The Scalpel

In the 1930’s young, experimental filmmaker, Richard H Lyford was busy writing his own stage and screenplays as well as creating his own silent films, even though he was still only a teenager. By 1936, at the tender age of nineteen, Lyford already had over fifty stage/screenplays under his belt and was working on his seventh film, The Scalpel. The films Lyford made were some of the first ‘indie’ movies produced outside of the confines of Hollywood and pioneered the use of special effects, double-exposure and heavy make-up to help create his visual narrative style. By the 1940’s Lyford was working for Disney, and his techniques in hi-speed animation helped make Dumbo (1941), Pinocchio (1940) and Fantasia (1940) the classics they are today.

Unfortunately, a lot of Lyford’s early work was lost to history and it wasn’t until after his death that many of his films were rediscovered in the basement of his Seattle home, which he had converted into his own private cinema. It is thought that some of those early ‘indies’ may never have left Lyford’s basement and had therefore never been seen by the general public. In 2019 the world finally got to experience As The Earth Turns, a 1938 work from Lyford, which had been restored and fitted with a new orchestral soundtrack from composer Ed Hartman, at the behest of the Lyford family.

Today, The Scalpel has gone through the same process and is now ready to be presented to the world for the first time. Very much in the same vein as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), The Scalpel follows the goings on in a medical laboratory where some highly unethical practices are taking place. Dr Howard Van Cleve, played by Lyford himself, is engaged in some dangerous experiments, using what has proven to be a lethal compound to try and cure ‘cretinism’(!). The doctor has been experimenting on himself and repeatedly injecting his thyroid with the serum, to obviously horrifying results.

Of the nurses on shift, Miss Cummings, played by Lyford regular Barbara Berger, is the pluckiest and therefore most susceptible to encountering the horrors of Dr Van Cleve. As she tries to help her fellow nurse after a freak explosion, Nurse Cummings faces off against him, or more accurately the monster he has become, and is the victim of a brutal attack. While the doctors in the lab are operating, they also have to deal with the monstrous Van Cleve, until somebody can defeat the monster and save the day.

Populated by friends and family, and with most of the cast and crew recruited from Seattle’s Franklin High School, The Scalpel is an early monument to the dedication and passion of independent filmmakers. The fact that this film was able to be made at all is down to the vision and hard work of one man, and what he managed to create stands proudly alongside some of the bigger budget studio productions of the day. The use of special effects and double-exposures are exciting to behold in such an early indie work, and the make-up, especially in the transformations, is horrifyingly magnificent.

Of course, there are things that could be nit-picked at in terms of the production, which are perhaps not as smooth or as professional as a Hollywood movie, but in all honesty, why would anyone focus on that when a new classic has been revealed to us and we get to revel in a newly discovered piece of history hitherto unseen by any living soul?

The fact that we are able to view this film at all is a triumph. All praise and credit should go to Ed Hartman for taking on these projects and for bringing them back to life for a new generation, a new century and a new millennium. The Scalpel is an important part of film history, from an important contributor to the development of film, and as each year goes ticking by it’s only going to become more important that The Scalpel, and other films like it, are available for us to watch.