OK, I admit it. I love 30's and 40's B horror films. They generally have great atmosphere and wonderful characters. Are both the atmosphere and the characters over-the-top? Yeah, most of the time, but that is part of the charm. You don't watch these movies looking for great cinema. You watch them for the perpetually foggy streets. What city or what country makes no difference, 9 times out of 10 there will be fog. You watch them for the crazed characters. You watch them for the dripping-with-venom dialog. You also have the wonderful look that black and white creates. Things are stark and heavily shadowed.
You watch these films simply because you love the time and the genre. Not for great writing and most times not for great performances. You either love these period B films or not. Had I lived during the era you would have never gotten me out of the theater.
Valley of the Zombies
1946
Action / Drama / Horror / Mystery
Valley of the Zombies
1946
Action / Drama / Horror / Mystery
Plot summary
Early one evening a shadowy figure climbs up and across a roof top toward the office of Dr. Rufus Maynard. Inside, Maynard tells his partner, Dr. Terry Evans, and Terry's girl friend, nurse Susan Drake, that blood has again been stolen from the laboratory for no apparent reason. When Terry, Susan and the chemist assistant, Fred Mays, leave to run some tests, Maynard is abruptly confronted by the figure from the roof. The man identifies himself as Ormand Murks and reminds Maynard that five years previously, the doctor had placed Murks in Brookdale Mental Institute, under the care of Dr. Garland. Two years later, Garland had brought Murks to Maynard for treatment, but Murks had died on the operating table of no apparent cause. The only malady from which Murks had suffered was an obsessive desire for blood transfusions, which he believed would make him immortal. Murks had requested no autopsy be allowed and that his body be returned to his brother at the Murks estate, Greenwood Knowle. Maynard is astounded by Murks's tale and Murks goes on to tell him that through voodoo rights and devil potions, he has discovered the world between the living and the dead. When Maynard is skeptical, Murks kills him and takes his blood. Later, another figure slips into Maynard's office, going directly to the laboratory storage. Murks comes upon the man, his brother, who is responsible for stealing blood for Murks. When Murks admits he has just killed the doctor for more blood, his brother is angered and decides to call the police until Murks hypnotizes him into submission. Later that same night, two policemen spot a mysterious figure digging near the local cemetery but their approach frightens the man off. They then discover a dead body, which had been strangled and embalmed and which is later identified as Maynard. Back at Maynard's office, police detectives Blair and Hendricks find Terry and Susan and accuse them of murdering Maynard, but with little proof, they depart. Soon afterward, Susan opens the lab refrigerator and the body of Fred falls out. He too has been strangled and embalmed. Blair and Hendricks, returning for further questions, arrest the pair. At headquarters both are grilled for the rest of the night but are released when another strangled and embalmed body is discovered. Returning to the office, Susan finds Murks's identification record in Maynard's waste basket, and she and Terry decide to investigate at the Murks's Greenwood Knowles estate. There, the couple make their way to the family mausoleum and discover that Murks's crypt is open and empty. Murks has seen the couple go into the vault and tries trapping them, but Terry frees them by breaking down the door. Still seeking evidence, Terry and Susan go into the main house, where they discover an undertaking table and the body of Dr. Garland, the head of the Brookdale Institute. Blair and Hendricks, having followed the two to Greenwood, appear and again accuse them of murder. Terry tries to show Blair Garland's body, but it has vanished. After Terry demands that he be allowed to show Blair the suspicious crypt, Susan is left behind at the house, guarded by a policeman. In the mausoleum, Garland's body is found in Murks's crypt while at the house the policeman is knocked unconscious. When Terry and Blair return, they realize that Susan and Blair's car has disappeared. Using the signals transmitted from the car's faulty police radio, Blair and the police track the car to Maynard's office, where they find a hypnotized Susan giving Murks a blood transfusion. Murks makes his escape with the nurse and flees to the rooftop with Terry in pursuit. Just as Murks commands Susan to shoot Terry, Blair arrives and shoots Murks, who topples from the building. Now safe, Susan is reunited with Terry.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
30's & 40's B Horror Films
Not a zombie in sight
If you approach this looking for zombies, especially an whole valley full of 'em, you'll be sadly disappointed yet I can't help it...I like this short little movie just the same. Maybe it's the wonderful atmosphere this film has what with mysterious going ons in the night, graveyards and tombs figuring into the plot. Or maybe it's the old fashioned villain who truly looks like a fiendish fellow...Ian Keith as the thought to be dead Ormond Murks, who now needs the blood of the living to stay alive.
And while there may be a number of outdated stereotypes (by today's standards) at work here especially in terms of the frantic female Nurse Susan Drake who is easily spooked and frightened leaning upon the always steady and sure male Dr. Terrance Evans..still there's a certain innocence to this style of Horror which makes it fun...kind of hard to explain really. It's only being an hour long doesn't hurt either.
When he needs blood, he MUST have it!
He is Ian Keith, joining the ranks of more oscure horror actors like George Zucco, Lionel Atwill, John Abbott, Glenn Strange and Tod Slaughter, all memorable but not in the same class as karlov, Lugosi, Price, Cushing or Lee. When threatened with exposure by his own brother (Earle Hodgins),Keith isn't shy of resorting to murder so he can get his supply of plasma, and that leads doctor Robert Livingston and nurse Lorna Gray to trying to find who is strangling then embalming people surrounding them. Zombie, vampire or some other kind of living dead? That's the mystery for this Z-grade Republic thriller, unique with its story, and presented with flare in its mixture of horror and light comedy.
"Remind me not to open my refrigerator when I get home" nurse Gray exclaims after finding one of the victims in the lab refrigerator. She's later petrified by the sudden presence of a cow while her and Livingston are searching for clues involving the murder out in the country. Dial there really isn't a plot involving zombies in this, fortunately that means that there aren't any stereotypical black characters playing zombies either, prevalent in the other 30's and 40's zombie movies. That makes this more of a mystery thriller with elements of horror, and it's a possible time filler that won't tax the brain but won't leave the viewer unentertained either.