Director Michael Curtiz, the man responsible for directing some of the arguably best classic films in cinema including Casablanca, Mildred Pierce, and Angels with Dirty Faces, dabbled a little into the classic horror film genre in the early thirties. Horror themed movies on his resume which consist of Doctor X, Mystery of the Wax Museum and one that starred the iconic Boris Karloff, The Walking Dead.
In this horror picture, John Elman (Boris Karloff, Isle of the Dead, House of Frankenstein, Targets), is framed for murder and wrongly executed for a crime he didn’t commit. Even after Elman has been proven innocent, he is sent to the electric chair anyway. Scientist Dr. Evan Beaumont (legendary actor Edmund Gwenn, The Skin Game, Miracle of 34th Street, Foreign Correspondent), takes his corpse and resurrects him back to life in a crazy experiment to learn what happens to the soul after death! Elman, now alive again has revenge on his mind to those who framed him which includes Nolan (Ricardo Cortez, Torrent, Torch Singer, The White Cockatoo) Loder (Barton MacLane Unknown Island, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Western Union), Merritt (Robert Strange, Marked Woman, High Sierra) and Blackstone (Paul Harvey, Black Legion, Charlie Chan in Honolulu, Mr. Moto in Danger Island).
Call it a gangster film with horror elements, The Walking Dead is an entertaining movie with Karloff in another great, fascinating role. There are some wicked scenes of him giving the death stare to those who framed him, along with the looks of surprise when the gang sees him alive once again! Michael Curtiz direction is excellent and fluid as always, with great performances by the cast, and the cinematography by Hal Mohr is stunning!
The Walking Dead has finally received a long-awaited Blu-ray release the Warner Archive Collection and it was worth the wait. This classic has been given a 4K scan from the original nitrate camera negative and what appears to be an extensive cleanup. The picture quality looks outstanding, with strong black levels and crisp whites. The grey scales are balanced and consistent throughout! The Walking Dead now looks completely polished with lots of rich details to the characters and various scenery shot by cinematographer Mohr does shine better than ever on this new Blu-ray. No DNR has been applied on it. The image shows plenty of film grain, resulting in the movie retaining its film-like appearance. You can safely discard the old DVD!
The English DTS-HD 2.0 master audio soundtrack that was used offers a clean and crisp presentation. Dialogue and background noises are not overwhelming or showing dominance over each other. The original score by Bernhard Kaun blends well the rest of the sounds and noises in the movie. I didn’t catch any defects like drop-offs or crackling. English subtitles are offered for this release as well.
Warner provides us with some great supplements for The Walking Dead Blu-ray.
There are two audio commentary tracks. The first one is with Author Greg Mank which was ported over from the DVD, while the second commentary track is what I believe is a new and exclusive commentary presumably produced by Warner Archive. This new commentary track features film historian and author Alan K. Rode. Both are worth a listen.
Michael Curtiz: The Greatest Director You’ve Never Heard Of is a feature that was ported over from the Casablanca Ultimate Edition Blu-ray.
There are also some classic cartoons on this Blu-ray. This release has two Merrie Melodies that have been restored, which are The Cat Came Back and Let It Be Me. Both are directed by Friz Freleng. An original theatrical trailer is the last of the extras.
The Walking Dead Blu-ray is a great, great release that boats excellent audio and video quality to go with two commentary tracks and other bonus material! This is easily a highly recommended release!
The Walking Dead
Director – Michael Curtiz
Cast- Boris Karloff, Ricardo Cortez, Edmund Gwenn
Country of Origin-USA
Distributor – Warner Brothers/ Warner Archive Collection
Number of Discs –1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –11/19/2024