The Official Website of Jeffrey Combs

Before the review, I wanted to expand upon the awesome news David posted yesterday from Jeff himself that Jeff will be featured in an upcoming episode of the popular CBS series, “Cold Case”!!!

Thanks to the wonderful “Cold Case” fan forum, Look Again, I’ve gathered some information on Jeff’s (possible) upcoming episode. There is no set airdate yet, but it will most likely air in late December. The show usually airs Sundays at 9pm.

I may be totally wrong on which episode is Jeff’s as we didn’t get the title, so I will definitely post when I know more. From what I gather, episode 13 is the last episode that was written before the Writer’s Strike began, which is the ep Jeff mentioned he had just finished filming.

The episode is entitled, “Spiders” and the storyline involves a young woman who takes her father to court and a young white supremacist man nicknamed “Spider” takes an interest in her and her case.

This is very exciting news! CBS is one of the top three networks here in the U.S. which means Jeff will get more great exposure as an actor. Here’s hoping this could possibly lead to more high-profile roles!!! I’m so excited for Jeff! I can’t wait to see the ep!

Now on to the review!
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As the weather begins to turn foul around most of the globe this month (except for those fortunate Aussies!), I thought a little bright spot of a movie might be a good pick-me-up for those in seasonally darker areas of the world.

Doctor Mordrid is one of my all-time favorite Jeff movies. With very good reason.

Anton Mordrid (Jeff) is a mystical sorceror with a penchant for deep blue pantsuits who was sent to earth over a hundred years ago to protect humankind with white magic. He lives in a gorgeous apartment in upper Manhattan (probably the Dakota building) and poses as a lecturer on the dark arts at a local university.

When his arch nemesis, Kabal (Brian Thompson), escapes from the confines of the netherworld and comes to earth to wreak havoc on mankind, Mordrid leaps into action, but in the process, must reveal himself to his mortal neighbor, Detective Samantha Hunt (Yvette Nipar). With her help, Mordrid must send Kabal back to the netherworld before he threatens humanity and ultimately destroys it.

Mordrid reassures Sam

I absolutely love this movie. I call it “Prozac on Film,” because it never fails to cheer me up when I’m feeling blue. It’s a great role for Jeff and you can really tell he loved playing Mordrid. This is the one movie I recommend to any fan as it has such great universal appeal. Yvette Nipar provides a fun “love interest” (although they never even kiss!) and a strong female compliment to Jeff’s wonderful leading man persona.

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EXTRAS:

The Full Moon behind-the-scenes featurette is adorable. Jeff notes how much he enjoyed playing Doctor Mordrid and he and Yvette Nipar rib each other playfully. There are also several mentions of a possible sequel, which never came to fruition, but I’m still ever hopeful*. To have present-day Jeff don that blue pantsuit again would make me one happy girl.

*Thanks to Daryn who spoke with Jeff about this very topic at a recent convention, there will sadly not be a sequel to Doctor Mordrid, but the first film stands on its own so well, there’s no need for one!

Who could resist a man in a gold monogrammed bathrobe?

TRIVIA:

• Brian Thompson, who plays the bad sorceror Kabal, has also appeared with Jeff in both Star Trek “Deep Space Nine” and “Enterprise” episodes.

• The story is borrowed heavily from “Doctor Strange,” a Marvel comic book hero.

• Charles Band auctioned off several pendants from the film, but not the actual amulets like Mordrid and Kabal wear.

In an online chat with Charles Band before the DVD was officially released, both my friend Lew and I suggested packaging replications of the amulet with the DVD, and although Charles was interested in the idea, it never did come to pass. I will be forever curious as to where the actual amulets from the film are and if there’s one available, I’d love to own it!

• Mordrid owns a pet raven named Edgar Allen (hehe). Later, Jeff would play Edgar Allen Poe in an adaptation of “The Black Cat” for the Masters of Horror series on Showtime.

• The film was directed by the father/son team of Charles “Full Moon Productions” Band and his father, Albert Band. Richard Band, Charles Band’s brother, also composed all the music for the film. Charles Band’s son, Alexander, also has a cameo as the young boy in the museum who interacts with Kabal. Nepotism, anyone?

AVAILABILITY:

VHS (out of print) and recently released on DVD as part of a boxset from Full Moon Productions called, “The Charles Band Collection, Volume 1.”

WHERE TO FIND IT:

The VHS and bootleg DVD come up sometimes on ebay. I found one of my VHS copies in a second hand store for $4 (I have 2), so it all depends. The “legal” DVD is part of a boxset that goes for about $50 retail. Personally, I don’t like the “official” release as well as the bootleg, because the transfer is a little “muddy” and dark. I can see Jeff’s facial nuances and smiles a whole heckuva lot better on my $10 bootleg than I can on my $50 boxset copy! They also spell Jeff’s name wrong on the Full Moon DVD boxset cover!!! Geez.