The Walking Dead
                                                                                               
Director: Michael Curtiz
Year: 1936
Rating: 6.0
Poor Boris Karloff. They kept killing him and bringing him back to life. Five years after Frankenstein, it happens again in this off-beat horror film that is more tragic than horror. It feels like they could have made it much more horrific if they had chosen to, but director Michael Curtiz doesn't seem to know exactly what he wanted. A drama? A crime film? Revenge film? Horror? Coming between Captain Blood and The Charge of the Light Brigade it seems strange that the studio would have given him this B film (66 minutes) and I imagine he got it off his hands as quickly as possible. As shot by Hal Mohr (Captain Blood, Phantom of the Opera), it looks great in crisp black and white with his close-ups of Karloff being the highlight of the film. B film or not, Karloff always gave it his best and he is terrific here.



The mob wants a judge dead but doesn't want it coming back on them. So, they set up a recent released prisoner from jail for the crime. John Ellman (Karloff) a slow talking piano playing man with no grudges. They set him up like a clay pigeon and then give him a mob lawyer (Ricard Cortez) to be sure he gets the chair. Ellman keeps telling the judge that there was a couple who witnessed the frame - if they would only come forward. But Nancy (Marguerite Churchill) and her boyfriend (Warren Hull) are afraid to come forward. They stay silent. Until the day of the execution. And by then it is too late. Sizzled like a french fry.



But wait. The man they both work for (Edmund Gwenn, Miracle on 34th Street) is a scientist though not exactly a mad one - but he thinks he can bring Ellman back to life. And he does and even says "he's alive". Not so much for humane purposes but because he wants to know what death was like. Ellman doesn't remember but while dead he learned who set him up and wants to ask why they killed him. Just ask. The film could have done so much with this situation but seems to wimp out. Maybe because of the Movie Code, they had to hold their punches. Still, it is Karloff glowering, beseeching, resolving, confused, accepting and he is great to watch.