THE FROZEN DEAD

		Review by E.C. McMullen Jr.
THE FROZEN DEAD - 1966 UK Release: Oct. 1966 USA Release: Nov. 15, 1967 Gold Star Productions Ltd., Warner Bros. Seven Arts (B&W Only) Rating: N/A

On a cheap 1960s blue filtered daylight evening, a guy with a whip forces a group of loonies, some screaming, some arbitrarily violent, across a lawn and into a basement.

A silent butler watches from a window.

Whip guy is Karl Essen (Alan Tilvern: THE LORD OF THE RINGS [1978], FIREFOX, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS [1986], TROPIC OF ICE, WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT), who is the dim yet earnest assistant to Dr. Norberg (Dana Andrews: SWAMP WATER, BOOMERANG!, WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS, EDGE OF DOOM, CURSE OF THE DEMON, THE FEARMAKERS, THE SATAN BUG, CRACK IN THE WORLD, BRAINSTORM [1965]). The movie opens with Karl asking apparently stupid questions, causing Norberg to answer them all with, "You already know this."

Both Norberg and Essen are Nazis, hidden from justice since the end of World War II, 20 years earlier.

Soon General Lubeck (Karl Stepanek: THEY MET IN THE DARK, THE FALLEN IDOL, THE ACCURSED, DEVIL DOLL [1964]) and Doktor Tirpitz (Basil Hansen: THE LAST DAYS OF MAN ON EARTH) arrive.

Their arrival was unexpected for Dr. Norberg but not for Karl, who was following orders from Berlin.

Dr. Norberg has kept certain powerful NAZIs, 12 to be exact, frozen for these past 20 years in the hope of bringing them back to life to carry on the Third Reich.

Unfortunately over the years the nine who were thawed are ... failures.

A key piece of information is eluding Dr. Norberg, something General Lubek and Doktor Tirpitz are tired of hearing after two decades. They are all getting old, time is short.

"There is no more time! We need our leaders now! Immediately!"

Perhaps Dr. Norberg's loyalty to the party is in question?

Actually it is.

It's 1966, 21 years after the fall of NAZI Germany, 20 years after the end of the The Nuremberg trials. Six years since the publication of William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Since then an endless stream of photographs, news reels, books, news documentaries, etc., have revealed the true horrors of the NAZIs.* The fortress of Dr. Norberg's blood oath loyalty to the NAZI party has been crumbling for some time.

Dr. Norberg launches into exposition, explaining the fundamentals of the fictional science by demonstrating his failures.

Meanwhile here come two young women, fresh out of school. One of the college gals is Dr. Norberg's niece, Jean (Anna Palk: THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING, THE SKULL, WITCH HUNT [TV], THE NIGHTCOMERS, TOWER OF EVIL) and the other is her friend, Elsa (Kathryn Breck) who doesn't have a good feeling about the old castle that Jean calls home.

Well, you know how it is with Horror movies - trust your gut instincts.

Jean has a key to the "castle" (as it were) and so just walks right in expecting her Uncle to be surprised and delighted by her unexpected appearance.

Joseph the butler (Oliver MacGreevy: THE IPCRESS FILE, MODESTY BLAISE, TALES FROM THE CRYPT [1972], FLASH GORDON), who was rendered practically lobotomized after accidentally getting trapped and frozen in one of the freezers for 12 hours, doesn't recognize Jean, which discomforts her and really discomforts Elsa.

Later, Joseph tries, in his awkward, grunting way, to express the issue to Karl, who in turn barges in on a delicate second of brain surgery in the very moment Dr. Norberg is trying to bring a formerly frozen NAZI officer back to life.

The NAZI leader is a failure, General Lubeck and Doktor Tirpitz are incensed with Karl, and Dr. Norberg seems relieved.

Hoping to save his neck, Karl hurriedly explains that Dr. Norberg's niece and her friend have made a surprise visit and that's how the NAZI guests get wind of Jean and her friend.

Jean knows nothing of her Uncle Norberg's work...

Really Herr Doktor? Veddy interestink!

