DEAD MEN WALK

DEAD MEN WALK looks like it was shot before lunch on a random Tuesday in early 1943. This PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation) bargain basement quickie was actually shot in six days, not that the extra time spent on the project made any difference in the final product.

This is what is euphemistically known as a Poverty Row horror film and it serves a vital function for horror film aficionados like myself. While enduring all 64 minutes of its' running time, I was reminded that this film (and others like it), make even the worst Universal horror film of the period look like a masterpiece. As it just so happened, Universal released FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN that same year and while FMWM is a lower tier effort, it has far more going for it than this picture.

The producer, Sam Neufeld, was working on a budget so small that he was forced to use the same actor, horror icon George Zucco, in two roles as brothers, one of whom is a vampire. But he's a cheap vampire with no fangs and is-that-a-cape-or-a-bad-suit attire. Zucco, who made an astonishing 96 films between 1931 and 1951, many of them horror pictures, does his best with the tepid material provided by screenwriter Fred Myton but there's not much here. All of the murders take place off screen, there's no blood, and the crypt set leaves much to be desired. Like imagination.

The cinematography by Jack Greenhalgh is murky and fuzzy throughout. It's as if Greehalgh didn't understand the difference between lighting for mood and atmosphere and just plain bad lighting which keeps characters faces in near total darkness in several scenes. The sound is awful too. Some of the dialogue is impossible to hear and the volume fluctuates throughout the film.

I'm not entirely sure that "editor" Holbrook Todd really deserves any credit on this film. He repeatedly lets scenes play out in long medium shots, rarely cutting to close ups. It's like they only had so many feet of film to shoot and couldn't afford to waste any celluloid by shooting coverage or additional takes. And the music by Leo Erdody, is horrible. It doesn't match the action or the mood of the scenes, sounding like generic "horror" movie music that may have indeed been lifted from a music library of stock cues.

The best thing about this film is the appearance of Dwight Frye as Vampire Zucco's hunchbacked assistant Zolarr. Frye was a busy man in 1943. He made five films that year before passing away on November 7th. Frye, who became a horror film immortal with his back-to-back appearances in DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN (both 1931), was always fun to watch. He always gave a hundred percent and got the most out of even the smallest role. No actor of his generation could wring such desperation out of the delivery of the single word "master".

DEAD MEN WALK is like one of those cheap-jack black and white horror comic magazines I used to see on the stands of my youth. The artwork and stories were always far beneath the material found in the first rate Warren magazines CREEPY, EERIE and VAMPIRELLA. You can watch DEAD MEN WALK and buy a gonzo horror mag or you can buy an issue of CREEPY and curl up with a Universal classic. The choice is yours.

Guess what I'm gonna do.