If nothing else, The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake deserves credit for dealing with an unusual horror theme, that of shrunken heads. Certainly, head shrinking can be found in many other horror flicks, but it's rarely if ever the actual focus of a film. And Drake has a surprisingly graphic (for the time) sequence showing the process by which heads are shrunk that's quite effective. Director Edward L. Cahn also maintains an eerie, slightly disturbed atmosphere throughout Drake which is somehow different from that found in other genre outings of the type. Throw in a dependable creepy performance from Henry Daniell and the unique "mouth sewn shut" disfigurement of his henchman, and there would seem to be the elements for a great, or at least a really fun, adventure in terror. Unfortunately, for all its assets, Drake ends up as a fairly dull film. Cahn's maintenance of atmosphere is good, but it comes at the expense of lively pacing and the ability to build tension and suspense. He's hampered in this last part by the script's insistence on showing the audience everything that the villains are up to; we therefore know exactly what is going on and have to wait impatiently while the police and the other characters try to solve the "mystery," the details of which are already well known to us. The obviously cheap budget doesn't help matters, either.