Boris Karloff appeared in over 80 films before starring in James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) and becoming an overnight sensation. That film made him an international star and a horror icon. He’d make more than a hundred films after Frankenstein including another memorable Universal Horror picture, The Mummy, a series of Mr. Wong films, and of course, he narrated the beloved animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, but it is as Frankenstein’s Monster that he will always be remembered. I want to say he struggled to find roles outside of the horror genre, but that isn’t really true. The guy made a lot of movies. He made ten movies in 1932 alone. He made films in all sorts of genres. It is just that the most memorable ones were horror films.
Buy The Walking Dead (1936) Blu-rayMade in 1936, The Walking Dead is often categorized as a horror film, but it is more of a science-fiction melodrama. It is definitely riffing on Frankenstein and while it has some memorable direction from Michael Curtiz, it isn’t a particularly good film no matter what genre you fit it in.
Karloff plays John Elman, a sad sack just released from a ten-year prison stint for accidentally killing a man (it isn’t stated outright but it is implied the man has been sleeping with Elman’s wife). He’s having a hard time finding any work. Through a series of events, he finds himself spying on the judge who sent him to prison. He’s told that the judge’s wife suspects the judge of infidelity and Elman is supposed to sit in his car just outside the judge’s house and take notes of his comings and goings. What he doesn’t know is that the entire thing is a setup from a crime syndicate. They plan on killing the judge because they couldn’t buy him off and now one of their men is doing a ten-year prison term. Elman is the perfect fall guy.
The perfectly named Trigger (Joseph Sawyer) shoots the judge and throws him into Elman’s car when he isn’t looking. Flash forward and Elman is on trial for the judge’s murder. Things don’t look so good since the corpse was found in his car, he had been seen on several nights sitting outside the judge’s house, he had a book full of notes on the judge’s comings and goings, and of course, it was the judge who sent him to prison in the first place. Oh, and it is one of those crime-syndicate fellows that’s defending him!
They try to wrench a lot of drama out of the courtroom stuff making us wonder if he’ll be found guilty or not. There was a couple who witnessed Trigger tossing the corpse into Elman’s car and they could come forward just in time to save him. But this is a film called The Walking Dead and any synopsis of the film will tell you that Elman is resurrected after his execution. So any tension the film tries to build here is completely futile. He’s found guilty and sentenced to the electric chair.
Just as they are pulling the switch those couple of witnesses come to their senses and try to save him but they are too late. Enter Dr. Beaumont (Edmund Gwenn) who’s been dabbling in some Frankenstein medicine himself and has the corpse delivered to his lab (which is full of all sorts of electronic whiz-dos and doo-dads making it very much look like it is straight out of Frankenstein – though much more brightly lit). You half expect Dr. Beaumont to lift his hands at one point and shout, “It’s Alive! (his assistant does manage a rather feeble, “He’s alive,” but it doesn’t quite work the same.
Elman is back but he’s not exactly Frankenstein’s monster at first. He’s more sickly and sad. He doesn’t seem to remember anything. But that doesn’t stop the gangsters from trying to kill him. After a bullet lodges into his brain, Elman seems to know everything – who set him up and why, even though that information was never revealed to him. And now he’s out for revenge.
With a run time of only 66 minutes, The Walking Dead still feels overly long. It is stuffed full of plot but very few ideas. The most interesting stuff is lifted straight out of Frankenstein and what’s left is rather dull. Karloff is fine, but he’s not given much to do other than look sad. At least until he starts killing people and even then the knowledge and the power seem to emanate from some unearthly power.
Curtiz fills it with some interesting imagery. There is an especially nice scene when Elman is headed to the electric chair. All the people are lined up, walking in an orderly fashion while the camera bounces shadows off the wall. The cemetery scenes are nice and creepy as well. But it all adds up to nothing much.
Warner Archive Collection presents The Walking Dead with a new 4K scan of the original nitrate negative. They’ve done a lot of cleaning to it and it looks marvelous.
Extras include:
- Audio Commentary with author Greg Mank
- Audio Commentary with historian Alan K. Rode
- Michael Curtiz: The Greatest Director You’ve Never Heard Of (37:20)
- Classic Cartoons: The Cat Came Back (8:01) Let It Be Me (7:54)
- Theatrical Trailer (1:13)
The Walking Dead is not a great film. I mostly found it to be sluggish. But Karloff gives a sympathetic performance and Michael Curtiz delivers some atmospheric direction. It is worth checking out if you are a fan of either.
