''The Dead Don't Die'' is a 1975 American
made-for-television
A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made fo ...
neo-noir
Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ...
horror thriller film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...
set in the 1930s, directed by
Curtis Harrington
Gene Curtis Harrington (September 17, 1926 – May 6, 2007) was an American film and television director whose work included experimental films, horror films and episodic television. He is considered one of the forerunners of New Queer Cinema ...
from a teleplay by
Robert Bloch, based upon his own story of the same title that first appeared in ''
Fantastic Adventures
''Fantastic Adventures'' was an American pulp fantasy and science fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1953 by Ziff-Davis. It was initially edited by Raymond A. Palmer, who was also the editor of ''Amazing Stories'', Ziff-Davis's other scien ...
'', July 1951. The film originally premiered on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
on January 14, 1975. The film uses the traditional
Haitian concept of
zombie
A zombie ( Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in w ...
s as resurrected slaves of the living.
Plot
In 1934, Don Drake returns to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
after a long sea voyage and discovers that his brother has been convicted of murdering his wife. Drake is unable to save him from the
electric chair
An electric chair is a device used to execute an individual by electrocution. When used, the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes fastened on the head and leg. This execution method, ...
, but he is convinced of his brother’s innocence and is determined to clear his name. His investigation leads him to the Loveland Ballroom, the scene of the murder, where his brother was involved in a
dance marathon run by Jim Moss.
Drake begins seeing his dead brother walking the foggy streets. Drake kills a man named Perdido, who later climbs out of a coffin and attacks him. Police Lieutenant Reardon doesn’t believe Drake’s story, and Reardon later finds Perdido is alive and well. As Drake presses his investigation, he learns of a mystery man named Varrick, whom no one has ever seen and who might be using
Haitian voodoo
Haitian Vodou is an African diasporic religion that developed in Haiti between the 16th and 19th centuries. It arose through a process of syncretism between several traditional religions of West and Central Africa and Roman Catholicism. There ...
to bring people back from the dead. Varrick turns out to be Jim Moss, played by
Ray Milland, the voodoo master of the zombified slaves. Cornered by Varrick and his resurrected brother, Drake shows the zombified brother the body of his wife, and reveals that Varrick had her killed by Frank Speck.
Reception
Bloch gives his opinion of the movie in his autobiography, ''Once Around the Bloch''. "''The Dead Don't Die''. Maybe they don't, but the show did. Despite Curtis's casting of accomplished character actors, their supporting roles couldn't prop up the lead. And Ray Milland, who had given such a deftly paced performance in my script for ''Home Away from Home'', merely plodded through his part here like a zombie without a deadline." ("Home Away from Home" was a short story by Bloch which he had adapted for Episode 1, Season 9 of
Alfred Hitchcock Presents).
Michael Weldon writes of the film that it is: "A tribute to the poverty-row horrors of the '30s that tries hard to be as ridiculous as the originals. A group of West Indians in Chicago plots to rule the world with zombies. Involves hammy acting from George Hamilton as hero Don Drake."
''Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever'' comments that an "unbelievable plot set in the 1930s has Hamilton as a detective trying to prove his brother was wrongly executed for murder. He ultimately clashes with the madman who wants to rule the world with an army of zombies. Perhaps if they had cast Hamilton as Master of the Zombies." Craddock, Jim (ed)
[''Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever: The Complete Guide to Movies on Videocassette and DVD''. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson/Gale, 2007, p. 233] This guide awards the film only one 'bone' out of four, which equates to "poor use of camera, film, sets, script, actors and studio vehicles."
Cast list
*
George Hamilton as Don Drake
*
Linda Cristal
Marta Victoria Moya Peggo Burges (23 February 1931 – 27 June 2020), known professionally as Linda Cristal (), was an Argentinian actress. She appeared in a number of Western films during the 1950s, before winning a Golden Globe Award for her ...
as Vera LaValle
*
Joan Blondell
Joan Blondell (born Rose Joan Bluestein; August 30, 1906 – December 25, 1979) was an American actress who performed in film and television for 50 years.
Blondell began her career in vaudeville. After winning a beauty pageant, she embarked on ...
as Levenia
*
Ralph Meeker
Ralph Meeker (born Ralph Rathgeber; November 21, 1920 August 5, 1988) was an American film, stage, and television actor. He first rose to prominence for his roles in the Broadway productions of '' Mister Roberts'' (1948–1951) and ''Picnic'' ...
as Lt. Reardon
*
James McEachin
James McEachin (born May 20, 1930) is an American author and retired actor.
Military career
McEachin served in the United States Army before, and then during, the Korean War. Serving in King Company, 9th Infantry Regiment (United States), 2nd I ...
as Frankie Specht
*
Reggie Nalder
Reggie Nalder (born Alfred Reginald Natzler; 4 September 1907 – 19 November 1991) was a prolific Austrian film and television character actor from the late 1940s to the early 1990s. His distinctive features—partially the result of disfigur ...
as Perdido
*
Ray Milland as Jim Moss/Varrick
*
Jerry Douglas
Gerald Calvin "Jerry" Douglas (born May 28, 1956) is an American Dobro and lap steel guitar player and record producer.
Career
In addition to his fourteen solo recordings, Douglas has played on more than 1,600 albums. As a sideman, he h ...
as Ralph Drake
*
William O'Connell as Priest
*
Yvette Vickers
Yvette Vickers (born Yvette Iola Vedder; August 26, 1928 – ) was an American actress, pin-up model and singer.
Early life and career
Vickers was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the daughter of jazz musician Charles Vedder. During her youth, s ...
as Miss Adrian
See also
*
List of American films of 1975
References
External links
*
Review at Notcoming.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dead Don't Die (1975 film), The
1975 television films
1975 films
1975 horror films
1970s thriller films
American horror thriller films
Films set in the 1930s
Films set in 1934
Films set in Chicago
Films directed by Curtis Harrington
Films scored by Robert Prince
Fiction about Haitian Vodou
NBC network original films
American horror television films
American neo-noir films
American zombie films
Films based on works by Robert Bloch
Films with screenplays by Robert Bloch
1970s American films