Condamné à vivre

Ralph Morgan plays a kind-hearted doctor, known throughout his community for his wisdom and charity, that has a terrible secret he does not even know. It seems when he was born he was marked by a vampire bat....and now in his middle age the terrible strain of over-work has caused his affliction to surface. He passes out whenever total darkness envelops him and turns into a hideous monster that rips the throats of the townsfolk. This is a pretty good, ole creaky film from Invincible Films(?). It is a low-budget thriller to be sure, but has a lot of heart behind it and is quite a satisfying story. Ralph Morgan, brother of the Wizard of Oz'z Frank Morgan gives an interesting performance. He is adequate as a man torn apart with this terrible malady as he calls it. The rest of the cast is pretty good too with Mischa Auer standing out as a hunchback and Pedro de Cordoba excelling as a friendly doctor. What I really liked about the film was its rather blatant symbolism about the light and the darkness and how each brings out a different persona..

Vampiresque tale of a madman loose in a small village in the middle of the 19th century.Someone is tearing the throats out of villagers after dark. Who could it be and how does it relate to the events years earlier when a shipwrecked pregnant woman was bitten on the neck by a vampire bat? Well made melodrama with horrific overtones take many horror conventions and breathes just a bit of new life in them, Give this movie a good many points for daring to be different in its supernatural tinged tale. Add to it a great cast headed by Frank Morgan and Misha Auer (as a hunchback) and you get a fine little lost film. Sure it won't win any awards but as a movie to watch on a dark and stormy night with the lights on low its gangbusters Worth seeing, especially if you program a night of moldy oldie horror films.

The plot of this is very similar to another movie (I believe "The Vampire Bat). Still, it holds its own pretty well. The main character, Paul, was cursed from birth to become a horrible creature with bat-like tendencies. He rips the throats out of people and drinks their blood. He has no recollection of his actions. A young woman who admires him is engaged to marry him, even though he is twice her age (at least). His best friend is aware of what is happening and tries to intervene. He also has a hunchback assistant who tries to keep things from escalating. Eventually the murders are going to be investigated. The black and white film has a nice quality to it. The principle character is a kind man who has helped people for years, especially the downtrodden. He makes a very tragic figure. There is a bit of the Wolfman, imitating Lawrence Talbot. Of course, things must come to a proper conclusion. It's a little slow at times, but the gentle goodness of the characters, contrasted with the evil forced on them, makes it work.

"Condemned to Live" is one of those movies that make you feel sorry for the monster. An unfortunate creature caught up in circumstances beyond it's control. The creature seemed to me to be a cross between a vampire and a werewolf although which one it actually is, is really unimportant to the movies plot. There is a nice assortment of characters and a romantic theme that goes along with the horror story. I thought that it was a pretty enjoyable movie. You do have to consider that it is a 1935 movie made by Invincible Pictures Corp. Old and probably a low budget film. You do have to like older movies to enjoy this one. I thought that it should have a rating of 5+ or a low 6 and decided on voting for the 6. It is worth seeing.

Condemned to Live (1935)

** (out of 4)

A Professor (Ralph Morgan) learns that his mother was attacked by a vampire bat while pregnant with him and soon he begins to fear that he is the vampire stalking his small town. This film comes from the same director as The Vampire Bat, which was made two years earlier. If you enjoyed that Lionel Atwill film then you'll probably enjoy this one as well. For me, I didn't enjoy the previous film and this one here didn't work either, although there were a few interesting twists on the vampire legend. I think the biggest problem for the film is that it's pretty much all talk from start to finish without very much happening. Whenever something exciting does happen it's usually off screen and we only hear about it through more dialogue scenes. Morgan delivers a fine performance but the rest of the cast are rather boring. The direction is also off to the point where the film, for me at least, drags quite a bit and the 65-minute running time seems very long. I enjoyed the relationship between the Professor and a hunchback but this is about the only thing that worked for me. It's far from a really bad movie but it is rather slow and dull. It's also worth noting that the movie was shot on the same sets as Bride of Frankenstein.