The Man Who Turned to Stone (a.k.a. The Petrified Man) is a 1957 American black-and-white horror science fiction film directed by László Kardos and starring Victor Jory, Ann Doran and Charlotte Austin.
When a new psychiatrist is hired at a women's prison, he and a social worker begin to puzzle over some recent suspicious deaths among the young inmates. The prison warden and doctor seem to be behind a centuries-old evil plot to steal the life force of young women to extend their own unnaturally immortal lives.
The Man Who Turned to Stone contains examples of:
- Battle Butler: Eric is Dr. Murdock's personal servant and the one who is sent to abduct the girls for the life-draining procedure, and do any other dirty work that needs doing.
- Cut Phone Lines: Dr. Myer shoots the switchboard to prevent Rogers and Tracy from calling the state police.
- Dead Man Writing: Cooper—suspecting the rest of the group intends to kill him—tells Dr. Rogers that he has written him a letter with instructions on to find his hidden, which explain everything that is happening. After Cooper disappears, Rogers receives the letter and finds the diary. When he reads the diary, it is narrated in Cooper's voice.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: Tracy smashes a glass jug over Eric's head to no effect, as his skin is turning to stone.
- Hard Head: Tracy smashes a glass jug over Eric's head to no effect, as his skin is turning to stone.
- Human Resources: The doctors are using the inmates of the detention home as steady supply of young bodies from which to drain the life energy in order to fuel their immortality.
- Immortality Immorality: A group of 18th-century scientists, led by Dr. Murdock, have remained young after all these centuries by using electricity to suck the life out of young women.
- Immune to Bullets: When the immortality treatment wears off, the users begin to petrify. There is a period before they totally petrify when they are still mobile but their skin is as hard as stone, making them Nigh-Invulnerable. While Eric is in this state, Dr. Freneau shoots him several times to no effect.
- Life Drinker: A group of 18th-century scientists, led by Dr. Murdock, have remained young after all these centuries by using electricity to suck the life out of young women.
- Life Energy: A group of 18th-century scientists, led by Dr. Murdock, have remained young after all these centuries by using electricity to suck the life energy out of young women.
- Never Suicide: Deciding not to pass off Anna Sherman's death as a heart attack as they have with their previous victims, the doctors instead make it look like she hanged herself. However, Carol Adams is still suspicious.
- Peek-a-Boo Corpse: While breaking into the house through the basement, Dr. Rogers bumps into Cooper's petrified corpse which has been propped in a corner. He is startled and watches in horror as the corpse slowly topples over.
- Voiceover Letter: When Dr. Rogers reads Cooper's diary, it is narrated in Cooper's voice.
- The Speechless: Eric, Dr. Murdock's Battle Butler, is mute as a result of the immortality process that went wrong and is turning him to stone.
- Taken for Granite: Dr. Murdock and his followers stay immortal by siphoning off the life forces of others. If they don't get renewed, they petrify.
- Wardens Are Evil: Mrs Ford, the warden of the detention home, is one of the group of unethical doctors who learned a hundred years ago to extend their lives by draining the vitality of others. Without such transfusions, they begin to slowly petrify. She has been using the detention home to ensure a steady supply of vital young bodies for them to feed upon.
