The Dead Don't Die

This rather unknown '70s telefilm from the artisan Harrington can delight any non-demanding moviegoer thanks to the mix of genres and its sinister atmosphere. Set in the 30s, the film mixes gangster movies with classic terror in a plot that includes zombies, a sect that practices voodoo, the dance marathons typical of the Great Depression that one knows from movies like 'They Shoot Horses, Don't The?' (Sidney Pollack, 1969) and disturbing sequences in morgues, cemeteries and funeral homes. In addition to an execution in the electric chair at the beginning of the film.

To this set of morbid ingredients is added a cast led by George Halmiton, who plays a sailor obsessed with laundering the honor of his brother executed with capital punishment after being accused of murder, and which also includes Ray Milland, Linda Cristal. or Joan Blondell. All of them do their job with solvency in a film in which the mystery and creepy sensations remain until the end.

This is a fun one. I remember being scared as hell. In an attempt to solve a murder mystery, George Hamilton finds himself in a town inhabited by zombies. He even has a love scene with one of them!! It would be cool to see a remake. There has never been a zombie movie movie quite like this one. Hope i find it on a video shelf some day.

I remembered seeing this movie when it first aired (on NBC, I think), and I seemed to remember it being above average for a TV movie. So I found a copy of it for under $5 and watched it again, nearly 30 years later. Wow, what a difference time and experience make. The premise is an interesting one, and the film relies more on subtlety than shock value. But, man is it slow. I found myself losing interest in it a couple of times. This is a movie that screams to be remade.

Ralph Drake is about to be executed for the death of his wife, but he claims he's innocent and wouldn't dare harm her. His brother Don promises to find the real killer and clear his name. This leads him into an unusual world, where nothing seems quite right and he doesn't know who to really trust. The mysterious Vera LaValle warns him he's in trouble in if he digs deeper and he sees his dead brother. The only one who he can really turn to is Ralph's former employer Moss, who runs a marathon dance hall.

Traditional voodoo/occult mumbo jumbo is the source behind this quite eerie, foggy, and darkly atmospheric made for television horror fable. It's all about the mysterious story, and moody shades in what you call an old-fashion slow-burner, which throws around little edgy suspense and some knotty twists to keep the audience rather unsure if it's reality or nightmares affecting the protagonist. In that role George Hamilton gives a winning performance. The premise is penned by "Psycho (1968)" writer Robert Block and while it can drag in parts. Still the concept (like out of a crime-pulp novel) has a unique quality that goes well with the gloomy setting, 1930's time frame and some spooky set pieces that feature a prominently subtle, skin-crawling performance by Reggie Nalder. There are faults evident in the story's uncertain structure, but the dreamlike appearance helps slightly to iron out those creases. Those looking for zombie action will only get it in minor, if unspectacular doses. Director Curtis Harrington goes about things very low-key, but competently puts it together and executes a shadowy tenor. The film has that washed-out look, but the camera-work is crisply tailored and the ominous sting in the electronic music score adds to the able production. A top cast, commits highly to the production. Hamilton and Nalder are perfect. Ray Milland is boldly effective as Moss and Linda Cristal smoothly glides through her part as Vera. In admirably solid support parts are Joan Blondell, Ralph Meeker and James McEachin. Yvette Vickers also makes a colourfully quick appearance.

A delightfully decent TV chiller.

In 1930s Chicago, a sailor attends his brother's execution, and then starts to see his dead brother everywhere. A mysterious woman warns the sailor to leave town, but instead he begins to look into his brother's past, with the help of a gruff police sergeant (Ralph Meeker) and the brother's former employer, a dance hall owner (Ray Milland). What he finds goes beyond what we consider reality. A very young and handsome George Hamilton stars as the befuddled sailor and Linda Cristal is the bewitching mystery woman. Curtis Harrington directed from a Robert Bloch story, and the atmosphere is creepy and at times nightmarish. Harrington leave no doubt about where things are going by starting off with the brother's execution followed closely by a scene in the dance hall featuring a bunch of marathon dancers looking like the living dead. Within the strict limits of a 1970s ABC-type TV movie, Harrington even lays on a bit of true horror, in a scene when when Hamilton is trapped in a funeral home with a walking corpse intent on murder (Reggie Nalder of "Salem's Lot" fame). There's also a taut sequence in a graveyard when Hamilton and the dance hall owner dig up the deceased brother's grave. And the final showdown takes place in an old-fashioned slaughterhouse that takes on the feel of a hospital morgue. Nicely done, although no one in the star-studded cast is called upon to emote much.