Review: The Undead
Val Dufour plays a researcher for the American Institute of Psychical Research. He picks up a prostitute (Pamela Duncan) to take to psychiatrist/professor Maurice Manson for a unique psychological experiment. He wants to prove a point to Manson by putting Duncan under hypnosis for a 48 hour period so that she can travel back in time to a past life. That time appears to be vaguely Medieval, where Duncan is now an accused witch. Richard Garland plays her Medieval love interest, whilst Allison Hayes and Billy Barty play a witch and an imp respectively, who want to sell Garland’s soul to The Devil (Richard Devon). Dick Miller plays a leper, Mel Welles a verbose gravedigger. Mixing Medieval trappings with an eerie Bridey Murphy-esque psychological story involving hypnotism and past lives, this curious 1957 Roger Corman ( “A Bucket of Blood” , “The Intruder” , “Tomb of Ligeia” ) film sure is one of his more ambitious films. That ambition won out for me over some of the lumps and bu...