User Reviews

Dispersed throughout the Universal reign of horror in the thirties came several remarkably well-made MGM and Warner Brother horror films. The Walking Dead is one such film produced by Warner Bros. that mixes their predominant genre of expertise, the gangster film, with the horror film. You might say in a way that it is a blend of reality and the supernatural. This film has stood the test of time well, and is a nice, taut story of a man wrongly accused of a crime, miraculously brought back to life, and eventually seeking vindication and justice from those that did him wrong. Karloff is a masterful lead in that he is able to frighten us and exact from us a tremendous amount of pity and understanding. In point of fact, his characterization of Ellman is one of his most powerful and sympathetic, a true tragic hero toyed with by crime bosses and a corrupt lawyer. Most of the acting beyond Karloff is rather pedestrian, with Edmund Gwenn turning in a nice portrayal of a questioning scientist and Ricardo Cortez wonderfully playing the stereotypical slimy lawyer. Curtiz does a good job of direction and lighting and shading are used to almost perfect results. A must see for the classic horror buff!

This is a one of a kind--combination horror/gangster! Karloff (who's just incredible) is bought back from the dead after being wrongfully executed and takes revenge on those who set him up. It's basically a gangster film until the last half hour--then the scary stuff kicks in. The film is VERY short (70 minutes) and moves quickly. It's intelligent (although bringing a person back from the dead after they've been electrocuted is a stretch!), very well-directed (effective use of shadows and camera angles) but the main reason to watch is Karloff. He never received the attention he deserved because he made horror films, which are still looked down upon. He was a wonderful actor and in this movie gives one of his best performances ("The Black Room" is probably THE best he ever gave). Just check out his expression after he "kills" the men he goes after. Excellent job. A perfect "B" movie. Don't miss it! I don't believe this is on video (I saw it on TCM), so if you get a chance, SEE IT! You won't be disappointed!

Eerie, creepy, beautifully shot oddity, the kind of stuff they just wouldn't know how to make any more (not that they would want to). Karloff gives a fine performance as the gaunt, haunted patsy in a murder rap. Stand-out scene is definitely the fantastic build up to Karloff's undeserved execution, as sad cello music plays and prison guards banter about baseball while a man's life hangs in the balance. The ideas dry up a bit as King Karloff haunts his killers, but his sinister solemnity captivates the interest, and it's all crammed into little more than an hour.

THE WALKING DEAD (Warner Brothers, 1936), directed by Michael Curtiz, is an interesting little item from the "horror" genre of the 1930s. Naturally starring Boris Karloff, but surprisingly produced and released by Warner Brothers instead of by Universal, where films of this sort were filmed and Karloff under studio contract. Being a Warners film, this also has the trademarks of its very own popular genre, the "gangster" story, yet, in this case, the use of modern-day setting with the blend gangsters with tales of the supernatural and science fiction.

The story opens with Judge Roger Shaw (Joseph King), in spite of threats from the mob, convicting a racketeer named Steven Martin (Kenneth Harlan) to a ten year prison sentence. Nolan (Ricardo Cortez), Martin's lawyer, sets out to do away with the judge by arranging one of his fellow racketeers, "Trigger" Smith (Joseph Sawyer), to employ John Ellman (Boris Karloff), an out-of-work musician out on parole for two weeks following his ten year prison sentence, to "spy" on Shaw, the judge who also had sent him up, on the grounds that Shaw's wife suspects her husband of being unfaithful, and all Ellman has to do is watch his house and take notes. One night while spying on Shaw by his property, the judge is murdered elsewhere by the gangsters who take the body and leave it in the back seat of Ellman's car. At the same time, this is witnessed by a young couple, Jimmy and Nancy (Warren Hull and Marguerite Churchill), who remain silent after they are personally threatened. After Ellman notices the couple driving away, he discovers the body in his car. The next scene shifts to the courtroom where Ellman pleads his innocence and that there are witnesses who can verify his story, but with the "help" of his attorney Nolan, he gets him convicted of first degree murder and to face execution. On the night he is to go to the electric chair, Jimmy and Nancy come forth to Doctor Beaumont (Edmund Gwenn), their employer and scientist, who immediately telephones Nolan to contact the governor to stop the execution. Nolan purposely awaits until it is too late, and by then, the death sentence is carried out. Beaumont orders the autopsy to be stopped so that he may revive the body. After Ellman is brought back from the dead, he appears in a "zombie" state of mind, remembering nothing, but knowing precisely whom his enemies are, and through a supernatural force, goes after each one of those gangsters to learn why they had him framed, only to witness their destinies through accidental occurrences.

