The Walking Dead **** (1936, Boris Karloff, Edmund Gwenn, Marguerite Churchill, Ricardo Cortez, Henry O’Neill, Barton MacLane) – Classic Movie Review 6652

‘BACK FROM THE DEAD!’ ‘HOW CAN A MAN AVENGE HIS OWN MURDER?’ Director Michael Curtiz’s lusty handled, eerily scary 1936 Warner Bros horror movie stars Boris Karloff as pianist ex-con John Ellman, a convicted killer who has been executed in the electric chair but returns back to life, thanks to mad scientist Dr Evan Beaumont (Edmund Gwenn) and his ‘glass heart’ machine, to stalk Mr Nolan (Ricardo Cortez)’s band of racketeers, the very bad guys who framed him for murder.

Warner Bros’ familiarly themed movie – one of many similar movies of the time – works extremely well and becomes a true original thanks to a great creepy atmosphere, a chilling portrayal by Karloff and commanding work by director Curtiz, who gets the spooky tone and stylishly moody look for the film just right in the black and white cinematography by Hal Mohr.

[Spoiler alert] At the end Dr Beaumont is warned to stop his experiments, citing Biblical Scripture: ‘For the Lord thy God is a jealous God (Deut. 6:15a).’

Also in the cast are Marguerite Churchill, Henry O’Neill, Barton MacLane, Warren Hull, Joe King, Joe Sawyer, Eddie Acuff, Ruth Robinson, Addison Richards, Paul Harvey, Robert Strange, Kenneth Harlan, Miki Morita, Adrian Rosley, Milton Kibbee, Bill Elliott and Wade Botelier.

The Walking Dead runs 66 minutes, is written by Ewart Adamson, Peter Milne, Robert Andrews and Lillie Hayward, from an original story by Ewart Adamson and Joseph Fields, produced by Hal Wallis and Louis F Edelman and designed by Hugh Beticker.

It was shot at Griffith Park, California, and Warner Bros Studios.

Edmund Gwenn is made up to resemble Lionel Atwill, who regularly played mad doctors.

A few days before the shoot, Wallis brought in three new writers to address Karloff’s issues with his character, including Ellman’s lack of speech like his Creature in Frankenstein (1931) and Ellman’s laughable Tarzan-like agility.

In The Man They Could Not Hang (1939) Karloff plays Dr Henryk Savaard, who is obsessed with bringing the dead back to life.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6652

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