By 1959 Universal (then Universal-International) was on the verge of closing down their B movie horror/sci-fi unit for good. Television had taken its toll on regular moviegoing audiences and the drive-in audiences were now mostly teenagers who were far more interested in each other than what was up on the screen. American International Pictures now dominated the drive-in market with movies aimed exclusively at the young crowd and so there was no longer a demand for the old school B movie pictures that were aimed at a juvenile or an over 30 audience. CURSE OF THE UNDEAD was one of the last horror films made at Universal ending a tradition that began with Bela Lugosi’s DRACULA in 1931.
Westerns dominated TV during the 1950s and so the idea of combining a horror film storyline with a Western setting seemed like a good idea although CURSE started out as a joke. The setting is a small Western town where young women are found mysteriously drained of blood. The local minister (Eric Fleming) believes that the arrival of gun for hire Drake Robey (Michael Pate) has something to do with it. Ranch owner Delores Carter (Kathleen Crowley) hires Robey to kill the man who killed her father and brother but then falls ill herself. Research shows Robey to have been a Spanish nobleman who commited suicide which made him into a vampire. He is eventually destroyed in a very unique way.
What makes CURSE so interesting is that it follows traditional European vampire lore not movie vampire lore. Robey is not the victim of another vampire but a suicide which is a mortal sin thus condemning him to become undead. As a result, his victims do not return as vampires. He bemoans his fate but is driven to do what he does because he cannot help himself. Robey can also walk about in broad daylight although he does sleep in a coffin. These several differences are seen as obvious mistakes by most viewers but they really aren’t. In a nice touch and an ironic twist for a Western, Robey is a gunfighter who is slow on the draw but always wins in a shootout because he is already dead.
CURSE underperformed at the box office and then was mostly forgotten although it did show up on TV during the 1960s. Its main claim to fame was that it featured Eric Fleming of RAWHIDE fame whose career was cut short in 1966 when he drowned while making a movie in South America. It wasn’t until 1997 that CURSE finally appeared on home video in VHS form. 22 years would pass before it was issued on DVD and Blu-Ray by Kino Lorber. Now the movie is recognized as a well made little picture that accomplishes what it set out to do. Both Blu-Ray and DVD have great picture and sound. The only minus is Tom Weaver’s snark filled commentary which is thankfully a bonus offering.
The Capsule Critic 