Featured in the supporting cast are Warner Brothers stock company of Barton MacLane as Loder; Henry O'Neill as District Attorney Werner; Addison Richards as the Prison Warden; Eddie Acuff as Mitchell; with Paul Harvey as Blackstone and Robert Strange as Merritt.

Boris Karloff is no stranger in playing a corpse resurrected from the dead. His role as The Monster in FRANKENSTEIN (Universal, 1931) or THE MUMMY (Universal, 1932), immediately come to mind, yet, in this production, he somehow resembles the monster, but in this case, doesn't go out on a murderous rampage in spite that he actually does have just cause to avenge his evil doers. Karloff's John Ellman is actually a gentle soul who, after being executed for a crime for which he is innocent, retains his gentleness even through his second life, yet, succeeds in bringing fright through his eyes to those who had done him wrong. He even finds peace and tranquility while roaming about the cemetery. Being a musician and pianist himself, he has a favorite musical piece, a somewhat quiet but moody composition he asks to be played as he walks his last mile to the execution chamber. As for the music, Ellman adds, "I like to think Heaven like that." After his "resurrection" by Doctor Beaumont, the story occasionally shifts to mystic overtones as Beaumont tries to learn from Ellman his experience in death. At one point, Ellman responds, "Leave the dead to their Maker. The Lord our God is a jealous God."

In many ways, THE WALKING DEAD is highly original in its premise and during its short 66 minutes, starts off a bit slowly with some intrusive "comedy relief" provided by Eddie Acuff, whose sure thing in making wagers which turns out to be a bad gamble, but soon builds itself to a fast and memorable conclusion. During its second half, the movie plays like a "film noir" mystery with its dark atmospheric background along with some very creepy stalking from the titled character. THE WALKING DEAD may not be Academy Award winning material, but will guarantee to win a new and appreciative audience whenever shown on Turner Classic Movies. (**)

It's a dead man walking in this film with Boris Karloff brought back to life by a doctor (Edmund Gwenn - Miracle on 34th Street).

There was no surprises as I would have expected, as the reanimation was posted all over the newspapers the next day.

It's not just a horror film, but a gangster film, as Ellman (Karloff) was executed for a crime he didn't commit.

It was really funny when he went after those involved in the conspiracy to frame him. A little supernatural work on a lot of guilty consciences.

It was a fascinating film, and Gwenn was superb. Karloff was also very good.

One of the best horror films of the 30s. The only criticism lies in some of the acting by the secondary characters. Otherwise, superb direction, magnificent Hal Mohr photography, good script and story, and excellent music score by Bernhard Kaun (which was NOT listed in the credits by the way). Even if you are not a horror fan, it rates high as a rainy day diversion.

Excellent little horror film directed by the amazingly talented Michael Curtiz, the same man who would later give up Casablanca amongst many other classic films.

The story is a genre mashup of gangster and horror and at only about 1 hour 5 minutes, there isn't much time to lag. With such a skilled eye behind the camera, we are treated to a film that does not bore.

Boris Karloff is the star and he does such a great job of bringing fright to the picture. For someone interested in the acting of Karloff or the films of Curtiz, this is a must see!

