"The Living Dead Man" is an incredibly long movie--clocking in at almost three hours. Now I am not against long films--many of my favorite films are this long or longer. However, the story doesn't seem to justify the length and several times irrelevant subplots could have been eliminated in order to tighten the story. In addition, at some times the leading man (Ivan Mozzhukhin) was great but at other times he stared off into space as if to say 'I'm trying to be artsy, folks'! However, despite these problems, the film is worth seeing--particularly for silent film buffs.
Mathias' life sucks. His family has lost their fortune, his mother-in-law who lives with him is Satan and his wife has slowly started to become just like her mother. To top it off, he ends up losing his mother and daughter on the same day!! Truly his life stinks. All this took an hour to tell--but could have been done so, easily, in half this time.
On a lark, Mathias takes a trip to Monte Carlo. There, he's insanely lucky and wins a fortune. As he's returning home, he reads a newspaper--only to discover he's been declared dead! Some poor guy's body washed ashore and folks thought it was Mathias! Now, the idea of starting a new life without his nasty wife and mother-in-law dawns on him and he moves to Rome. So far, so good, but the film bogs down on a needless plot involving spiritualist thieves. Where all of it goes from here, you can see for yourself. But my advice is to perhaps hit the fast-forward button in places--it really needed it. But, despite this, the film still manages to get a recommendation from me. Good but it could have been a lot better.
By the way, this film has an incredible multinational cast--with Russians, Americans, Frenchmen and a soon-to-be famous Swiss actor, Michel Simon. Such casts were not easy to create once talking pictures came into vogue.
Mathias' life sucks. His family has lost their fortune, his mother-in-law who lives with him is Satan and his wife has slowly started to become just like her mother. To top it off, he ends up losing his mother and daughter on the same day!! Truly his life stinks. All this took an hour to tell--but could have been done so, easily, in half this time.
On a lark, Mathias takes a trip to Monte Carlo. There, he's insanely lucky and wins a fortune. As he's returning home, he reads a newspaper--only to discover he's been declared dead! Some poor guy's body washed ashore and folks thought it was Mathias! Now, the idea of starting a new life without his nasty wife and mother-in-law dawns on him and he moves to Rome. So far, so good, but the film bogs down on a needless plot involving spiritualist thieves. Where all of it goes from here, you can see for yourself. But my advice is to perhaps hit the fast-forward button in places--it really needed it. But, despite this, the film still manages to get a recommendation from me. Good but it could have been a lot better.
By the way, this film has an incredible multinational cast--with Russians, Americans, Frenchmen and a soon-to-be famous Swiss actor, Michel Simon. Such casts were not easy to create once talking pictures came into vogue.