It’s Albert Dekker times two in the 1941 film noir Among the Living where he plays identical twin brothers Paul and John Raden. The film’s theme is about living with mental illness as Paul Raden is the psychotic twin brother of John.  This film is directed by Stuart Heisler who was responsible for some great classics such as The Glass Key, The Monster and the Girl and The Hurricane.

Paul Raden (Albert Dekker, Kiss Me Deadly), who was thought dead at the age of 10, was locked away in a secret room at his parents’ mansion. He had been in that room for years as he was insane, but he escapes and starts murdering people that drive him crazy. He hides out a hotel where he runs into Millie (Susan Hayward, Beau Geste, Reap the Wild Wind) who works there.  They get along at first and go shopping together until she finds out that he is the killer. Paul, wearing a suit and clean shaven, now looks 100% like his brother John Raden(also Albert Dekker). And of course, it’s up to John stop him! As one would expect, there is a case of mistaken identity when it comes to capturing the murderer. John is mistaken for Paul and is captured. Only Dr. Ben Saunders (Harey Carey, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) can clear John’s name but will the bloodthirsty town let him?

This is a fun feature that only runs about seventy minutes with Paul running around the city trying to blend in with society but can’t because he is mentally ill and doesn’t seem to understand what life is like. He is like a lost child at times. And when he gets upset or frustrated, he gets mad, and has the desire to kill people.

Among the Living finally debuts on Blu-ray. The image quality for this is splendid with inky blacks and crisp whites to go with a well-balanced grey scale. The cinematography by Theodor Sparkuhl shows a lot of detail. There is one scene which has a faint vertical line, and one other scene has some print damage near the end that pops up on the right-hand side, but overall, this a mighty fine transfer. I can’t tell you how good it feels to have an unreleased classic like this film arrive on Blu-ray and look as good as it does!

For their Blu-ray, their English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 soundtrack comes in clearly with dialogue coming in perfectly. There is a scene that takes place at a bar where the sound is more aggressive. Some gunfire shots and a murder scene where a woman is screaming has the audio coming in a bit more aggressive. No age-related issues such as hissing, or popping were detected. English subtitles are available for this offering.

Kino’s Among the Living Blu-ray has a couple of extras. One is a commentary by professor and film scholar Jason A. Ney who shares information about the background of the movie, the actors and director.

Trailers for Night Has a Thousand Eyes, The Web, The Accused, So Evil, My Love, Rawhide and The Female Animal is the other extra for this release.

I waited years for this movie to be released on Blu-ray and it was worth the wait. A movie that has excellent audio and video quality with a commentary is always easy to recommend!

Among the Living

Director- Stuart Heisler

Cast- Albert Dekker, Susan Hayward

Country of Origin- US

Distributor – Kino Lorber

Number of Discs – 1

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date –12/12/21