Curse of the Undead

I have to say that this film did a good job merging two popular movie genres: Western and Horror. A stranger named Drake Robey arrives and the murders start. Innocent victims are drained of blood. Thinking her father was murdered by a cattle rustler, a women enlists Robey to kill him. He does toward the end of the film. Later in the movie, it is revealed that Drake Robey is really Don Drago Robles. He killed his brother and then committed suicide. It was this act that turned him into a Vampire. He is destroyed in a rather unique way. Excellent acting by everyone. The only thing wrong with this film is that there isn't enough action. Otherwise, this would be better.

AS a boy of about 11 in a small town in Wyoming I saw this movie at the local theater twice! I haven't seen it since but I remember it as being very atmospheric with great black and white photography. Of course I was a little disappointed because the lobby cards were in color while the film itself was in black and white which was typical of the time. I can't remember whether it was before or about the same time as the first season of Rawhide on TV. So Eric Fleming may have been familiar to me before I saw this movie. Stark black shadows with bright highlights since a lot of the movie took place at night. Michael Pate as the vampire had an extraordinary presence (charisma?) in the film. As I remember in the final shootout Eric Fleming's character rubs his finger against a button? made of wood from Christ's cross and this gives him the power to kill the vampire. Would anyone like to correct me? It is certainly deserving of a DVD release! I wonder why so many classic films that were released on video are MIA on DVD?

Cowboys and vampires do not mix. I'm sorry, I like my vampires in Eastern European countries with swamps, bats, perpetual darkness, and lots of fog.

Interesting to watch a movie without major pretensions, made in the 1950s with low budget B movie authentic, managed to survive the time. I remember when I first saw it, it was still a kid and I was very impressed with the story. I went back to see him other times and concluded that it really is a good movie. Of course, mixing vampires with gunmen of the Old West is not common, but the formula worked amazingly. The 1950s was rich in westerns and, surprisingly, this supernatural film is almost a tribute to the genre. The film has a dark atmosphere, favored by the absence of color, with a great performance by Michel Patte in the role of vampire and Eric Fleming also good performance. A very different western. And interesting, very interesting.

This western is one of the strangest in movie history and its weirdness is only surpassed by the infamous "Terror of Tiny Town"-- the first (and only) all-midget western! After all, this is a western about...VAMPIRES!!! When the film begins, there is the usual sort of plot--a local baddie is trying to take control of surrounding ranches. However, what you come to realize is that that potential range war is actually being orchestrated by a third party. Drake Robey is in actuality a vampire and is using his vampirey skills to create chaos. However, along the way he finds himself falling for a local hottie. The only thing standing between her is the local preacher...the only one who has learned Robey's dark secret. This is just one strange mash-up--vampires AND cowboys! Strange...but also reasonably interesting and worth seeing despite a few actors who aren't exactly talented. See this one...just to see one of the most unique films to come out of Hollywood.

I believe the attraction of this movie is the charisma of Michael Pate which is very strong being directed into drawing sympathy for the supposed bad guy in a very classic and novel formula.One expects (in a western )the bad guy to lose.In a vampire movie one expects a vampire to be the the bad guy(at least in most of the earlier movies).Bring these two presupposed notions together and the formula is already preset for the viewer. But intentionally or not,this movie turns things upside down.The antagonist vampire is noble and intelligent.Michael Pate gives Robey a rough class and graciousness akin to Richard Boone's Paladin(Have Gun Will Travel).He was not really evil in life and made a mistake which the guilt of drove him to suicide.Now he manfully(or is that maturely...or both?)faces up to what he did ,what he is and what he must do to survive. Buffer is despicable but human.that should make him better than the vampire?He is more of a killer(for personal and monetary gain) than Robey(who kills to survive) Preacher Dan who is immature,insecure and inconsequential.Not attributes for a good priest.And he takes his relationship with Dolores for granted as if nothing ever changes once set in motion.Maybe she was with him in the first place because he had a respectable position in the community and she was of one of the richest families in the area.Or maybe because he bathed more regularly than the other men in the town.I like Eric Fleming but Preacher Dan is like a bowl of unflavored oatmeal with a bit too much water mixed in,in flavor,context and character.Which made me doubt his true motives. Dolores,mixed up and pining for a real man,perhaps. Brother Tim,well does Emo mean anything to you dear readers?He should have stayed home with his Nintendo and Hot Topics coupons.As screwed up as he was and desperate to prove himself as a man he would have ended up worse a person than Buffer. And it seems that everybody else in the town are also majorically insecure,not just our main players.And I have learned that one should not trust anyone to any degree when they are that insecure. Except for Drago Roblais(I hope I spelled that right,I love Michael Pate and Robey is one of my favorite characters in any and all movies I've seen)He was aware of his faults and realized some thing could not be changed ...But dealt with them instead of avoidance,denial or withdrawal(as everybody else in the movie)and so showing a positive strength of character and almost benign resolve. In this movie I was rooting for the supposed bad guy(well,baddest...MOST evil).Was He evil?Before death or even as Undead? And with that impulse it turns the female for most vampire(or monster)movies and most westerns upside down and inside out.Yet the studios make the movies to sell to the audiences and therefore the movies have to be salable,or thought of as such so the studios make what they think the viewers will buy a ticket to see(these days don't forget the vhstapes,Dvds and soundtracks) I think the end of the movie was such because of the female of the genres. Was it the good guy who won?

