The Walking Dead (1936 film)
- Ewart Adamson
- Peter Milne
- Robert Andrews
- Lillie Hayward
- Ewart Adamson
- Joseph Fields
- Boris Karloff
- Ricardo Cortez
- Edmund Gwenn
- Marguerite Churchill[1]
companies
- Warner Bros.
- First National[1]
- February 29, 1936 (1936-02-29)
The Walking Dead is a 1936 American horror film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Boris Karloff, who plays a wrongly executed man who is restored to life by a scientist (Edmund Gwenn). The supporting cast features Ricardo Cortez, Marguerite Churchill, and Barton MacLane. The film was distributed by Warner Bros. Dr. Beaumont's use of a mechanical heart to revive the patient foreshadows modern medicine's mechanical heart to keep patients alive during surgery.
Plot
John Ellman has been framed for murder by a gang of racketeers. He is unfairly tried, and despite the fact that his innocence has been proven, he is sent to the electric chair and executed. Dr. Evan Beaumont retrieves his dead body and revives it as part of his experiments to reanimate a dead body and discover what happens to the soul after death.
Although John Ellman has no direct knowledge of anyone wishing to frame him for the murder before he is executed, he gains an innate sense of knowing those who are responsible after he is revived. Ellman takes no direct action against his framers; however, he seeks them out, wishing to know why they had him killed. Each dies a horrible death, and in the end it is their own guilt that causes their deaths.
While confronting the last two villains, Ellman is mortally shot. Dr. Beaumont hurries to his death bed, and although pressed to reveal insights about death, Ellman admonishes, "Leave the dead to their maker. The Lord our God is a jealous God" (from Deuteronomy 6:15). As Ellman dies, the two remaining racketeers are killed when their car runs off the road, crashes into an electric pole, and explodes. The film ends with Dr. Beaumont repeating Ellman's warning about a jealous God.
Cast
- Boris Karloff as John Elman
- Ricardo Cortez as Nolan
- Edmund Gwenn as Dr. Beaumont
- Marguerite Churchill as Nancy
- Warren Hull as Jimmy
- Barton MacLane as Loder
- Henry O'Neill as Werner
- Joseph King as Judge Shaw
- Addison Richards as Prison Warden
- Paul Harvey as Blackstone
- Robert Strange as Merritt
- Joseph Sawyer as Trigger
- Eddie Acuff as Betcha
- Kenneth Harlan as Stephen Martin
- Miki Morita as Sako
- Ruth Robinson as Mrs. Shaw
- Frank Darien as Watchman (uncredited)
Production
The Walking Dead's executive producer Hal Wallis wrote to the production supervisor, Lou Edelman, on August 16, 1935, that he had sent him a six-page outline for a film titled The Walking Dead.[4] The original story for the film was written by Ewart Adamson and Joseph Fields.[5] On November 1, director Michael Curtiz was sent the draft of the film.[4] A few days before shooting was scheduled, actor Boris Karloff voiced problems involving his character John Ellman.[6] These issues included Ellman's lack of speech, which he felt was too close to his role in Frankenstein (1931), and Ellman's Tarzan-like agility, which he felt would induce laughter.[6] Wallis brought in three more writers for the film.
In addition to Karloff's stunted dialogue, this film's resemblance to Universal's Frankenstein is most obvious when Edmund Gwenn's character revives Karloff, including the dramatic change in music, the pulsating lab equipment, off-kilter camera angles, and, finally, Gwenn saying, "He's alive".
The Walking Dead was filmed at Griffith Park, California, and Warner Bros. Studios between November 23 and December 1935.[1]
Dialogue director Irving Rapper worked on the film. He called it "a bad story" but enjoyed working with Curtiz.[7]
Release and reception
The Walking Dead premiered on February 29, 1936.[1] Writing in the March 4, 1936, issue of Variety, the reviewer "Odec" said that the film would provide "limited satisfaction" for film patrons with "a yen for shockers." The reviewer wrote: "The director and the supporting cast try hard to give some semblance of credibility to the trite and pseudo-scientific vaporings of the writers, but the best they can produce is something that moves swiftly enough but contains little of sustained interest." Further, "Odec" predicted: "Karloff will have to be sold on past performances" as The Walking Dead "lets him down badly."[8]
The film was re-released theatrically in 1942. Two decades later, United Artists Associates syndicated the film to local US television stations as part of its 58-film package "Science Fiction-Horror-Monster Features." The package became available on May 15, 1963.[9]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Mank, 2001. p.184
- ^ "The Walking Dead". BFI Film & TV Database. British Film Institute. Archived from the original on January 13, 2009. Retrieved November 28, 2012.
- ^ a b Stephen Jacobs, Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster, Tomahawk Press 2011 p 192-193
- ^ a b Mank, 2001. p.188
- ^ Mank, 2001. p.189
- ^ a b Mank, 2001. p.190
- ^ Higham, Charles; Greenberg, Joel (1971). The celluloid muse; Hollywood directors speak. Regnery. p. 226.
- ^ Willis, Donald, ed. (1985). Variety's Complete Science Fiction Reviews. NY: Garland Publishing Inc. pp. 48–49. ISBN 0824087127.
- ^ Heffernan, Kevin (2004). Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold: Horror Films and the American Movie Business, 1953–1968. Durham NC: Duke University Press. pp. 258–259. ISBN 0822332159.
Bibliography
- Mank, Gregory William (2001). Hollywood Cauldron: Thirteen Horror Films from the Genre's Golden Age. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1112-0.
