InjunNose "Dead Men Walk" would not qualify as a great film in any universe, but with a bigger budget it might have been worth seeing more than once. George Zucco plays twin brothers, one a straight arrow and the other a black sheep who tinkers with the occult; the straight arrow kills his evil twin, who is resurrected as a vampire with the help of his bug-eyed servant (Dwight Frye). Predictable horror shenanigans ensue. If you've seen the dour, dignified Zucco in any of his more lavishly-budgeted pictures, like "Dr. Renault's Secret" or "The Mad Ghoul", then you know that he was perfectly capable of carrying a film...but "Dead Men Walk" refuses to be carried. It's shabby-looking, packed with the kind of tight shots favored by Poverty Row studios and which made their films look as if they'd been lensed in a single corner of someone's tiny house. The dialogue is conspicuously purple, even for a horror flick, and occasionally almost schizophrenic: in one breath a character solemnly reflects on "vampires lying in unholy repose, their teeth stained with the blood of the living", but drawls, "Shucks! I'm scared as the dickens!" in the next. (I'm not quoting directly from the film, but I'm not far off, either.) The acting is competent but utterly lacks conviction; even Dwight Frye is phoning it in. These folks were making a stinker and they knew it.

info-16951 * More campire than vampire. * According to IMDb, Mary Carlisle was born in 1912 and no date of death is given. * Perhaps those vampire bites have affected her longevity. * How differently we would perceive the 1930s and 1940s if the movies had been filmed in color. The era seems impossibly distant. * This is possibly the most hypophotonic movie ever made. I can almost count the photons in some scenes. * If you're wondering why the catalog of disjointed thoughts, it's because IMDb doesn't allow reviews shorter than ten lines, for some logorrheic reason, so I'll keep on rambling, line after line, until IMDb's software lets me know that the "review" is long enough for submission on this site. * I've seen many reviews shorter than ten lines. Does anyone know how to avoid having to write reviews with a minimum of ten lines?

MARIO GAUCI This one has an odd title, since it is more appropriate for a zombie flick rather than a vampire picture. In any case, it reunites director Newfield with star George Zucco (I have another collaboration of theirs to go through during this "Halloween Challenge", THE FLYING SERPENT {1946}, apart from having just acquired one more i.e. the non-horror outing THE BLACK RAVEN {1943}).Zucco plays dual roles here: an eminent small-town doctor and his disreputable twin (whose burial actually opens the film), with an avid interest in the occult extending to his having joined the ranks of the undead (complete with unhinged acolyte – who else but Dwight Frye? – to protect him when powerless i.e. during the day and generally do his evil bidding). By the way, this also features an intrepid old lady (eventually gotten out of the way by Frye, then on his last legs himself!) – an unlikely and annoying device adopted in a handful of vintage horrors. Typically, the good Zucco is charged with caring for the leading lady (invariably engaged to a young man – played by subsequently blacklisted actor-turned-Oscar-winning-writer Nedrick Young! – who admires him, though he has no qualms about threatening the old man for his helplessness when the girl is on the point of dying!). In fact, apart from one isolated attack early on, the vampire concentrates his blood-drinking activities upon her, intending to turn the girl into his disciple (bride?): however, since she calls his brother "Uncle" and no mention is made of another sibling, the heroine must also be the villain's own flesh and blood (how's that for perversion?)! For the record, the aged and partially-disabled Zucco is not exactly cut out for fang-and-cloak work: if anything, he never quite bares the former and, with respect to the latter, sticks to his everyday clothes throughout – though he can still appear and vanish again at will! Amusingly, the film proper is preceded by a prologue featuring an "Inner Sanctum"-type host delivering a portentous speech, and where a book entitled "History Of Vampires" is actually thrown into the fire – intimating that what is to follow will be a novel spin on things but, then, what we get is just the usual stuff! While undeniably watchable (especially at a manageable 64-minute duration), DEAD MEN WALK's programmer pedigree ultimately makes it strictly forgettable fare.

Claudio Carvalho During the funeral mass of Elwyn (George Zucco), the local Kate (Fern Emmett) accuses him of evilness. Later, his brother Dr. Lloyd Clayton (George Zucco) and tutor of his niece Gayle Clayton (Mary Carlisle) tells her and her fiancé Dr. David Bently (Nedrick Young) that his brother has become obsessed by mysticism and black magic since he traveled to India. During the night, Elwyn comes to Dr. Lloyd Clayton's house and accuses Dr. Clayton of pushing him in a cliff to die. Further, he tells Dr. Clayton that he will revenge, slowly killing Gayle and transforming her in a vampire. Dr. Clayton does not believe in what he has seen and heard, but when Gayle gets mysteriously sick and Dr. Clayton becomes the prime suspect of David and the locals, he finally accepts that his brother is a vampire and tries to find his coffin to destroy him."Dead Man Walk" is a creepy low-budget vampire movie visibly inspired in "Dracula", with a good story and acting. The cinematography of the DVD that I watched is a kind of blurred in the scenes in the cemetery, maybe because of a lighting problem in the shot, but the story is told in a dark atmosphere and I liked this underrated film. George Zucco has great performance in his double role. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Mortos Que Andam" ("Dead That Walk")