DVD

Average customer rating:

Could have been interesting if it weren't so slow-moving
"Forgotten horror"

Condemned to Live
Starring: Ralph Morgan , Maxine Doyle , Pedro de Cordoba , Russell Gleason , and Mischa Auer
Director: Frank R. Strayer
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00008W2TU
Release Date: 2003-05-20

Customer Reviews:

Could have been interesting if it weren't so slow-moving.......2005-11-11

How ironic - a vampire-related movie with story and screenplay by Karen De Wolfe. Well, I find that amusing, anyway. I say vampire-related because this isn't what I would call a fully-developed vampire movie. Everybody thinks the monster responsible for a string of recent deaths is a great big vampire bat, but it's really a human fiend who acts more like Mr. Hyde than a vampire (except for that blood-draining business). You have to go all the way back to 1935 for Condemned to Live, an Invincible Pictures release that runs like molasses for 65 minutes. For a cursed town brimming with angry villagers, everyone is almost unbearably civil to one another - and that does nothing for the pace of this film.

Professor Paul Kristan (Ralph Morgan, the older brother of Frank Morgan from The Wizard of Oz) is the intellectual glue that holds his quaint little village together. Everyone adores him, including the young, pretty Marguerite (Maxine Doyle), who feels honored to be his future wife. When the killings start, the professor sort of endorses the vampire bat theory, urging everyone to keep their lights burning all through the night. Strangely enough, though, the villagers gather to hear his "stay at home in the light" speeches every night - it's like they have 24-hour amnesia or something. Anyway, Professor Kristan (who is a good man, as we're told about fifty times) is silently suffering from a strange malady that hits him with terrible headaches leading to blackouts. It is not until his good friend and foster father shows up for the impending nuptials that he learns the truth - his mother was bitten by a vampire bat just before giving birth to him. It's all pretty standard fare from here - will he kill Marguerite during one of his episodes? Will his hunchbacked assistant take the fall for him? Will this incredibly slow movie ever end?

I have not seen the DVD, so I can't comment on its technical quality. I must say, though, that the print of this film that I watched was surprisingly good for a 1935 production - scratches marred one scene, but the rest of the movie was almost pristine. The audio quality was well above average, as well. The movie itself, though, just isn't that good. It's a slow-moving affair with no surprises, very little action, and way too much emphasis on proper diction.

"Forgotten horror".......2004-04-22

This DVD is the first one which I bought from Alpha. I read so much reviews about their DVDs that I was a little bit anxious. Well the surprise is rather good. The print looks not bad at all, some scratches from time to time, but nothing really disturbing. That's for the positive news about the DVD itself. What's about the movie ? It's one of these cheap productions which is either good nor bad. It's very talky, but the acting by Ralph Morgan is very convincing and he makes the film interesting. The vampire here is called "a fiend" who kills innocent girls, but it's also a victim and he suffers from his illness. The state of vampirism is presentend like a curse. This point of view could have done an effective movie, but unfortunately it's too slow paced, very talky like I said, even there are some creepy scenes in the night near a cave. However I prefer "Condemned to live" to "The vampire bat" with Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray which I saw previously. I would recommand it only to fans of movies from minor studios. "Condemned to live" is one of these "forgotten horror" films. Give it a chance! It's by far better than all these nonsense produced nowadays.

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