1946's "Valley of the Zombies" served as the sole starring horror film for veteran bad guy Ian Keith, like John Carradine a favorite of Cecil B. De Mille, and among the actors considered for the 1931 "Dracula" in place of original choice Bela Lugosi. Unfortunately, Republic was hardly the Poverty Row studio for decent genre roles, although John Abbott ably carried "The Vampire's Ghost" a year earlier, Keith essentially a crazed undertaker named Ormond Murks with a penchant for instant embalming. A series of blood thefts are the work of Murks, whose mixture of voodoo rituals and potions have succeeded in prolonging his life through numerous transfusions, a splendid opening sadly collapsing with Keith reduced to a skulking background figure while ingenues Robert Livingston and Adrian Booth trade witticisms while trying to clear themselves of murder. The atmosphere generated goes by the wayside as the usual dimwitted police procedural literally drains the narrative of all interest: "let's go over to Doctor Maynard's office and see if we can pick up a clue that will lead us to this peculiar party that has a passion for pickling!" A mixture of dead bodies appearing and disappearing, clutching hands that reach out from behind, even an empty crypt that won't stay empty were all old hat at the time, and only Keith's genuinely creepy performance gives this tired farrago any edge.
Review of Valley of the Zombies
