The Walking Dead Blu-ray Review
“The Walking Dead” is a sluggish “Frankenstein” knock-off.
Not to be confused with the long-running TV series based on the comic book series of the same name, 1936’s “The Walking Dead” is a “Frankenstein” esque horror story penned by Ewart Adamson, Peter Milne, Lillie Hayward and Robert Hardy Andrews. The story begins with a racketeering criminal (Stephen Martin) about to be sentenced. The general prediction is that he will get off as there is fear of retribution. The gutsy Judge Shaw, however, has him sent to prison for 10 years. The racketeering group decides to target Shaw by using John Elman (a man freshly out of prison) as the fall guy. The criminals make it look like John was getting revenge against Shaw as he was the man who had him sent to prison before. Despite there being 2 witnesses to John’s innocence (Jim and Nancy), they come forward too late and Elman dies in the electric chair. Dr. Beaumont (who Nancy and Jim work for) decides to experiment on the body of Elman to try and resurrect him. Miraculously it works, but Elman isn’t quite himself. He also seems to have come back to punish the racketeers responsible (although he never actually kills anyone).
The first 20 minutes of “The Walking Dead” starts out quite promising with its genre mixture of horror, crime, revenge, courtroom drama, and sci-fi science. Alas, it all doesn’t lead to very much. Despite the skilled direction by the ever underrated Michael Curtiz, he can’t elevate the weak script that really sags in the middle and lumbers on towards a deeply underwhelming conclusion. There’s certainly moments past the 20 minute mark that have a lot of potential with the themes involving God, guilt, and death, but it all feels undercooked. It’s as if the writers were unsure of where to take the story or what to do with it at all. There’s also a real missed opportunity to further explore Elman’s life after death as it were.
Speaking of Elman, Boris Karloff tries his best to carry the movie as the tragic undead character. He’s easily the most intriguing character in the entire film and Karloff does more than what the page offers him.
Video/Audio:
Presentation: 1.37:1 1080p. How does it look? Warner Archive dishes out another amazing restoration of this B&W horror film.
Audio Track: 2.0 DTS-HD MA. How does it sound? The audible snowy hiss can be distracting, but the track itself is largely solid.
Extras:
* 2 commentary tracks. One by film historian Greg Mank and the other by film historian/author Alan K. Rode.
* Original theatrical trailer
* 2 cartoons titled “The Cat Came Back” and “Let It Be Me.”
* “MIchael Curtiz: The Greatest Director You’ve Never Heard Of”- A 37 minute documentary about the deeply underrated filmmaker responsible for many great films.
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