In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Lets face it,most of these smaller companies produced some very bad films. But with an interesting script,and a killer cast with Zucco and Frye manning their post admirably this one really surprises in it's quality. I didn't expect much here. But really this was a pleasant surprise. Also was surprised in the quality of the direction.Sam Newfield a director normally known for his westerns and BAD horror films actually pulls off a good bit of atmospherics here. Amazing to think it's the same man responsible for "I Accuse My Parents" Vampirism is a pretty whupped genre even by the time this film gets to it,but the twin brothers and the dark arts schtick give it some new life.

George Zucco, who was brilliant in The Mad Monster, now ups his game by playing twin brothers, one good, one bad, one still alive, the other one recently deceased. The good brother is a doctor who had to kill his evil brother because he was messing around with the occult. We all know what happens when folks that mess with occult get deaded, right? Before you know it, evil George is back in vampire form, chomping down on the populace, and having his sidekick do his dirty working during the day.Worse still, he's appeared before good George and told him he's gonna slowly turn good George's niece into a vampire. This entails him using her like a human drinks machine every night, which makes her fiancé think that good George is trying to kill her, for some reason. Additionally, there's your usual locals up in arms and a strange woman snooping around.Zucco's great here in both roles, being the concerned Uncle one minute, and then appearing in people's rooms to threaten them as the evil one. While it does have a good set up and ending, the film flags slightly in the middle when Evil George just gets his nightly blood fix from one victim without killing her. When he turns his attention back to other folk, things pick up again for a cool showdown.Not the most exciting film ever, but yet again, it's no slouch either and won't take up a lot of your time. I was impressed by Zucco's menacing features when threatening folk - he was rather good at it.

This one has an odd title, since it is more appropriate for a zombie flick rather than a vampire picture. In any case, it reunites director Newfield with star George Zucco (I have another collaboration of theirs to go through during this "Halloween Challenge", THE FLYING SERPENT {1946}, apart from having just acquired one more i.e. the non-horror outing THE BLACK RAVEN {1943}).Zucco plays dual roles here: an eminent small-town doctor and his disreputable twin (whose burial actually opens the film), with an avid interest in the occult extending to his having joined the ranks of the undead (complete with unhinged acolyte – who else but Dwight Frye? – to protect him when powerless i.e. during the day and generally do his evil bidding). By the way, this also features an intrepid old lady (eventually gotten out of the way by Frye, then on his last legs himself!) – an unlikely and annoying device adopted in a handful of vintage horrors. Typically, the good Zucco is charged with caring for the leading lady (invariably engaged to a young man – played by subsequently blacklisted actor-turned-Oscar-winning-writer Nedrick Young! – who admires him, though he has no qualms about threatening the old man for his helplessness when the girl is on the point of dying!). In fact, apart from one isolated attack early on, the vampire concentrates his blood-drinking activities upon her, intending to turn the girl into his disciple (bride?): however, since she calls his brother "Uncle" and no mention is made of another sibling, the heroine must also be the villain's own flesh and blood (how's that for perversion?)! For the record, the aged and partially-disabled Zucco is not exactly cut out for fang-and-cloak work: if anything, he never quite bares the former and, with respect to the latter, sticks to his everyday clothes throughout – though he can still appear and vanish again at will! Amusingly, the film proper is preceded by a prologue featuring an "Inner Sanctum"-type host delivering a portentous speech, and where a book entitled "History Of Vampires" is actually thrown into the fire – intimating that what is to follow will be a novel spin on things but, then, what we get is just the usual stuff! While undeniably watchable (especially at a manageable 64-minute duration), DEAD MEN WALK's programmer pedigree ultimately makes it strictly forgettable fare.

Clearly a film to play the lower half of a double bill, DEAD MEN WALK is a low-budget entry in the horror genre defeated by its stilted dialog and contrived situations. It's painfully dull and on the level of an Ed Wood film with amateurish acting from everyone except Zucco.Zucco plays a bad doctor who comes back as a vampire (with the assistance of DWIGHT FRYE) to take revenge on his good twin. As shown on TCM, the dialog is as murky as the photography and the print shown was badly in need of restoration.As good Dr. Clayton, Zucco declares that the latest death in the village "was not the cause of any known poison." He is soon visited by his "indestructible" brother who threatens to destroy him. He fires bullets at his evil brother to no avail. The poorly scripted story gets sillier as it goes on.Summing up: No better, but somewhat worse, than dozens of other low-budget horror flicks. This one, unfortunately, shows its "poverty row" origins too clearly. Too slow-paced for its own good despite its brief running time.