Kind of a cross between Frankenstein and the Warner Brother's gangster films, The Walking Dead is another film with excellent direction and pacing from Michael Curtiz. Boris Karloff gives a very effective performance as a man wrongly convicted of murder and then brought back to life.
Expecting the worst I was prepared to sit through another one of those "monster stalks those who did him wrong and seeks revenge" films. What I was unprepared for was the clever plot twists in the film where Karloff as the monster doesn't actually kill everyone.
Obviously Warner Brother's was trying to get a piece of Universal's fantasy and monster pie. Warner's was always a studio that was more into social problem pictures than horror films, however they gave Universal a pretty good run for their money with The Walking Dead.
It must have been a relief for Boris Karloff not to have to be covered in layers of makeup for a change. He gives a good performance as a pretty pathetic figure.
The real star of The Walking Dead is Michael Curtiz. This is a man who knew how to put a film together. Even in a minor film like this, Curtiz knows how to stage scenes and move the story along. A horror/crime film combination should have resulted in an absolute piece of junk. But Curtiz keeps it interesting throughout.
66 minutes.
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