CONDEMNED TO LIVE (1935) Ralph Morgan, Pedro de Cordoba, Maxine Doyle | Drama, Horror, Mystery | B&W

Condemned to Live is a 1935 American horror film starring Ralph Morgan and Maxine Doyle, and directed by Frank R. Strayer. The film is unusual for its time, as it approaches the topic of vampirism from a sympathetic standpoint and presents it as if it were an illness.

SYNOPSIS
After a series of unsolved murders, a man finds out that his mother was bitten by a vampire bat during her pregnancy, and he believes that he may be the vampire committing the murders.

The film opens with a trio of explorers in Africa who are hiding in a cave. One of the explorers, a pregnant woman, is bitten by a vampire bat.

The film then cuts forward in time to a small European village where a series of mysterious murders are taking place. The villagers readily assemble in mob form, with torches, at the house of Professor Kristan (Ralph Morgan) after every murder. The villagers suspect that a giant bat is to blame for the murders. Kristan gives the villagers advice on staying safe, and assures them a scientific explanation exists.

However, in subsequent scenes, Kristan himself is revealed to be the murderer. He is seized by attacks (triggered by darkness) which transform him into a trance-like state of murderousness. After he commits a murder, he awakens from the trance with no memory of the deed, believing himself merely to have fainted. Kristan's obliviousness is further enabled by the intervention of his loyal hunchback Zan, the only person aware of Kristan's condition. Zan follows Kristan when he is in his trances, ensuring the professor is not discovered.

An old friend of Kristan's, Dr. Bizet, arrives to visit, and soon suspects what is happening. Bizet discloses to Kristan that his mother was bitten by a vampire bat, and that traits of vampirism have likely been passed down to him per Lamarckism (the audience now understands the pregnant explorer in the opening flashback to have been Kristan's mother).

After Kristan's fiancé (Maxine Doyle) is attacked by an entranced Kristan, the mob of villagers assumes Zan is culpable and chases him to the edge of a cliff inside a cave.

CAST & CREW
Ralph Morgan as Prof. Paul Kristan
Pedro de Cordoba as Dr. Anders Bizet
Maxine Doyle as Marguerite Mane
Russell Gleason as David
Mischa Auer as Zan, the Hunchback
Lucy Beaumont as Mother Molly
Carl Stockdale as John Mane
Barbara Bedford as Martha Kristan
Robert Frazer as Dr. Duprez(as Robert Frazier)
Ferdinand Schumann-Heink as Franz Kristan (as Ferdinand Schuman-Heink)
Heidi Shope as Anna, the Maid(as Hedi Shope)
Marilyn Knowlden as Maria, the Young Girl

Directed by Frank R. Strayer
Written by Karen DeWolf
Produced by Maury M. Cohen
Music by Abe Meyer
Production company Invincible Pictures
Distributed by Chesterfield Pictures
Release date September 15, 1935
Running time 67 min
Country United States
Language English