Blu-ray Review The Walking Dead (1936) Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Matt Hough]

A tidy little thriller of the other-worldly sort, Michael Curtiz’s The Walking Dead is well worth a look.



The Walking Dead (1936)



Released: 14 Mar 1936
Rated: Approved
Runtime: 66 min




Director: Michael Curtiz
Genre: Crime, Drama, Horror



Cast: Boris Karloff, Ricardo Cortez, Edmund Gwenn
Writer(s): Ewart Adamson, Peter Milne, Robert Hardy Andrews



Plot: After hapless pianist and ex-con John Elman is framed for murder, he is resurrected by a scientist after his execution.



IMDB rating: 6.6
MetaScore: N/A





Disc Information



Studio: Warner Brothers
Distributed By: Warner Archive
Video Resolution: 1080P/AVC



Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HDMA...

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[Wayne Klein]

I quite enjoyed this when I saw it as a kid but was a bit disappointed it wasn’t more of a horror film. Still glad to see this available as it has some terrific performances.

 

[Camps]

I quite enjoyed this when I saw it as a kid but was a bit disappointed it wasn’t more of a horror film.

In his excellent commentary on this new blu ray, Alan Rode details the very discussions about that during the film's production. Fascinating stuff.

 

[Wayne Klein]

In his excellent commentary on this new blu ray, Alan Rode details the very discussions about that during the film's production. Fascinating stuff.

Thanks! I’ll give it a listen when I break this open on Sunday (had too many other films in the mix that need to be watched first).

 

[Ray Faiola]

An early childhood favorite. Rubinstein's Kamennoi Ostrow haunted me for years. I finally found a cello recording of it. Karloff was such a damned fine actor. Under Curtiz' direction, the entire cast is superb.

 

[benbess]

I purchased this recently because of the positive review above by Matt Hough, who writes:

"....Boris Karloff was the perfect person to enact John Ellman. His quiet suffering and tortured acceptance of his fate make for a character which he can perform with his customary underplaying to perfection. Ricardo Cortez’s smarmy defense attorney, all hearty support on the outside which masks his treachery underneath, is the movie’s true villain. Unlike his fellow syndicate members, he’s the two-face, and he plays it wonderfully well. Edmund Gwenn brings his trademarked intelligence and indulgence to Dr. Evan Beaumont, constantly curious about Ellman’s after death experiences and trying to understand and interpret them. Barton MacLane plays his usual tough gangster, abetted well by Paul Harvey and Joseph Sawyer. Marguerite Churchill and Henry O’Neill (playing D.A. Werner) become Ellman’s champions and play the few light forces in this dark, somber tale. Eddie Acuff additionally adds lightness to the proceedings as a driver who’ll bet on anything."



Sometimes Warner Archive is now creating new audio commentaries for some of their releases, which is really appreciated. The new commentary for The Walking Dead from 1936 is by Alan Rode, who recently finished writing an epic biography of director Michael Curtiz that's highly recommended, and available as an audiobook. In the commentary Rode reveals how new strict censorship from the production code office, as well as backlash to some previous American horror movies in England, was causing a decline in the horror genre by the time this movie was released. Rode also talks in some detail about the shocking real-life "scientific" experiments that influenced some of the story for this movie. Headlines about these experiments are even found at the start of the original trailer.

The Walking Dead was the first film Curtiz directed after the big-budget Captain Blood with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland (1935), which was a big box office success. Compared to the $1.2 million production of Captain Blood, The Walking Dead had a modest budget even for the time of only around $200,000, which would be about $4.5 million today. But Curtiz and the rest of the crew did make a nice looking and effective suspense film for the price. It's not really scary, but it is somewhat creepy and suspenseful. Boris Karloff does very good work with in a sense two different characters.

Even though the original camera negative amazingly survives, the picture quality is a somewhat soft at times, and I'm guessing that maybe filters were used to give it a somewhat otherworldly and mysterious appearance, which works from my pov.

Included on the blu-ray is an insightful one-hour long documentary on Michael Curtiz, two amusing early Technicolor cartoons from 1936, and the original trailer. This disc is recommended if you're a fan of Karloff and Curtiz.

My rating for this B movie is a B, but for the whole package including the commentaries (2 actually), documentary, and cartoons, I think it's worthy of an A- for fans of old films.