The Walking Dead (1936)

Dir: Michael Curtiz

Dead man walking

After Judge Shaw (Joe King) sentences one of their cohorts to jail, a group of gangsters led by defense attorney Nolan (Ricardo Cortez) hatch a plot to kill the judge and send a message to all other judges who dare think they can oppose the racketeers. Learning that John Ellman (Boris Karloff FRANKENSTEIN) has recently been released after ten years in prison they use him as a patsy. As Ellman was sent to prison by Judge Shaw he's the perfect fall guy. A wrinkle develops in the gangsters plan when they are spotted planting the body of the judge in the car loaned to Ellman by a young couple. Threatened, the young couple remain quiet all through Ellham's trial; despite the wrongly accused man pleading for the eye witnesses to come forward.

It is not until the day of Ellman's execution (!) that the young couple, Jimmy and Nancy (Warren Hull and Marguerite Churchill), speak of what they witnessed to their employer Dr. Evan Beaumont (Edmund Gwenn, Santa Claus in MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET). Frantically Beaumont tries to reach out to the authorities in an effort to stop the execution of an innocent man. He is unsuccessful and Ellman is electrocuted. Not much is said about Jimmy and Nancy being right bastards for not coming forward during the trial but Dr. Beaumont has a plan. Luckily, the good ole Doc has been working in the field of re-animation. Ellman's body is whisked away from the prison and brought to the Doc's laboratory. It is there that the doc uses a mechanical heart and all sorts of scientificy looking machines to bring Ellman back to the land of the living.

Ellman on the operating table

Ellman is despondent, even though he has been granted a new life, and now likes to spend time in a local graveyard. Despite claiming he has no knowledge of the men that framed him for the murder he is able to pick them out of a crowd. His intense glare making them sick with guilt. One by one the gangsters meet a horrible death that on the surface appears to be an accident. Coincidentally, death comes for the men while Ellman is missing from the hospital.

The character of Dr. Beaumont is an interesting one. At first we think the Doc operates on Ellman's corpse for purely humanitarian reasons. After all, it was the two people under his wing that failed to come forward in a timely fashion to save Ellman from a guilty verdict and death. Later though it becomes obvious that the Doc's motivation is to learn what he can about the great beyond. He pressures the reticent Ellman to speak. At one point the Doc is about to go through with a risky operation on Ellman in the hope of keeping the man alive long enough to coax information about life after death from him. Frankly, I was surprised that an American film from 1936 would even have a character probing for such knowledge.

Karloff puts in a wonderful performance as the broken pianist who can't catch a break in life.

THE WALKING DEAD is well worth a watch.

*** out of ****