Well crafted little horror jaunt. Seems long dead Murks (Keith) won't stay dead, but he does need blood to keep frightening us viewers. I guess he must have had a zombie dad and a vampire mom, or some such. Anyhow he gets his needed red stuff from a doctor's office, which is fine until he stupidly throttles his supplier. Now he gets his stuff on the hoof, and our heroes Dr. Terry (Livingston) and Nurse Susan (Gray) better figure things out before he depopulates the studio of its supporting players.I love that opening sequence, a really funny got'cha when the sheet's pulled back. Republic may have been at the bottom of the Hollywood studios, but it was at the top of the poverty row outfits, PRC, etc. So it's not surprising this horror quickie would be a little slicker than most. Happily, director Ford manages both atmosphere and pacing. The outdoor sets may be 3-feet deep, but they're still creepy. And catch the many snappy lines from our winsome Nurse Susan, especially when she and the doc are creeping through the forrest. Now, Keith really has the malevolent glower of a fiend, but his mugging at times borders on the ludicrous. I guess he needed a few more lessons from Karloff. Good also to see Livingston get off a horse (The Three Mesquiteers) and into a medical smock, of all things. All in all, the 57- minutes remains a cut above other quickies, without being anything special.

***SPOILERS*** One of the last of the Zombie crazed 1940's Zombie movies has former undertaker and later insane lunatic Ormand Murks,Ian Keith, come back from the dead as a combination Zombie/Vampire who craves blood, his blood type and no one else's,to stay alive. This has Murks raid hospital blood banks and with the help of his almost Zombie like brother Fred, Earle Hodgins, get him the blood that he so desperately needs. It's when Murks turns to murder in murdering the man in charge of the hospital blood bank Dr. Rufus Maynard, Charles Trowbridge, who was about to report him to the police that Fred in not wanting to be implicated in Dr. Maynard's murder called it quits only to end up being murdered, and sucked dry of his blood, by an outraged and deranged Murks.To keep the story going and prevent the audience from falling asleep we have some comedy relief in the persons of Dr. Terry Evens, Robert Livingston, and his afraid of her own shadow nurse Susan Drake, Lorna Gray, who turn detectives in solving the string of murders blood draining and embalming victims that the crazed Ormand Murks is responsible for. There's also for good measures the Keystone Kop like police lead by the clueless Chief Inspector Rayan, Charles Cane, and his two bumbling assistants detectives Blake & Hendricks, Thomas E. Jackson & Leroy Mason, who make both Terry & Susan's job of tracking down and finding Murks that much more difficult.***SPOILERS*** Despite what seemed like him having supernatural powers Murks wasn't bullet proof which proved to be his Achilles Heel that in the end did the crazy guy in. That's after he captured and hypnotized Susan and forced her to kill Terry who was on his way, together with the police, to capturing and bringing him in. Being as mindless as he was crazy Murks, who was armed with a handgun, ordered Susan to shoot Terry who by hesitating for just a moment gave to police all the time that they needed to plug him themselves.

Dr. Maynard (Charles Trowbridge) tells Dr. Terry Evans (Robert Livingston) and his nurse, Susan Drake (Lorna Gray), about the theft of ten pints of blood from his lab. Later, he is visited by Ormand Murks (Ian Keith), a man Maynard had once had committed to an insane asylum.What attracted me to this film is quite simple: it is old and it is short. I am all about short films to watch while eating breakfast, and I am all about watching older movies (as a reviewer, my job simply cannot be done properly without knowing the history of film, particularly horror).Ian Keith plays a very cool, creepy man, wrongly judged insane, who wears a grave robber outfit. He is the highlight of the film, and what makes this one more horror fans should see. There is also a fun homicide detective scene where they question Lorna Gray and try to get her to falsely confess to murder. The back and forth is pretty fun, and it makes me wish that Gray was in more films like this (or like her Three Stooges work).

If you approach this looking for zombies, especially an whole valley full of 'em, you'll be sadly disappointed yet I can't help it...I like this short little movie just the same. Maybe it's the wonderful atmosphere this film has what with mysterious going ons in the night, graveyards and tombs figuring into the plot. Or maybe it's the old fashioned villain who truly looks like a fiendish fellow...Ian Keith as the thought to be dead Ormond Murks, who now needs the blood of the living to stay alive. And while there may be a number of outdated stereotypes (by today's standards) at work here especially in terms of the frantic female Nurse Susan Drake who is easily spooked and frightened leaning upon the always steady and sure male Dr. Terrance Evans..still there's a certain innocence to this style of Horror which makes it fun...kind of hard to explain really. It's only being an hour long doesn't hurt either.