Where does insanity start? It truly varies from patient to patient, but in many cases, it's obviously child abuse, and that is the theme here as one of two twin brothers ends up in a straight jacket in the family mansion's attic because of abuse he went through at the hands of his evil father. Years later, the old man has died, and now he's out on the street where havoc, death and destruction are sure to follow. Albert Dekker, who the year before played the equally menacing Dr. Cyclops, plays two sides of the coin; The sane brother who managed to escape his father's wrath and the brain damaged twin who only ended up in a straight jacket because he defended his mother against an equally brutal attack by his father. Moving into a boarding house run by spunky Maude Eburne, he fells in love with her daughter (a young Susan Hayward) but after a visit with his brother (whom he viciously attacks in front of sister-in-law Frances Farmer) goes on a rampage, stalking and brutally killing a young blonde he saw in a tavern. The insane brother shows gentility and total sanity when he's with Hayward, but that's most likely going to snap at any moment, especially when Hayward decides she's going to find the mysterious killer on the loose and asks him for his help. Harry Carey is excellent as the family doctor who knows the truth about the troubled family's past and tries to help the insane brother to no avail. Hayward is her typical tough cookie, claiming "For $5000, I'm not afraid of anything, including death", but unfortunately, Farmer (who around this time was dealing with serious mental issues herself) is totally wasted. Her small role does give the indication, however, how great she would have been in the same types of roles which were given to newcomers such as Veronica Lake, Lauren Bacall and Lizabeth Scott with her husky voice and seemingly tough demeanor. The tension builds up as does the pressure with Dekker in getting caught in his own trap, and this makes for a very exciting conclusion. An early example of film noir which mixes in elements of horror, Dekker's insane brother could be described as a live version of Frankenstein's monster as his gentility and madness are mixed to provide him with a very hair-raising performance. This is a forgotten sleeper which very much deserves to be re-discovered.

Among the Living is directed by Stuart Heisler and written by Garrett Fort and Lester Cole. It stars Albert Dekker, Susan Hayward, Harry Carey and Frances Farmer. Music is by Gerard Carbonara and cinematography by Theodor Sparkuhl.Dekker plays identical twins, John and Paul Raden. Paul was believed to have died when he was just 10 years old, in reality he had been traumatised and went insane and was locked up in a secret room at the Raden Mansion. When John returns for his father's funeral, he learns of Paul's existence, more so when Paul escapes and is out and about in Radentown...1941 saw the release of Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon, High Sierra and I Wake Up Screaming. Films that mark an important point in the progression of what would become known as film noir, both thematically and as a visual style. Elsewhere there were some horror movies which would stand the test of time as classic productions, films such as The Wolf Man and The Black Cat are still massively popular today. Down in the lesser known file is Among the Living, a picture that blends both horror and noir for considerable rewards.It's a slice of Southern Gothic which nods appreciatively to classic horror conventions from the previous decade (eg: the Frankenstein connection is hard to ignore but handled skillfully), and it even has social commentary bursting forth from its seams, but it's with the photographic style where it becomes a must see for film noir enthusiasts.Heisler (latterly The Glass Key/Storm Warning) and Sparkuhl (also The Glass Key) shoot the picture by way of German Expressionism, where certain scenes and photographic compositions anticipate the noir style before it became the norm. From the feverish and frantic exuberance of a club scene, to a chase scene through menacing shadowed streets that end with murder, there are classy slices of noir before we even get to the crushing finale where Radentown is gripped by its own greed and insanity problems.Dekker is terrific, managing to give each twin their own identity without relying on costuming for the viewers to tell the difference. His man child portrayal of Paul is heartfelt and perfectly troubling, yet always tasteful. Hayward is socko gorgeous as a vampish nymph who latches onto Paul to feather her own nest, while Farmer provides the sort of solid support she was capable of before her own personal problems would derail her potential career.The psychological aspects of the pic are simplistic, of course, while viewing it now it's impossible to not get a sense of it being cliché heavy as regards the "twins" axis of plotting, but this is well paced, very well acted and beautifully photographed. If you can track down a decent print of it, then it's a must see for anyone interested in the influences and subsequent trajectory of film noir. 8/10

