope and slobber over young comely actresses.
He's a middle-aged, chain smoking, dull fella who's acting does not convince me he's a real doctor.
Doctor Gore has it all: Castle with basement lab, blood and gore, cheese-choking bad baroom singer, cute females and a complete cast that has obviously never, ever acted before.
If you like movies that are horridly bad despite trying to make a good film then you'll love it. If not, then leave it.
I loved it and was laughing out loud through the entire film and will force lots of unwillings to sit through a full viewing.

The "commentary" by Jeffrey Hogue is of little value. He speaks of his career and not about the movie at all, I love the commentary tracks to most films but this is of little interest.

Second feature "How to make a doll" is a total loser, not even entertaining grade B. It's about two dorks and I got so bored this is the first of the SOMETHING WEIRD movies I couldn't sit through, just too dorky for me.

The shorts, extras and especialy the trailers are great.
Five stars for the main feature and the extras.

Rating:
Summary: Gore-drenched "Pygmalion"
Review: Writer-director J.G. Patterson, aka "Dr. Gore" is out to create the perfect female. Since Patterson would never be confused with Mel Gibson, that's understandable. Assembling his synthetic Eve from the parts of unwilling beach bunnies, he creates the Perfect Woman: a slightly chubby blonde with dark roots. We don't need a big screaming SPOILER ALERT to tell the reader that it doesn't end well. Eagle-eyed viewers will spot the hunchbacked assistant "Greg" ( now, who would name their child something like that?) doubling as a suave nightclub singer in one scene.