Valley of the Zombies

If you approach this looking for zombies, especially an whole valley full of 'em, you'll be sadly disappointed yet I can't help it...I like this short little movie just the same. Maybe it's the wonderful atmosphere this film has what with mysterious going ons in the night, graveyards and tombs figuring into the plot. Or maybe it's the old fashioned villain who truly looks like a fiendish fellow...Ian Keith as the thought to be dead Ormond Murks, who now needs the blood of the living to stay alive.

And while there may be a number of outdated stereotypes (by today's standards) at work here especially in terms of the frantic female Nurse Susan Drake who is easily spooked and frightened leaning upon the always steady and sure male Dr. Terrance Evans..still there's a certain innocence to this style of Horror which makes it fun...kind of hard to explain really. It's only being an hour long doesn't hurt either.

OK, I admit it. I love 30's and 40's B horror films. They generally have great atmosphere and wonderful characters. Are both the atmosphere and the characters over-the-top? Yeah, most of the time, but that is part of the charm. You don't watch these movies looking for great cinema. You watch them for the perpetually foggy streets. What city or what country makes no difference, 9 times out of 10 there will be fog. You watch them for the crazed characters. You watch them for the dripping-with-venom dialog. You also have the wonderful look that black and white creates. Things are stark and heavily shadowed.

You watch these films simply because you love the time and the genre. Not for great writing and most times not for great performances. You either love these period B films or not. Had I lived during the era you would have never gotten me out of the theater.

This is not your traditional zombie film - they do not mean "zombie" in the way we think film them in films. I won't tell for it would ruin the film. With this film think Jack the Ripper is a Vampire in a way... this one is really hard to describe, you would just have to see it for yourself.

Ian Keith as Ormand Murks is super! He reminds me a lot of Boris Karloff as Cabman John Gray in "The Body Snatcher (1945)" and, as I said, Jack the Ripper. Ormand Murks is right up there with them - he is a madman.

This is a really good late at night film - great atmosphere: graveyard, a madman on the loose, talk of an asylum, embalming... if you like the classic films with these things then you should enjoy this "Valley of the Zombies".

8/10

Dr. Maynard (Charles Trowbridge) tells Dr. Terry Evans (Robert Livingston) and his nurse, Susan Drake (Lorna Gray), about the theft of ten pints of blood from his lab. Later, he is visited by Ormand Murks (Ian Keith), a man Maynard had once had committed to an insane asylum.

What attracted me to this film is quite simple: it is old and it is short. I am all about short films to watch while eating breakfast, and I am all about watching older movies (as a reviewer, my job simply cannot be done properly without knowing the history of film, particularly horror).

Ian Keith plays a very cool, creepy man, wrongly judged insane, who wears a grave robber outfit. He is the highlight of the film, and what makes this one more horror fans should see. There is also a fun homicide detective scene where they question Lorna Gray and try to get her to falsely confess to murder. The back and forth is pretty fun, and it makes me wish that Gray was in more films like this (or like her Three Stooges work).

Well crafted little horror jaunt. Seems long dead Murks (Keith) won't stay dead, but he does need blood to keep frightening us viewers. I guess he must have had a zombie dad and a vampire mom, or some such. Anyhow he gets his needed red stuff from a doctor's office, which is fine until he stupidly throttles his supplier. Now he gets his stuff on the hoof, and our heroes Dr. Terry (Livingston) and Nurse Susan (Gray) better figure things out before he depopulates the studio of its supporting players.

I love that opening sequence, a really funny got'cha when the sheet's pulled back. Republic may have been at the bottom of the Hollywood studios, but it was at the top of the poverty row outfits, PRC, etc. So it's not surprising this horror quickie would be a little slicker than most. Happily, director Ford manages both atmosphere and pacing. The outdoor sets may be 3-feet deep, but they're still creepy. And catch the many snappy lines from our winsome Nurse Susan, especially when she and the doc are creeping through the forrest. Now, Keith really has the malevolent glower of a fiend, but his mugging at times borders on the ludicrous. I guess he needed a few more lessons from Karloff. Good also to see Livingston get off a horse (The Three Mesquiteers) and into a medical smock, of all things. All in all, the 57- minutes remains a cut above other quickies, without being anything special.