As I sit here, I'm watching this film, Which I recorded off of AMC a few years back. I remember how big western TV series were back in the late 50's "although I was'nt born until 1958" so I saw most in re-runs. This film I feel played well off the popularity of that TV genre. Eric "Gil Favor" Fleming plays well as the Preacher Who goes after the bloodthirsty Vampire, portrayed By Michael Pate...The story seems a lot like any other western, with the exception of the head gunslinger also being the "Undead". As usual Universal Produced a nice little Horror? flick, With a solid cast for "B" fare. I would recommend this for all "Hardcore" horror fans of the 50's genre. As a side note I also remember a couple of episodes Of Rawhide that dealt with Ghost's & the supernatural... makes me wonder if the producers of those episodes had'nt recently viewed "Curse Of The Undead"

This is one of those classic cult films that get a devoted following from repeated viewings. I remember seeing it on television for the first time, hosted by that vampire fiend, Zacherley. Michael Pate is a mysterious gunfighter who seems invincible and there's a good reason for it, he's a vampire. Though he dresses in western garb, he's still an old world type vampire. Right after this film Eric Fleming got slated to play the lead in the long running western series Rawhide with that well known co-star of his, Clint Eastwood. He's the town preacher and he figures out what the town is plagued with. I think that when Fleming strapped on the six gun and faced Michael Pate in a gunfight, armed with revolver loaded with silver bullets, it was one of the great camp moments in film history. The bullets of course were on loan from the Lone Ranger. For that reason, this film gets as high a rating as six stars and should not be missed whenever it's broadcast.

Curse of the Undead is another of those movies that I had been after for a long time and have just obtained a copy. I found this quite good. A series of strange deaths in a small town in the West turn out to be the responsibility of a gunslinger. This gunslinger turns out to be a vampire as all his victims, including the Sheriff have bite marks on their necks. The town's preacher manages to bump him off at the end. This movie has an eerie music score which moves it along nicely. The cast includes Eric Fleming (Conquest of Space, Queen of Outer Space), Michael Pate (The Black Castle), Kathleen Crowley (Target Earth) and sci-fi/horror regular John Hoyt (The Lost Continent, Attack of the Puppet People). Curse of the Undead is worth checking out. Excellent. Rating: 3 stars out of 3.

One reviewer had this to say as a critique of alleged plot holes in "Curse of the Undead": "...I have never heard of this premise for a person becoming one of the undead. Also, the vampire of this movie can walk around in the daylight with seemingly no ill effects, and everyone knows that vampires absolutely cannot be exposed to sunlight, or they will be destroyed." Actually suicide is the most important cause of vampirism according to the primary folklore sources used by 19th century writers such as John Polidori, Sheridan Le Fanu, and Bram Stoker. The idea that a victim of a vampire inevitably rises as a vampire himself is not widely supported in folklore. Stoker played up this rather atypical aspect of vampire legend mainly for dramatic purposes. As for the common movie trope of the vampire's allergy to sunlight, this too is not supported by the primary sources. According to most Western folklore vampires are unconscious during the daylight hours, resting in their coffins much like the ordinary dead except that they show no evidence of decay or wasting. If exposed to daylight their bodies react exactly like dead bodies, which is to say they react not at all. Polidori, Le Fanu, and Stoker contrived to allow their vampires occasional daylight forays as a means to advance the plot and to sustain suspense. The Hollywood cliché that vampires first into flames or wither into dust a the mere touch of sunlight is entire that — a film cliché which dates from F.W. Murnau's "Nosferatu" (1922). "Curse of the Undead" may have plot holes, but they don't derive from vampire folklore. In fact this movie is more faithful to the legends than anything filmed by Hollywood in decades.