... 1941 that is. It boasts fine photography and a great score. It's part horror tale, part noir. John Raden returns for the funeral of Maxim Raden, his father and owner of all of the mills around town. It's obvious from the remarks of the average citizens outside the cemetery gates that their collective sentiment is good riddance.Dr. Ben Saunders (Harry Carey) then reveals to John a terrible secret he's been keeping - that 25 years ago he forged a death certificate for John's identical twin brother Paul. Paul had become mentally disturbed and Maxim moved into a hotel in town and kept the insane Paul locked up in a room at Radin mansion with kindly and loyal servant Pompey as his keeper. Paul became disturbed probably due to a head injury received when his father threw him across the room when Paul came to his mother's rescue during one of the beatings Maxim was giving her. What did Dr. Saunders get in return? Maxim Radin endowed his clinic, but with Paul recently turning more violent, both Saunders' psychological and actual burden have become heavier and heavier. John, sent away to school before any of this happened, had no knowledge of any of this up until now.Well, Paul kills Pompey, escapes his room, and finds some money at his father's grave. (It was unclear to me what money was doing there.) With this money and his misleading mostly gentle child-like demeanor he manages to rent a room in a rooming house and attract the attentions of the landlady's daughter (Susan Hayward as Millie Pickens). Millie teaches Paul to blend in - helps him find new clothes, gets him to shave - and now the town has an unpredictable homicidal maniac in its midst who only acts homicidal when the urge to kill strikes him but doesn't look the least bit out of place. Meanwhile, John Raden cannot convince Saunders to call the police because he doesn't want to lose the clinic he's worked so hard for. Of course the fact that the townspeople think Paul is dead and Paul and John are identical twins will eventually figure into this plot, but I'll let you watch and see how.Albert Dekker does a great job of playing the dual role of sophisticated good guy John and child-like insane Paul, but it is Susan Hayward as Millie who steals the show. You can never quite tell if she really likes Paul because he's different - not pawing her all of the time - or if she's just after the gifts he can give her after she sees the wad of cash he keeps in his pockets. It's a great early role for her. Harry Carey gets to do more than he usually does late in his career, which were roles that usually entailed playing the wise old good guy. Here he is quite gray and not until the end are you sure just which side of his character will win. For those of you looking for a glimpse of Frances Farmer at work, that's all you'll get - a glimpse. She is barely noticeable as the wife of John Raden.As for the atmosphere - it's perfect with thunderstorms, poorly lit rooms, cemeteries at night, and Paul's victims all found left with a terrified expression and their hands over their ears. Highly recommended for fans of old style horror. It's a shame this one isn't better known.

When it came to sex and violence, Paramount Pictures always had a perverse streak that went back to their 30s Pre-Code and horror films (THE STORY OF TEMPLE DRAKE, MURDER AT THE VANITIES, DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE, ISLAND OF LOST SOULDS, MURDERS IN THE ZOO, TERROR ABOARD, and MURDER BY THE CLOCK to name only a few) so it was only (un)natural that their groundbreaking adaptation of James M. Cain's DOUBLE INDEMNITY in 1944 would be instrumental in kicking off a cycle of dark films that would later come to be known as the Film Noir. But between the mid-30s and the mid-40s, the studio's unwholesome tendencies lay dormant for the most part with the exception of two 1941 films by Stuart Heisler that combined adult-themed scares with a "noir" sensibility. THE MONSTER AND THE GIRL (narrated by a prostitute coming out of the fog to tell her tale) mixed courtroom melodrama, murder, revenge, and the underworld with brain transplants and was the more outré of the two but the Southern Gothic AMONG THE LIVING's blend of murder and madness contained many visual elements that would soon appear in the burgeoning Film Noir. New Yorker John Raden (Albert Dekker) returns to the Southern mill town his father founded for the patriarch's funeral and long-buried family secrets soon threaten to rock his world. John learns from the family doctor (Harry Carey) that his twin, Paul (Albert Dekker), didn't die as a child but went insane (after their abusive father threw him against a wall for trying to protect his mother from another beating) and had been locked away in the cellar of the decaying family mansion for the past twenty-five years. Paul kills the old black servant that had been his keeper and, exhilarated by freedom, the child-like lunatic rents a room in town. He becomes involved with his landlady's gold-digging daughter (Susan Hayward) but another murder occurs and, with the townspeople in a grip of panic, mistaken identity erupts into vigilante violence...Character actor Albert Dekker got a rare chance to show his versatility in a dual role and he's given good support by veterans Harry Carey and Maude Eburne but it's Susan Hayward's dimestore vixen who walks away with the picture. Whether she's wheedling money out of Paul for a new dress or egging on a mob to rip a man apart, Susan's vivacious beauty and potent sex appeal is positively radiant and she steals every scene she's in. On the other hand, troubled Frances Farmer plays John's wife and has little to do other than to look beautiful and scream, both of which she does in a very sedated way. Albert Dekker effectively delineates the doppelgangers and there's no confusing the sane, urbane New Yorker with the scruffy lunatic who's method of murder is quite eerie. He strangles his victims and then places their hands over their ears because he can still hear his long-dead mother screaming. The atmospherics are appropriately dark for a social problem horror movie and there are many tableaux that predict the coming Film Noir. After Paul escapes from the dilapidated plantation house during a violent thunderstorm, he wanders through streets of tenements and cheap rooming houses amid newsboys and legless vagrants selling puppies until he stumbles into a nightmarish bistro where b-girls, brawny brawlers, and some furious jitterbugging bring on another bout of murderous madness in a vivid montage of sights and sounds. Besides the child abuse, there's also some social commentary going on in that the townspeople are clamoring for John to re-open the mill and desperate enough to do anything to get their hands on the $5,000 reward for the killer, turning ugly at the end in a way reminiscent of Fritz Lang's FURY five years before. A young and handsome Rod Cameron has an unbilled bit as a bar patron.