Corman’s Halloween-ish fairy tale of the Middle Ages in B&W
A psychologist (Val Dufour) comes back from Tibet and mesmerizes a streetwalker (Pamela Duncan) to go back to her former self in medieval times wherein she’s ready to be executed on the charge of witchcraft. Allison Hayes plays an evil witch, Richard Garland a knight, Mel Welles a gravedigger and Dorothy Neumann an ugly but good witch.
Despite the title, "The Undead" (1957) has nothing to do with vampires. It was Roger Corman’s eleventh movie in a couple years (or twelfth if you count one flick he was uncredited for). Voluptuous Allison Hayes is super-sharp and one of the highlights; she also costarred in Corman’s “Gunslinger” from the prior year (she initially caught national attention as Miss District of Columbia in the 1949 Miss America pageant).
It’s virtually impossible to determine the time period or region of the story since there are elements that existed at different periods of history. The flick was shot in six days for $55,000 so I doubt much thought was given to things like historical accuracy or consistency. Corman just thought that witches, knights and the devil would be cool things to have in his ‘B’ film. Think about it, you have a hooker regressing to a virgin in a past life, a time-traveling psychologist, a sultry witch & imp who can morph into bats at will and Satan manifesting on Earth. Obviously historical accuracy wasn’t high up on the list of importance. So enjoy it as a cinematic fairy tale with no more historical relevance than Cinderella.
While this is a fun flick for the fall season, the B&W photography is crappy and the story isn’t compelling enough to give a higher grade. But it does have its points of interest.
The movie is succinct at 1 hour, 11 minutes, and was shot on sets at a defunct supermarket in Beverly Hills with exterior shots of Witch’s House in the same town.
GRADE: C
