Dead Men Walk

Dead Men Walk is a 1943 American horror film produced by Sigmund Neufeld for Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC). It is an original story and screenplay by Fred Myton, starring George Zucco, Mary Carlisle, Nedrick Young, and Dwight Frye, directed by Sam Newfield. It was originally distributed by PRC and reissued in the USA in 1948 by Madison Pictures, Inc.

Plot
The story involves a kindly small-town physician Doctor Lloyd Clayton (Zucco), who has secretly murdered his twin brother Elwyn, because of Elwyn's deep involvement in satanic occult practices. Only Elwyn's hunchback assistant Zolarr (Frye) suspects the good doctor of doing away with his master and confronts him on this matter, but the doctor maintains that he only acted in self-defense when his brother had become a danger to society.

Meanwhile, because Elwyn has gone far with his study of the dark arts before his demise, he returns to life as an evil supernatural being who begins murdering the villagers by draining them of their blood. The doctor and his beautiful young niece, Gayle Clayton (Carlisle), and her fiancé, soon discover that Elwyn still lives, and are in peril of their lives for this knowledge.

Dr. Clayton realizes the only way he can help his niece now is to again kill Elwyn, and plans to conquer him with fire. Clayton, unfortunately, becomes also trapped in the resulting conflagration, and like Elwyn and Zolarr, perishes in the flames of Elwyn's accursed library.

Cast

 * George Zucco as Dr. Lloyd Clayton / Dr. Elwyn Clayton
 * Mary Carlisle as Gayle Clayton
 * Nedrick Young as Dr. David Bentley
 * Dwight Frye as Zolarr
 * Fern Emmett as Kate
 * Robert Strange as Wilkins (Harper in credits)
 * Hal Price as Sheriff Losen
 * Sam Flint as Minister

Production
The film was shot in six days. It was the final film of Mary Carlisle. She made the film shortly after getting married.

It was one of the last film appearances of Dwight Frye.

Critical reception
As of November 2016, the film scored 4.7/10 on the Internet Movie Database and 10% on Rotten Tomatoes.