Condemned to Live (1935)

The opening scene of the film was meant to help establish the storyline, however, the constant beating of the drum, in the background (for dramatic effect), took a lot away from the scene. Due to the fact that the drum actually became quite annoying, it was difficult to focus on what was happening in the scene. What typically annoys me a bit about older horror films is the fact that there is usually a secondhand plot that often overshadows what is meant to be most important in the film. For example, Marguerite Mane’s  (played by Maxine Doyle) love triangle, especially towards the beginning of the film, actually takes a bit away from the story. The audience, for a moment, is forced to focus on what is happening in Mane’s love life rather than what is happening in the rest of the story. Even with the overlapping stories, I thought that this was one of the more developed stories I’ve seen in an older horror film. I thought that from beginning to end, Frank R. Strayer and Karen DeWolf really did a great job of building the story and keeping it going, quite cohesively (excluding the unnecessary romance). However, like many older horror films, this film led to something (regardless of the pace) and then was, very quickly, summed up within the last few minutes. With this, however, I feel that older films like this are often easy to predict and this film was quite the opposite regarding the end. There was an amazing twist that successfully wrapped up the entire film. I would assume, like myself, most people would not expect amazing acting in a 1930’s horror film, however, I thought that each of the actors did a good job in their respective roles. In particular, I thought that Maxine Doyle and Ralph Morgan excelled as Marguerite Mane and Professor Paul Kristan. Considering this film was given a rating of 4.8 stars out of ten, I had very low expectations. However, I thought that this film was slightly underrated and deserves a bit more credit. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026230/?ref_=nv_sr_1