Dead Men Walk (1943) - Basic but entertaining Newfield picture

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A rather primitive but colorful poster for Sam Newfield's Dead Men Walk

QUICK REVIEW:

A kind doctor kills his deranged magician brother and attends his funeral. But dark powers keep the magician among the living even after his death!

Dead Men Walk is an exciting and good b-movie, written by Fred Myton (Blonde for a Day (1946)) and directed by Sam Newfield (The Lady Confesses (1945)).
George Zucco (Madame Bovary (1949)) is totally amazing in the double role as the living, sympathetic, murder-accused doctor and the dead, malicious, murderous brother. The film has fine story build and basically good dialog with some exceptional lines, like, "The power is only with me during the hours of darkness." (From the evil Zucco.) It also has a fine, fiery ending.
Minor mistakes, - perhaps due to the fact that the film was shot in just 6 (!) days - and its crudeness weigh down, but this short feature (64 min.) is not at all bad.

Watch the beginning of the film here (in lieu of a trailer, which isn't to be found on Youtube)

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown
[Dead Men Walk is the final film of b-movie blond Mary Carlisle (Triple Trouble (1934)), and it also stars Dwight Frye (The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)) as a hunchbacked assistant named Zolarr. Newfield is credited with an astounding 277 movie and TV titles, which might be explained by the fact that he was a degenerate gambler who wound up ending his career penniless.]

What do you think of Dead Men Walk?
Seen other films by Newfield?
If so, tell us about it/them

Angel Heart (1987) - Parker's stylish devil-lurking holds limited punch

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Robert De Niro in ominous, omnipresent black surrounds Mickey Rourke's desperate protagonist on this dark poster for Alan Parker's Angel Heart

In 1955's New York, detective Angel takes an assignment from a man with long nails called Louis Cypher: He is to track down a lost crooner by the name Johnny Favorite. It leads Angel to New Orleans, where corpses start to get in the way in a case that entails a sombre relation to black magic.

Angel Heart is written and directed by great English filmmaker Alan Parker (Bugsy Malone (1976)), adapting William Hjortsberg's (Gray Matters (1971)) novel Falling Angel (1978). It combines an erotic detective thriller with mystery and religious elements.
The depiction of the 1950s milieu in New York and New Orleans is brimming with atmosphere, - especially the film's dirty South half.
Unfortunately, Parker's script doesn't keep up with the pleasures of the film's visual side: The copious yet sudden ending doesn't get the necessary clout to really stick. The film remains interesting but not truly successful. Mickey Rourke (The Crawl (2001)) is auspicious in another colorful detective movie, (though Michael Cimino's great Year of the Dragon (1985) is better), SPOILER and Robert De Niro (Ronin (1998)) is memorable as the devil in disguise.


Related post:

Alan Parker: The Commitments (1991) - 90's hole-in-the-wall Ireland gives birth to ... - A soul sensation! 
 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 18 mil. $
Box office: 17.1 mil. $ (North America only)
= Some uncertainty - but almost certainly a big flop (returned 0.95 times its cost domestically)
[Angel Heart was released 6 March (USA) and runs 113 minutes. Hjortsberg adapted his novel and wanted it adapted after its publication, but studios were wary of the dark property, until Parker became involved and secured financing through indie company Carolco International. Bill Cosby helped cast Lisa Bonet (Biker Boyz (2003)), star of his The Cosby Show (1984-91), - and panned the film as racist when it was released. Shooting took place in New Jersey, New York and in Louisiana, including New Orleans, from March - July 1986. The MPAA initially gave the film an X-rating, forcing Parker to edit out ten seconds of Rourke's buttocks from a sex scene to receive the R-rating. The film opened #4, behind fellow new release Lethal Weapon and holdover hits A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and Platoon, to a 3.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America. The foreign grosses are regrettably unreported online: A likely final gross of 20-25 mil. $ would put the film in the big flop category. Roger Ebert gave it a 3½/4 star review, translating to two notches higher than this one. Parker returned with Mississippi Burning (1988). Rourke returned in A Prayer for the Dying (1987); De Niro in The Untouchables (1987). Angel Heart is fresh at 77 % with a 7.16/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Angel Heart?