''Condemned to Live'' is a 1935

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

starring

Ralph Morgan Raphael Kuhner Wuppermann (July 6, 1883 – June 11, 1956), known professionally as Ralph Morgan, was a Hollywood stage and film character actor, and the older brother of Frank Morgan. Early life Morgan was born in New York City, the eig ...

and Maxine Doyle, and directed by

Frank R. Strayer Frank Raymond Strayer (September 21, 1891 – February 3, 1964) was an actor, film writer, director and producer. He was active from the mid-1920s until the early 1950s. He directed a series of 14 '' Blondie!'' (1938) movies as well. Biography ...

. The film is unusual for its time, as it approaches the topic of vampirism from a sympathetic standpoint and presents it as if it were an illness.

Plot

The film opens with a trio of explorers in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

who are hiding in a

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

. One of the explorers, a pregnant

woman A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

, is bitten by a

vampire bat Vampire bats, species of the subfamily Desmodontinae, are leaf-nosed bats found in Central and South America. Their food source is blood of other animals, a dietary trait called hematophagy. Three extant bat species feed solely on blood: the ...

. The film then cuts forward in time to a small

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

where a series of mysterious murders are taking place. The villagers readily assemble in

mob Mob or MOB may refer to: Behavioral phenomena * Crowd * Smart mob, a temporary self-structuring social organization, coordinated through telecommunication Crime and law enforcement * American Mafia, also known as the Mob * Irish Mob, a US crimin ...

form, with

torches A torch is a stick with combustible material at one end, which is ignited and used as a light source. Torches have been used throughout history, and are still used in processions, symbolic and religious events, and in juggling entertainment. In ...

, at the house of

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

Kristan (

) after every murder. The villagers suspect that a giant

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most ...

is to blame for the murders. Kristan gives the villagers advice on staying safe, and assures them a scientific explanation exists. However, in subsequent scenes, Kristan himself is revealed to be the murderer. He is seized by attacks (triggered by darkness) which transform him into a trance-like state of murderousness. After he commits a murder, he awakens from the trance with no memory of the deed, believing himself merely to have fainted. Kristan's obliviousness is further enabled by the intervention of his loyal

hunchback Kyphosis is an abnormally excessive convex curvature of the spine as it occurs in the thoracic and sacral regions. Abnormal inward concave ''lordotic'' curving of the cervical and lumbar regions of the spine is called lordosis. It can result ...

Zan, the only person aware of Kristan's condition. Zan follows Kristan when he is in his trances, ensuring the professor is not discovered. An old friend of Kristan's, Dr. Bizet, arrives to visit, and soon suspects what is happening. Bizet discloses to Kristan that his mother was bitten by a vampire bat, and that traits of vampirism have likely been passed down to him per

Lamarckism Lamarckism, also known as Lamarckian inheritance or neo-Lamarckism, is the notion that an organism can pass on to its offspring physical characteristics that the parent organism acquired through use or disuse during its lifetime. It is also calle ...

(the audience now understands the pregnant explorer in the opening flashback to have been Kristan's

mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...

). After Kristan's fiancé ( Maxine Doyle) is attacked by an entranced Kristan, the mob of villagers assumes Zan is culpable and chases him to the edge of a

cliff In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on co ...

inside a

. Kristan arrives and confesses to the murders, despite Zan's protestations (aimed at saving the professor) that he, the hunchback, is in fact the murderer. As the mob watches, Kristan throws himself over the edge of the cliff and Zan follows.

Cast

* Pedro de Cordoba * Maxine Doyle *

Russell Gleason Russell Gleason (February 6, 1908 – December 25, 1945) was an American actor who began his career at the very beginning of the talking film era. Born into an acting family, one of his earliest roles was in the 1930 classic film, ''All Quiet on ...

* Mischa Auer * Lucy Beaumont *

Carl Stockdale Carl Stockdale also known as Carlton Stockdale (February 19, 1874 – March 15, 1953) was one of the longest-working Hollywood veteran actors, with a career dating from the early 1910s. He also made the difficult transition from silent fi ...

* Barbara Bedford * Robert Frazer *

Ferdinand Schumann-Heink Ferdinand Schumann-Heink (born 9 August 1893 – 15 September 1958) was a prolific character actor with over 65 films to his credit. Though most of his films were uncredited roles, he wrote the screenplay for the 1930 film '' Mamba''. During ...

* Heidi Shope *

Marilyn Knowlden Marilyn Knowlden (born May 12, 1926) is an American former child actress. She started appearing in Hollywood films in 1931 when she was four years old. She established herself as a freelancer who worked frequently at different major film studios ...

Memorable Quotes

"What good can there be in a hunchback?" - Mob member "Why do they come on me?" -Prof. Paul Kristan "Over there on the bench." - Mother Molly "We can never be afraid of what we love." -Prof. Paul Kristan "I'll show you my garden if you wish." -Marguerite "If we love our brother, how can we fear him?" -Prof. Paul Kristan "It was kind of you to blow it out." -Prof. Paul Kristan

Notes

References

*http://www.missinglinkclassichorror.co.uk/demned.htm *http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026230/ *https://web.archive.org/web/20070928000942/http://www.scifilm.org/musings/musing55.html

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Condemned To Live 1935 horror films 1935 films American black-and-white films Films directed by Frank R. Strayer American vampire films Chesterfield Pictures films American horror films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films