Director: James Hogan
Writers: Brenda Weisberg, Paul Gangelin, Hans Kraley (original story)
Producer: Ben Pivar
Cast: David Bruce, George Zucco, Evelyn Ankers, Turhan Bey, Robert Armstrong, Rose Hobart, Milburn Stone, Charles McGraw, Andrew Tombes, Addison Richards
Dr. Alfred Morris (George Zucco) has discovered an ancient technique to create a gas that will create “life in death.” What seems to interest the doctor most is that this procedure will turn someone into a mindless zombie that will do his bidding. Then using an extract made from dissected human hearts will reverse the process. He decides that the best (unsuspecting) human subject for this experiment is his college chemistry class pupil Ted Allison (David Bruce). Dr. Morris picks Ted because he is a surgeon that can skillfully remove the hearts from bodies they steal from graves or kill. But a hopeless love triangle between Ted, his fiancée Isabel Lewis (Evelyn Ankers), and the doctor causes complications.
The Flashback Fanatic movie review
The true horror of it all is that naïve Ted Allison has not just been screwed over by fate. He has been screwed over by the three people he is close to: his teacher, his fiancée, and his friend. At least poor old Larry Talbot went out on a romantically dignified note, leaving the beautiful Gwen (Evelyn Ankers again!) to grieve for him and their doomed love. In this film, Ted is engaged with famed singer Isabel Lewis, a woman who does not truly love him and passes him over for her suave pianist, Eric Iverson (Turhan Bey). To heap on more insult to injury, Eric is a friend of Ted’s that Ted introduced to Isabel. No doubt, this gave Eric the opportunity to not only score with Isabel, but also to land that sweet gig being her accompanist for her performances. Ted is zombified by his college professor Dr. Morris, in part, because Dr. Morris is also in love with Isabel and thinks Ted’s zombie blackouts will make him unfit to marry her. What makes Ted’s plight even more undeservedly tragic is that Dr. Morris only imagines Isabel loves him. Once Morris finds out that she is in love with Eric, he turns Ted into Eric’s zombie assassin. Poor Ted never has a chance.
George Zucco was the baddie in plenty of '40s fright flicks. Dr. Alfred Morris is probably his best horror role. He is not a one-note fanatic, but a seemingly decent and sophisticated scholar who sees what he wants to see when he assumes that Isabel is in love with him. He almost gains our sympathy when he finds out later that she loves Eric. We just can’t forget that he has quite callously not only made Ted his guinea pig, but is also ruining Ted’s health to sabotage his relationship with Isabel.
Evelyn Ankers’ role as Isabel Lewis manages to be sympathetic in her concern about breaking things off with Ted. We can’t really fault her for needing to end something that doesn’t work for her. You just have to wonder how much she is to blame for things going as far as engagement with poor Ted.
Turhan Bey’s Eric Iverson is one cool customer. Always dapper in his tux and never raising his voice above a silky murmur, he just knows he’s got it made. At least he still refuses to believe that his friend Ted could be involved in the ghoul crimes that are making headlines. I guess that shows some gratitude for swiping the poor guy’s gal.
Robert Armstrong, as Ken McClure, plays that '30s and '40s movie staple: the wise guy newspaper reporter. I like him and his banter with another reporter played by Rose Hobart. He shows some of that brash bluster he displayed as promoter Carl Denham in King Kong (1933). Unfortunately for his character, when he proclaims to an ally in a stunt to catch the Mad Ghoul, “Tomorrow we’ll be sensational!” he ends up making headlines the hard way.
The fall guy in the spotlight, Ted Allison, is well played by David Bruce. He always seems to be the all-around nice guy, yet not a complete fool. He senses something is wrong in his relationship with his fiancée, even if she can’t work up the courage to admit it. When he becomes Zucco’s zombie, his voice becomes a dry croak that conveys his physical and mental degradation.
Universal’s monster maker Jack Pierce provides another effective make-up to aid Bruce in his performance as zombified Ted. A nice chilling moment is watching the mindless expression on Ted’s shriveled face as he is wielding his scalpel just below the film frame to perform another cardiectomy on a murdered graveyard watchman.
There is one curious development in the Ted character. He is such a nice guy that, even when he is aware that he has been screwed over by just about everyone, he still, quite civilly, releases Isabel from their engagement in such a way as to alleviate any guilt on her part. He accepts that Eric is involved with her. At this point, he is aware that he is involved in the ghoul crimes and knows Dr. Morris is chiefly responsible. He succumbs to Morris’ influence once again and is told to kill Eric and then himself. Very soon after this, Morris tries to get Ted to stop carrying out his command, as the doctor needs Ted’s immediate help for something far more urgent. In spite of the fact that zombie Ted always followed the bad doctor’s directions before, Ted still marches onward to carry out the earlier order to kill Eric. I have to believe that there is some pent up animosity still brewing inside Ted that is urging him on to wipe out the friend that got his girl.
My heart really goes out to the cadaverous cardiac klepto. I am totally on Ted’s side after that snake Dr. Morris perpetrates the most upsetting onscreen carnage displayed in any zombie film. When Ted and Isabel stop over to visit, Morris prevails upon Ted to mix the drinks. While Ted is out of the room, Morris puts the moves on Isabel, and he secretly decides that he is going to subject Ted to his “life in death” experiment. When poor old Ted returns in triumph with his tray of cocktails and the three are about to drink a toast, Morris “accidentally” spills Ted’s drink on the floor. That onscreen splatter damned near gave this amateur mixologist a coronary.
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