7.0 / 10

--A Kat Pirate Screener

Michael Curtiz directed this odd combination of gangster and horror films for Warner Bros. Karloff is a minor gangster released from prison who is framed and executed for murder. He's brought back to life when his name is cleared and confronts each of the men who framed him with his knowledge from beyond the grave. The execution scene is absolutely excruciating, as the only witnesses to the crime try to get the corrupt governor to call in a pardon while the music-loving Karloff walks to the electric chair, accompanied by a cello.

No, this is not the comic book or TV series, and there are no zombies to be seen. In this case, "The Walking Dead" is the story of John Ellman - an ex-con who just two weeks after his release from prison is wrongfully convicted of the murder of the judge who originally sentenced him for his earlier crime. Ellman is the victim of a conspiracy among a group of rackateers who wanted the judge dead - a conspiracy that included his own lawyer. But Ellman's "good fortune" (maybe) is that Dr. Beaumont has been doing experiments involving bringing the dead back to life. Convinced by two of his associates (who know Ellman is innocent) to try his procedure on Ellman, Beaumont succeeds in raising him from the dead - and becomes fixated on what Ellman experienced while dead (although that really isn't a particularly well developed sidebar to the story.) Ultimately, Ellman takes revenge on those who framed him - although his revenge seems to be somewhat supernatural, and he never actually touches anyone.

There's a "Frankenstein-ish" quality to this very short movie - which includes Boris Karloff (famous, of course, as Frankenstein's monster in the 1931 movie and the later "Bride of Frankenstein" in 1935.) In fact, Karloff apparently expressed some concerns that in the original script, Ellman was too much like the monster - especially because of his inability to speak - and the script was rewritten to accommodate Karloff's concerns. Even Beaumont's process of reviving Ellman resembled Dr. Frankenstein's experiment just a little bit - with bolts of lightning involved. To me, Karloff seemed to put on a ho hum performance. It wasn't especially riveting, although director Michael Curtiz made good use of close ups of Karloff's eyes. But this movie really wasn't at all frightening, and Ellman was no monster, although, again, there's a similarity to "Frankenstein" in the fact that both Ellman and the monster Karloff portrayed in the earlier movies were both objects of sympathy, not really responsible for anything that happened. Aside from the lack of any real fear factor, the movie may have tried to pack a little bit too much into 66 minutes. There are a lot of characters and a somewhat convoluted plot.

Aside from Karloff, I immediately recognized Edmund Gwenn. Still more than a decade away from his famous turn as Kris Kringle in "Miracle on 34th Street, Gwenn here was Dr. Beaumont. He was all right in the role, but I honestly didn't feel that any of the cast were particular standouts, and the story is, for my taste, too much of a rehash of some of the basic plot of "Frankenstein." (3/10)

I have to agree with those who consider Karloff an underrated actor. Given the nature of this film and its fantastic premise, he brings a real subtlety to the role. After each of his antagonists meet their untimely demise, there is just a hint of remorse and sadness. Who else in the horror genre would have underplayed it like that? Karloff becomes the walking conscience of his tormentors and apart from the films failings regarding plot, effects etc., I think it works quite nicely on the level of allegory.

Michael Curtiz directed this beautifully filmed story of poor luckless John Elman(played superbly by Boris Karloff) who was framed by racketeers for the murder of a judge. Elman is then tried and found guilty of murder. Though evidence proving his innocence is found, it arrives too late to save his life. Still, a Dr. Beaumont(played by Edmund Gwenn) has developed a way to bring back the recently dead, and resurrects Elman, who resumes his pianist skills to conduct eerie concerts, though also is compelled to confront those responsible for framing him... Again, Boris Karloff is excellent, playing the role for the sympathy and pathos it deserves. Atmospheric and thoughtful; only the highly familiar plot mars this fine film, with a haunting end.

The Walking Dead (1936) is more of a somber drama with horror and gangster genre elements than an all-out chill fest. Still, it's worth a watch.