External links
- The Walking Dead at IMDb
- The Walking Dead at the TCM Movie Database
- The Walking Dead at AllMovie
- The Walking Dead at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
- v
- t
- e
- The Last Bohemian (1912)
- Today and Tomorrow (1912)
- Captive Souls (1913)
- My Husband's Getting Married (1913)
- The Exile (1914)
- The Borrowed Babies (1914)
- The Princess in a Nightrobe (1914)
- Prisoner of the Night (1914)
- Bánk Bán (1914)
- Golddigger (1914)
- Seven of Spades (1916)
- The Strength of the Fatherland (1916)
- The Karthauzer (1916)
- The Black Rainbow (1916)
- The Wolf (1916)
- The Medic (1916)
- Mr. Doctor (1916)
- Master Zoard (1917)
- The Red Samson (1917)
- The Last Dawn (1917)
- Spring in Winter (1917)
- Tartar Invasion (1917)
- Secret of St. Job Forest (1917)
- Nobody's Son (1917)
- The Charlatan (1917)
- A Penny's History (1917)
- The Fishing Bell (1917)
- Peace's Road (1917)
- Jean the Tenant (1917)
- Earth's Man (1917)
- The Colonel (1918)
- The Merry Widow (1918)
- Magic Waltz (1918)
- A skorpió I. (1918)
- The Devil (1918)
- Lulu (1918)
- Lu, the Coquette (1918)
- Júdás (1918)
- The Ugly Boy (1918)
- Alraune (1918)
- 99-es számú bérkocsi (1918)
- The Sunflower Woman (1918)
- Liliom (1919)
- The Lady with the Black Gloves (1919)
- Boccaccio (1920)
- The Star of Damascus (1920)
- The Scourge of God (1920)
- Mrs. Tutti Frutti (1921)
- Good and Evil (1921)
- Mrs. Dane's Confession (1921)
- Labyrinth of Horror (1921)
- Sodom and Gomorrah (1922)
- Young Medardus (1923)
- Avalanche (1923)
- Nameless (1923)
- A Deadly Game (1924)
- General Babka (1924)
- Harun al Raschid (1924)
- The Moon of Israel (1924)
- Red Heels (1925)
- Cab No. 13 (1926)
- The Golden Butterfly (1926)
- The Third Degree (1926)
- A Million Bid (1927)
- The Desired Woman (1927)
- Good Time Charley (1927)
- Tenderloin (1928)
- Noah's Ark (1928)
- Glad Rag Doll (1929)
- Madonna of Avenue A (1929)
- The Gamblers (1929)
- Hearts in Exile (1929)
- Mammy (1930)
- Under a Texas Moon (1930)
- The Matrimonial Bed (1930)
- Bright Lights (1930)
- A Soldier's Plaything (1930)
- River's End (1930)
- Demon of the Sea (1931)
- God's Gift to Women (1931)
- The Mad Genius (1931)
- The Woman from Monte Carlo (1932)
- Alias the Doctor (1932)
- The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932)
- Doctor X (1932)
- The Cabin in the Cotton (1932)
- 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)
- Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
- The Keyhole (1933)
- Private Detective 62 (1933)
- Goodbye Again (1933)
- The Kennel Murder Case (1933)
- Female (1933)
- Mandalay (1934)
- Jimmy the Gent (1934)
- The Key (1934)
- British Agent (1934)
- The Case of the Curious Bride (1935)
- Black Fury (1935)
- Front Page Woman (1935)
- Little Big Shot (1935)
- Captain Blood (1935)
- The Walking Dead (1936)
- The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)
- Stolen Holiday (1937)
- Mountain Justice (1937)
- Kid Galahad (1937)
- The Perfect Specimen (1937)
- Gold Is Where You Find It (1938)
- The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
- Four's a Crowd (1938)
- Four Daughters (1938)
- Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
- Dodge City (1939)
- Daughters Courageous (1939)
- The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
- Four Wives (1939)
- Virginia City (1940)
- The Sea Hawk (1940)
- Santa Fe Trail (1940)
- The Sea Wolf (1941)
- Dive Bomber (1941)
- Captains of the Clouds (1942)
- Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
- Casablanca (1942)
- Mission to Moscow (1943)
- This Is the Army (1943)
- Passage to Marseille (1944)
- Janie (1944)
- Roughly Speaking (1945)
- Mildred Pierce (1945)
- Night and Day (1946)
- Life with Father (1946)
- The Unsuspected (1947)
- Romance on the High Seas (1948)
- My Dream Is Yours (1949)
- Flamingo Road (1949)
- The Lady Takes a Sailor (1949)
- Young Man with a Horn (1950)
- Bright Leaf (1950)
- The Breaking Point (1950)
- Force of Arms (1951)
- Jim Thorpe – All-American (1951)
- I'll See You in My Dreams (1951)
- The Story of Will Rogers (1952)
- The Jazz Singer (1952)
- Trouble Along the Way (1953)
- The Boy from Oklahoma (1954)
- The Egyptian (1954)
- White Christmas (1954)
- We're No Angels (1955)
- The Scarlet Hour (1956)
- The Vagabond King (1956)
- The Best Things in Life Are Free (1956)
- The Helen Morgan Story (1957)
- The Proud Rebel (1958)
- King Creole (1958)
- The Hangman (1959)
- The Man in the Net (1959)
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960)
- A Breath of Scandal (1960)
- Francis of Assisi (1961)
- The Comancheros (1961)
- Jön az öcsém (1919)
- Sons of Liberty (1939)
- Bright Lights (1935)