That was an excellent one.

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

This is one of those B movies that grade A character actors make to satisfy their own souls. Basically, a bunch of familiar faces, some with familiar names, do variations on their standard personae in service of a moral fable. Each character illustrates a moral attitude or dilemma, with their ends illustrating the logical outcome of their choices. Most get a chance to explicate their character's world view, and most seem to relish the opportunity.If you can believe one of these other reviews, Karloff's character was radically re-written at his behest, and it gives him a chance to play the Monster as himself. If you know something about Karloff's early career, or lack thereof, you can see he draws on his own experience for his character's early demeanor. First, he is an educated man suffering from bad luck and PTSD, then he has to struggle back from a traumatic brain injury. If you like watching Karloff use those big old eyes of his,this movie is for you.

After seeing Boris Karloff as the Frankenstein monster in those Universal horror classics, it must have been obvious to Jack Warner and director Michael Curtiz that he was the only player capable of bringing this film off. Karloff is once again a resurrected man and said resurrection has foiled a carefully made frame that Karloff has been put in.Boris is cast as a concert pianist who has just served ten years for manslaughter. The judge who sent him up has become the target of the city's racketeers which include Barton MacLane and Karloff's own lawyer Ricardo Cortez.Here's where Karloff is under-appreciated as an actor. When you examine the frame up that is used it's really kind of stupid. But Karloff creates such an impression of this down and out pitiable figure that the real trigger man Joe Sawyer can take advantage of him and get him arrested and tried for the crime Sawyer commits.Here also is where Ricardo Cortez plays one of his patented screen heels as well. He defends Karloff once again and throws the case and then prevents two witnesses, Warren Hull and Marguerite Churchill, from coming forward to save Karloff from the electric chair. Their reasons for originally not coming forward are specious as well, but Karloff's brilliant performance smooths that all over.They work for scientist Edmund Gwenn who uses electricity and a lab that looks a whole lot like Dr. Frankenstein's to shock Karloff's cadaver back to life. He feigns amnesia and starts looking for those who did him wrong. What Karloff doesn't feign is that he has no memory of those hours that he was not among the living.As you can see a whole lot of the Warner Brothers stock company got work in this film giving Boris Karloff an unusually strong supporting cast for a change. Still Karloff carries this film and this terribly wronged man that Karloff brings to the screen will haunt you and overcomes a lot of script and editing weaknesses The Walking Dead has.

First off, I rated this flick a '7' because I like the old Hollywood stuff. From that, my first real fascination was with the "Universal" monster stuff, particularly 1936 and before. With that in mind, here is my review. Quite simply, this is a Warner Brothers 'knockoff' of the Whale/Karloff Frankenstein films, with a particularly strong nod to 1935's "Bride". The entire time I was watching, including the 'scientific' scenes, I kept seeing the 'Monster'. A couple of very 'telling' things: the Karloff character removes his dentures after the re-animation sequence. There is a silver streak in his hair at the same height as the 'monsters' flat head. He is dressed in the same dark outfit, and lumbers around. The imagery is strong. While the over the top Jack Pierce make-up is absent, the lighting, etc, and the above things mentioned create a more 'human monster' visual, but it is there. Next similarity.....in the first "Frankenstein", one could be forgiven for not finding the monster altogether sympathetic. After all, despite Whale/Karloff's sympathetic presentation, the thing is a child killer. He also ends the film in murderous rage directed at Henry. However, in "Bride", there is no such ambiguity. With the exception of the first murder (Maria's father underneath the mill), we are clearly shown who the 'victim' is in the film. The film score in "Bride" is exquisite as well, a slow pulse throbbing underneath a majestic arrangement. Enough of the set-up. In "The Walking Dead", I saw the sympathetic reanimated Karloff character (looking much like the 'monster' in the shadows) lumbering around while some really bad 'know it all characters' get their comeuppance, one by one. There is a similarly soaring film score delivered over an insistent bass pulse. Where this film differs is, instead of the "Universal" staples of 'mad doctor', Una O'Conner type comic relief/character actors, you get the Warners staples. Cynical lawyers, DA's and gangsters, etc. All of that said, I enjoyed this film. I probably hadn't seen it in 35 years, if at all. All of those things that may seem like negatives, as written above? I like the Warners 'stock characters' and love the "Universal" monster stuff. I just saw all the similarities, and noted the year of 1936. This film definitely was targeting a particular audience...the "Universal Audience". Ms. Churchill even appeared in that sexy scene from "Dracula's Daughter" featuring Gloria Holden that very year. I thought Cortez did his "Warners thing" well in this flick, and Mr. Glenn was good. If you like the kind of flicks I do, you'll enjoy seeing this as a curio. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I do not see this as some type of 'forgotten classic'. Far too many plot holes. (the most famous guy in the world, being watched by everybody, seems to effortlessly disappear and reappear without anyone noticing, and in the most OBVIOUS of places). But again, for what it is (a genre knockoff), it is well directed, well filmed, and has all of the right people in all of the right places.

Reading most of the other viewer comments on this board, I was surprised that virtually no one had anything to say about the whitish 'L' shaped band in Boris Karloff's hair. It was reminiscent of Humphrey Bogart's skunk like streak in "The Return of Dr. X" where he portrayed a vampire of all things! In "The Walking Dead", Karloff is an ex-con brought back from the dead after being framed for a murder he didn't commit. Once revived, he exacts his revenge on the gang that set him up, using a psychic link from the beyond to track them down and lead them to their doom. For the premise of the story to work however, one has to get beyond the point where the murdered Judge Shaw was connected to the car John Ellman (Karloff) was driving. With no one around, why wouldn't Ellman simply have found a place to dump the body?The other thing that bothered me was why the conflicted young couple working for Dr. Beaumont waited until the evening of Ellman's scheduled execution to come clean with their story. I mean Jimmy (Warren Hull) was jumping right out of his skin at the trial to tell what he knew, and it didn't strike me convincingly that Nancy (Marguerite Churchill) would let an innocent man die. I know, then there wouldn't have been a story, but gee, that makes them the film's really, REALLY bad guys, doesn't it?I must say, I was unusually impressed by the size and scope of Dr. Beaumont's (Edmund Gwenn) laboratory. It looked like Warner Brothers might have been trying to outdo their Universal counterparts in the technical gadgetry department with all those beakers and scientific looking gizmos. They even did one better on the Frankenstein operating table with one that see-sawed during the back to life process - pretty clever. The other Frankenstein connection saw Karloff's character walking through the cemetery after his last two victims using that distinctive halting gait.Fans of Boris Karloff might not consider this one of his better performances, but it still carries some punch whenever the camera closes in on his gaunt expressionless face. After all, he was dead you know. Which is kind of interesting, as this is one of those rare films where the zombie brought back to life is actually killed again before it's all over. Better not to try and explain it, just tune in for a frightfully good show.