Karloff gives the best of his unsung performances here. His melancholy and pensive characterization is perfectly mixed with a quiet menace reminiscent of his portrayal of Imhotep in the 1932 version of The Mummy.

The atmosphere and cinematography are beautiful in that black-and-white 1930s horror way. So eerie and sad.

Michael Curtiz's direction is good, though not as impressive as his later work would be. The other actors are adequate, but none can sustain the same interest as Karloff.

Classic horror nerds will enjoy this, though it's not in the same ranks as the likes of The Black Cat (1934) or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931).

In order to dispose of an honest judge a small group of racketeers hire a local gunman to kill him and then set up a recently released convict named "John Ellman" (Boris Karloff) to take the fall. Sure enough, John Ellman is convicted and then sent to the electric chair due in large part because of two witnesses named "Jimmy" (Warren Hull) and his girlfriend "Nancy" (Marguerite Churchill) who wait too long to come forward. Fortunately, a physician named "Dr. Beaumont" (Edmund Gwenn) comes up with a novel idea to bring John Ellman back to life even though he has been dead for several hours. Although his plan succeeds there is something much different about John which nobody can quite seem to figure out. Now rather than reveal any more of the plot and risk spoiling this movie for those who haven't seen it I will just say that for a short, relatively low-budget motion picture produced in 1936 this film turned out to be quite good all things considered. I especially liked the performances of Boris Karloff and to a lesser degree that of Marguerite Churchill along with the nifty (albeit now antique) cars used in this movie. Be that as it may, I enjoyed this film and rate it as above average.

The Walking Dead immediately appealed to me as I am very fond of Boris Karloff. While not one of his best films, it is rather too short and there are a couple of instances where the music overbears things a bit, it is still a very good film. Karloff himself is very commanding and poignant in his role, and Edmund Gwenn matches him beautifully. Michael Curtiz directs with a very slick and assured style, never allowing for the story to drag but not letting it rush ahead either. The expressionistic style of the cinematography adds much to the atmosphere especially in the horror elements of the story, while the score on the most part is used really well. There is also an intelligent script, and the story moves at an involving pace with the gangster elements intense and suspenseful and the horror elements scary and macabre. The idea itself may be hard to swallow initially, but it is actually dealt with plausibly and thoughtfully with not a shred of predictability.

All in all, a very good film especially for Karloff. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Hollywood great Michael Curtiz directs Boris Karloff in this middling thriller about an ex-con, just out prison, who is framed for a judge's murder by racketeers; after he's convicted and killed in the electric chair, a team of scientists revive him. Fatigued entry in the 1930s back-from-the-dead horror cycle doesn't allow Karloff to do anything fresh or substantial (indeed, several of his big moments seem lifted straight from "Frankenstein"!). Curtiz can't do much with this hackneyed scenario, and he's certainly not helped by the unsurprising script, though there is one strong sequence at a piano recital. Otherwise, "The Walking Dead" is D.O.A. *1/2 from ****

Offhand, I cannot think of another actor who gave us a more impressive run of films in the horror genre than Boris Karloff did in the 1930s. Starting with the sensation that was 1931's "Frankenstein," Boris continued to appear, year after year, in films for Universal, Columbia and (English studio) Gaumont that are now deemed eternal classics in the genre. In 1935 alone, the so-called "King of Horror" appeared in "The Black Room," "The Raven" and "Bride of Frankenstein," and his second horror film of 1936, following "The Invisible Ray," found him at a new studio, Warner Brothers. That film was "The Walking Dead," a remarkable film in many ways and yet another success for Karloff. The film's plot is one that would be adapted and only slightly reworked for several future Karloff pictures, such as "The Man They Could Not Hang" and "Before I Hang," but one that here seems fresh and winning.

In the film, Uncle Boris plays the part of John Ellman, a mild-mannered pianist who, when we first encounter him, has just been released from jail after a 10-year stretch for accidental homicide. His newfound freedom is short lived, however, since a gang of high-toned racketeers has just killed a local judge and fixed it so that Ellman appears to be the guilty party. With one of the racketeers, Nolan, acting as his defense counsel, Ellman's fate is assured. He is convicted of the crime and summarily electrocuted, shortly before he is cleared by new evidence. Fortunately for him, a local scientist, Dr. Evan Beaumont, has just come up with a method of resuscitating the dead, and so the wrongfully executed man is brought back to the world of the living. But much of Ellman's memory has apparently been wiped away during his death state, he is now even more mild mannered and befuddled than before, and he sports a new and startling white streak in his bushy hair. Before long, though, the sound of a piano recalls Ellman to himself, and, by dint of some sort of supernatural agency, he somehow gains knowledge of the men who had framed him...along with an awareness of their exact locations, and an overriding desire to go after them....

"The Walking Dead," however, boasts a twist that some of those other reworked films do not. Here, the Karloff character is NOT a violent man, bent on bloody vengeance. Rather, he simply wants to interrogate his framers, and ascertain why they have contrived evidence against him. It is Ellman's mere threatening presence that drives his victims to do themselves in...by falling out of a window, running into a locomotive, etc. Apparently, it was Karloff himself who insisted on this twist; the film's original script depicted him as a violent, hairy, drug-addicted alcoholic! Although some viewers might have preferred seeing Boris in all-out killer mode, his gentle but threatening demeanor here (just look at how intensely he glares at his framers, during his piano recital!) is quite effective enough. Karloff even looks like the Frankenstein monster at times...minus the neck bolts, of course! It is a wonderfully understated performance by the great English actor. And he is abetted by some other top-flight talent here, including Ricardo Cortez (the original Sam Spade, in 1931's "The Maltese Falcon") as Nolan, Edmund Gwenn (perhaps best known as Kris Kringle in 1947's "Miracle on 34th Street" and Dr. Harold Medford in 1954's "Them!") as Beaumont, and tough-guy Warner Brothers character actors Barton MacLane and Joe Sawyer as two of Ellman's "enemies." The film has been helmed with style to spare by the great Hungarian director Michael Curtiz (this was his only teaming with Karloff), whose use of odd camera angles, unsettling close-ups and striking use of light and shadow help to elevate the film to the level of screen art. Curtiz had already impressed horror fans with 1932's "Doctor X" and '33's "Mystery of the Wax Museum" (both with Fay Wray and Lionel Atwill), and would of course go on to direct such Hollywood classics as "Captain Blood," "The Adventures of Robin Hood," "The Sea Hawk" (all starring Errol Flynn), "Yankee Doodle Dandy," "Casablanca" and "Mildred Pierce." What an incredible career! He brings "The Walking Dead" home in a succinct, no-nonsense manner. The picture is remarkably concise, and at a mere 66 minutes in length, might fairly be accused of being TOO concise. (Indeed, five of the film's deaths, not to mention Ellman's ultimate fate, plus questions regarding the nature of the afterlife, are neatly shoehorned into the film's final 20 minutes!) The art of creating a short feature film such as this seems to have been lost, and indeed, it is doubtful that today's filmgoing public would be willing to pay $14 for a 66-minute entertainment anyway. Still, when done as well as Curtiz' work here, these brief pictures can be extremely satisfying affairs. Short and not so sweet, "The Walking Dead" finds its creators near the very top of their game. Like Ellman himself, it has experienced a well-deserved resurrection....

Ultimately, this is a disappointing film. There are too many characters for a short film, all except Karloff being predictable and undeveloped. And Karloff has done better work than this. The plot is simplistic and expects the viewer to accept the idea of restoring one to life after being dead. There is a 30's flippancy in the first trial scene that is undoubtedly intended as comic relief but succeeds is doing nothing more than being intrusive. It would seem that a mood would be essential for a horror film, but there is none to be found. Yes, the camera work is more than adequate and the score is at times quite nice. However, there are too many strikes against the film. Hardly a classic, and only worth the effort if this genre of film appeals to you.