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... and although that was probably not the intended lesson of this film, you've got to wonder why Dr. Lloyd Clayton would burn so much material belonging to his dead brother when he truly didn't understand the power that brother Elwyn had. With the "Dr." in front of his name you think he'd have more of an appreciation for the value of information. Brother Elwyn turns out to be a vampire in the untraditional sense. He dies and rises from the grave a vampire without having been made one by another vampire, and the recipe for this transformation is never made clear. Not to worry, though, because Elwyn has veteran vampire lackey Dwight Frye to serve him faithfully, here as the rather excitable Zolarr.

Also unlike other vampires, Elwyn just doesn't bite you and be done with it, he enjoys talking you to death - at least in the case of his brother Lloyd. Instead, at mealtime, Elwyn begins to slowly drain the blood and thus life from Dr. Clayton's ward, Gayle. Soon there are rumors among the townspeople that Dr. Lloyd Clayton is slowly poisoning Gayle so that he can usurp her inheritance. So if Elwyn is successful not only will Lloyd probably be hit with a murder charge, but ward Gayle will become one of the undead too. However can this mess be fixed with all of the answers to Lloyd's questions now in ashes? Watch and find out.

This is one of my favorite public domain horror films. The main problem with the film is that the elements survive in a rather washed out state being a bit hard on the eyes and the ears. However, if you can get past that and the low budget, the acting in this one is pretty good and the script is a good one with a bit of a twist on your traditional vampire tale. I recommend it.

Whenever I watch an old black and white horror movie, I always try to watch it in context of the time period. Some old movies seem kind of stupid 50 or 60 years later, but were actually pretty good at the time.

This is not one of them. Dead Men Walk is as pointless and boring a movie as I have ever seen. Besides the expected sub-par cinematography (couldn't anyone turn on a lamp, for god's sake?) and horrendous acting, the story itself was idiotic and the fact that 40 minutes of the 62-minute movie was devoted solely to keeping Elwyn the vampire away from his niece just makes it more idiotic.

I understand George Zucco had a reputation as a horror/mystery movie guy but he was the most un-frightening vampire I have ever come across in a movie. Dead Men Walk makes Return of the Vampire (1941) with Bela Lugosi seem like high art.

After watching Dead Men Walk, I had to watch Horror of Dracula with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing to remind myself that there are still come great vampire movies to see.

This is a neat little picture. Period. Sure it has an incredibly low budget. Yep, it is dark and grainy. It sure does creak in some places too. But it has a couple of fine performances by George Zucco as twin brothers. One brother has killed his evil twin to rid the town of his malevolence. The dead brother returns, with the aid of a much older and very tired looking Dwight Frye, as a vampire out to avenge his death and destroy anything that matters to his brother. Zucco does fine in both roles. He makes probably the most urbane vampire in film. The budget really hurts as the vampire just fades out and in, but it also adds to the charm of this little studio film. Frye also does a decent job returning to a much more subdued Renfield-type role. The other actors are not that bad, and the story actually had me interested till the end. Fern Kemmett in particular gave a nice performance as a superstitious woman. Some shots in the film are very atmospheric. There is a great scene in a cemetery, and the finale was orchestrated quite well. The two Zuccos fight in flames as Dwight cries from under a very heavy marble altar. Great Stuff!

George Zucco, whom I had never heard of until now, stars as a kindly doctor and his evil twin brother who is hell-bent on Satan worship, and having a hunchback assistant (because you need that). His Satan-worship even seems to make him immune to death! You might not find some aspects of the film to be original. I mean, a hunchback? And the good twin and bad twin dichotomy? Nothing new there (though newer in 1943 than today). So put this one on the pile with all those other films...

But wait! Whoever provided the imagery really cared about the scenes they wanted to show. The opening is one of the more powerful scenes you'll find in a film of its era. A book called "History of Vampires" burns slowly in a fireplace (forshadowing the later destruction of the occult book collection) while a super-imposed face speaks to us from beyond the grave.

Yes, you'll have to be tolerant of older films with no color and the less technologically advanced filming procedures. If not, you might be snoozing in a matter of minutes. But true fans of the old days will enjoy this one and all the way to the end you may not be able to guess which brother - if either one - will survive this epic battle of good versus evil.

Fairly typical PRC stuff, but imho any film with 2 Zucco's has to be worth a look in. And most of the time he does alright talking to thin air, with just a couple of dud repeat shots occasionally cheapening things (even more!)

It's an interesting low budget take on vampirism, with Good Dr. Zucco finding it very hard to believe that his dead identical twin Bad Count Zucco is actually undead and on the prowl for revenge against him. Even harder for him to swallow is the remedy which to him resembles hocus-pocus - apparently like he does to the hillbilly townsfolk. Didn't they have any streets in that town, they all seemed to spend a lot of time crashing through thick forest - which had presumably just used on another film? Dwight Frye was on target as usual, but looked very chunky and unwell, perhaps not surprising that he only had a year to live.

All in all very entertaining and surprisingly well acted and atmospheric nonsense.