Roger Corman's "The Undead" was an early release from AIP theatrically double billed with "Voodoo Woman," marking the genre debut of screen siren Allison Hayes, following on with "Zombies of Mora Tau," "The Disembodied," "The Unearthly," "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman," "The Hypnotic Eye," and "The Crawling Hand." The trenchant saga of Bridey Murphy served as inspiration for a number of then current films, including "The She-Creature," W. Lee Wilder's "Fright," and Ed Wood's "The Bride and the Beast," but Corman typically delivers the most unusual and captivating take on the subject (shooting title "The Trance of Diana Love," shot in six days inside a converted supermarket disguised by dry ice). American housewife Virginia Tighe had undergone a hypnotic trance that went further back than childhood, supposedly revealing her to be the living incarnation of a 19th century Irishwoman named Bridey Murphy. A book on the events was published in 1956 then a feature film starring Teresa Wright, after which the facts slowly revealed themselves as submerged memories from childhood that had nothing to do with reincarnation (one of Virginia's Chicago neighbors was an Irish immigrant named Bridie Murphey Corkell). This Charles B. Griffith collaboration with Mark Hanna featured the stars of the later production "Attack of the Crab Monsters," Pamela Duncan, Richard Garland, and Mel Welles, plus Dick Miller's cameo as a leper who signs a pact with Richard Devon's smiling Satan to cleanse himself. Pamela gets top billing as a modern streetwalker who agrees to hypnotic regression back to a period during the Middle Ages, where in her previous life she was an accused witch feted to die by the headsman's ax at dawn. The scientist conducting the experiment discovers that her journey is physical as well as mental, and that if she survives her past ordeal all of her subsequent lives shall be forfeited. As highbrow as it seems it's an absolute delight to watch a prime Corman ensemble in top form, adding Allison Hayes as sexy witch Livia and Billy Barty as her incorrigible imp familiar (the same flying bat creatures used by the Venusian in "It Conquered the World" are trotted out whenever the two change form), plus Dorothy Neumann as a sympathetic conjurer, Bruno Ve Sota as the innkeeper, and scene stealing Mel Welles as the gravedigger. Allison's witch may be evil but she's also hopelessly in love, and proves a more fascinating character than the central figure. Ronald Stein's music cues were recycled by director Larry Buchanan for his 8 Azalea pictures, all but one color remakes of black and white AIP titles from the 50s, though this title was fortunately spared.
Review of The Undead
