Legendary Horror Films (BFS)

 

 

                                                Picture     Sound     Extras     Film

I Bury The Living (1958)                C             C            D         C+

Dead Men Walk (1943)                  C             C            D         C

The Screaming Skull (1958)           C-           C-           D         C

 

 

Among a few dozen triple-features-on-one-DVD from BFS Home Video, Legendary Horror Films is one of the most interesting sets yet.  It collects three B-movies that are unusually interesting and all in black and white, all of unusual noteworthiness that makes it fun to watch.  It reminds us how fun the genre could be and how much the current onslaught of overrated, overbudgeted Horror romps we get now are so bad.  There is a love of this kind of filmmaking here and also reminds us that audiences had higher expectations in the pre-home video days, even from B films.

 

I Bury The Living gives us a twist on the old voodoo doll and pins shtick as the new head of a cemetery (Richard Boone) discovers that the pins he may be putting in a map of the place are killing the lot owners.  The fact that the pins are both black and white adds to the gimmick.  Theodore Bikel co-stars in this 76 minutes long tale, which is enhanced by an impressive score by Gerard Fried.  This is one of four scores remarkably available on a limited edition double CD of Fried’s work reviewed elsewhere on this site.  The film itself stays serious and suspenseful enough.  Director Albert Band helms the screenplay by Louis Garfinkle, based on Garfinkle’s original story.

 

Dead Men Walk is the oldest of the three films, not about zombies, but vampires.  It is also one of the little gems produced by the brief-lived but well-remembered Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) that did so many key B movies.  George Zucco, Mary Carlisle, and Dwight Frey offer appropriate interaction.

 

The Screaming Skull is a silly haunted house film that was remade for TV twice.  Though this is nothing great, this original is interesting enough to call for the two telefilms on DVD down the line.  It also has a score by famous epic music composer Ernest Gold which helps it out bigtime.  The romantic couple has found a new house, but wait until they find out what they are moving in with!

 

The full frame images on all three films have problems.  I Bury The Living has slight tint shifting from the print that is especially noticed in the beginning, but it is a monochrome film.  This does not happen too often, and is not too much of a distraction.  Therefore, the cinematography of Frederick Gately, A.S.C., is not hampered.  This is some very good camera work.  Dead Men Walk was shot by Jack Greenhaugh and outside of stock footage and optical effects, is more darkly atmospheric in a way only these older, denser black and white stocks could deliver.  This may have its scratches and be a few generations down, but it still retains a good look.  Screaming Skull was shot by Floyd Crosby, A.S.C., but this muddy old analog transfer does not do his work justice.  From what can be seen, this was still nicely shot.  And yes, that is the rare 1955 gullwing Mercedes Sportster that remains one of the company’s crowning achievements.  There are too many scratches, debris and even jump cuts on this print to be ignored.

 

The Dolby Digital 2.0 on each film is the original Mono sound, and they are passable, except Screaming Skull, which has compression from being as many generations down as its image.  The audio on I Bury The Living is not bad, and deserves special note since it actually made it to a CD soundtrack.  It had been a few decades since I last saw the film and was impressed by the stand-alone music form the CD.  Now seeing it with the film, I realize how smart Fried was really being.  The music had been cut on old monophonic acetate discs which needed serious restoration.  If that source had been used for this DVD, the film would have had even more impact, but who knows where the original dialogue and sound effects steams to this film (originally released by United Artists) is.  Either way, the Dolby compression could never equal the PCM CD sound form the Film Score Monthly CD set.  Leo Erdody did the Dead Men Walk score.

 

The few extras include very brief bio/filmography facts on Boone, Bikel, Zucco and Frey, plus a mere 3 frames of text offering Horror movie facts.  Wonder if any trailers exist for these films?

 

Thinking of the films in terms of their stock is also something when one thinks of the Film Noir era, with Dead Men Walk produced at the dawn of the era, and the others in the same last year as Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil.  That was THE final Film Noir.  Yes, the stocks had advanced and Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) was just around the corner.  Many great Horror and Science Fiction films were being made in monochrome in a way we would never see again.  Even when they were not great, they were from a more prolific period in the genre.  Legendary Horror Films is worth checking out, especially for fans.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo