CONDEMNED TO LIVE

US, 1935, 69 minutes, Black and white.
Ralph Morgan, Pedro de Córdoba, Maxine Doyle, Russell Gleason, Nisha hour.
Directed by Frank R.Strayer.

This is one of many films directed by Frank R.Strayer during the 1930s, most of them thrillers. He had begun directing films in the 1920s and continued until the late 1940s, filming a number of the Blondie series and, in his last years, directing a number of religious films.

This is a vampire film – and Strayer had made his mark in 1933 with Vampire Bat. This time the setting is European town, the prologue with a woman infected by a bat and giving birth in a cave. Years later, there is the menace of a mysterious bat, infecting people, killing some of the women in the town. The people rely on a learned man, The Professor (a genial and sympathetic performance from Ralph Morgan) who is about to marry an attractive young woman, Marguerite (Maxine Doyle).

The audience soon realises that it is The Professor who is the vampire. He suffers from headaches, conscience lapses, is not aware of what he has done, eventually coming to realise it, wanting to protect Marguerite. He is helped by his old friend, Anders (Pedro de Córdoba) who assisted at his mother’s death and his birth and has kept an eye on him for the consequences. He is also served by Zan (Mischa Auer) and the townspeople blame him as the monster.

Marguerite has a suitor who is suspicious but is able to save her at the end – The Professor realising what had happened, the townspeople confronting him, his decision to throw himself off a cliff and, unexpectedly, Zan also throws himself down.

A variation on the vampire story – and vampire stories, after Dracula with Ben Lugosi, proliferated during the 1930s.