Dead Men Walk

Dead Men Walk
Dead Men Walk
	Film poster for Dead Men Walk
Directed by	Sam Newfield
Written by	Fred Myton
Produced by	Sigmund Neufeld
Starring	Dwight Frye; George Zucco; Mary Carlisle; Nedrick Young; Forrest Taylor
Cinematography	Jack Greenhalgh
Edited by	Holbrook N. Todd
Music by	Leo Erdody
Distributed by	Producers Releasing Corporation
Release date	February 10, 1943;
Running time	64 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Dead Men Walk is a 1943 American horror film produced by Sigmund Neufeld for Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC). It is an original story and screenplay by Fred Myton, starring George Zucco, Mary Carlisle, Nedrick Young, and Dwight Frye, directed by Sam Newfield. It was originally distributed by PRC and reissued in the US in 1948 by Madison Pictures, Inc.

Plot

The story involves a kindly small-town physician Doctor Lloyd Clayton, who has secretly murdered his twin brother Elwyn, because of Elwyn's deep involvement in satanic occult practices. Only Elwyn's hunchback assistant Zolarr suspects the good doctor of doing away with his master and confronts him, but the doctor maintains that he only acted in self-defense when his brother had become a danger to society.

Meanwhile, because Elwyn had gone far with his study of the dark arts before his demise, he returns to life as an evil supernatural being who begins murdering the villagers by draining them of their blood. The doctor and his beautiful young niece, Gayle Clayton, and her fiancé Dr. David Bentley, soon discover that Elwyn is still alive, and are in peril for this knowledge.

Dr. Clayton realizes the only way he can help his niece is to kill Elwyn again, and plans to destroy him with fire. Clayton becomes trapped in the resulting conflagration, and along with Elwyn and Zolarr perishes in the flames of Elwyn's accursed library.

Cast

George Zucco as Dr. Lloyd Clayton / Dr. Elwyn Clayton
Mary Carlisle as Gayle Clayton
Nedrick Young as Dr. David Bentley
Dwight Frye as Zolarr
Fern Emmett as Kate
Robert Strange as Wilkins (Harper in credits)
Hal Price as Sheriff Losen
Sam Flint as Minister

Production

The film was shot in six days. It was the final film of Mary Carlisle.^[1] She made the film shortly after getting married.^[2]

It was one of the last film appearances of Dwight Frye.^[3]

Critical reception

As of November 2016, the film scored 4.7/10 on the Internet Movie Database and 10% on Rotten Tomatoes.

References

^ Internet Movie Database Trivia
^ Schallert, Edwin (Sep 10, 1942). "DRAMA: Montgomery Handed Plum Roles at 20th". Los Angeles Times. p. 18.
^ "DWIGHT FRYE DIES; CHARACTER ACTOR: Former Stage Performer Here, Seen in Many Film Thrillers Since 1930, Stricken at 44". New York Times. Nov 12, 1943. p. 22.

External links

Dead Men Walk at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
Dead Men Walk at IMDb
Dead Men Walk at the TCM Movie Database
Dead Men Walk at AllMovie
Dead Men Walk is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive

This 1940s horror film–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This article related to an American film of the 1940s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[1] Internet Movie Database Trivia

[2] Schallert, Edwin (Sep 10, 1942). "DRAMA: Montgomery Handed Plum Roles at 20th". Los Angeles Times. p. 18.

[3] "DWIGHT FRYE DIES; CHARACTER ACTOR: Former Stage Performer Here, Seen in Many Film Thrillers Since 1930, Stricken at 44". New York Times. Nov 12, 1943. p. 22.

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