...and we the audience haven't scratched the surface of the crazy shit that's happening in the house.

Karl has the worst of it, however. The aging NAZI officers, who live in the open as civilian businessmen, are openly starting to view Karl as a liability instead of an asset. Karl needs to do something quick in order to redeem himself and, Wunderbar! Jean brought a human lab experiment to the house!

Things go hideously bad for Elsa, the NAZI officers threaten Dr. Norberg, Karl tries to shift his responsibility onto Norberg, more civilians get involved, and now by golly, we have a movie!

In many ways THE FROZEN DEAD is silly and the high school science class lab equipment, meant to pass for state of the art expensive medical equipment, are fooling nobody. The movie is just too low budget to attain the height of Writer, Producer, and Director Herbert J. Leder (IT!, THE CANDY MAN)'s concepts. Herbert may have got into feature film directing late in life, but boy was he bursting with some great and gruesome ideas!

Hey! Real state of the art lab and equipment you got there, Doc!

By 1965, Dana Andrews was too old to be the romantic leading man he was in his salad days, but he still had enough audience good will and draw power to cop the lead role and billing in low budget movies. Further, as Dana was getting up in years he likely looked to what Vincent Price was up to and wanted to end his career the same way: shock and titillate his audience with hardcore Horror and go out with an audacious bang.

The fact that Dana was also a great actor who fully committed to his part regardless of story, character, or dialogue, makes you almost believe his Dr. Norberg somehow has the mad genius to keep a decapitated head alive on his office desk using nothing more than a few electrical wires attached to a 9-Volt battery.

Not to mention all of the other crazy crap that's going on inside that god damn castle!

Despite the fact that Leder had full control of the reigns, he had to work with the small budget given him by Gold Star Productions. They expected two Horror movies out of that one budget (one Science Fiction Horror and one Supernatural Horror) and could offer him top talent both in front of and behind the camera to work on them.

Warner Bros. was in their ultra low budget "Seven Arts" period and, though THE FROZEN DEAD was shot in Eastman Color, Warner Bros./Seven Arts had nearly all the USA theater prints made in black and white to save money, thereby making a low budget movie look even cheaper.

Worse, they spoiled the movie by including all of the surprise gruesomeness in the trailer!

Don't Watch The Trailer!

With Production Design and Art Direction by Scott MacGregor (HOUSE OF BLACKMAIL, SHADOW OF FEAR, FIRE MAIDENS OF OUTER SPACE, DOCTOR BLOOD'S COFFIN, INVASION [1965], THE MILLION EYES OF SU MARU, IT!, TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA, THE VAMPIRE LOVERS, THE HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN, SCARS OF DRACULA, BURKE & HARE [1972], VAMPIRE CIRCUS, STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING, FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL, MOON ZERO TWO) and Cinematography by Davis Boulton (THE HAUNTING [1963], CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED, IT!), there's a definite "etched in your brain" shock quality to the Horror reminiscent of a marriage between a Roger Corman and a Hammer Studios look.

That's largely because Herbert wasn't about the "jump scare". He wanted you to see the brutally hideous horror and then drag the camera toward it, filling the screen, pushing you ever closer into the abyss of human cruelty and then - taking it farther until the horrific sound echoes in your ears and the vision is burned into your eyeballs.

Black and White film can serve a Horror movie well and I can rattle a few classics right off the top of my head, but it's the lurid Eastman Color that - holy crap! - really delivers for THE FROZEN DEAD.

Composer Don Banks (NIGHT CREATURES, NIGHTMARE [1964], THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN, HYSTERIA, DIE MONSTER DIE!, THE REPTILE, RASPUTIN: THE MAD MONK, THE MUMMY'S SHROUD, THE TORTURE GARDEN) also did his part by giving his music all the dramatic sturm and drang he could wrench out of the notes, with special attention paid to violent violins.

You'll know what I mean the moment you hear it.

There's plenty to mock about THE FROZEN DEAD, but you'll likely never forget it.

Herbert J. Leder's 1966 creation is Ripe for Remake and I give THE FROZEN DEAD 4 Shriek Girls.

This review copyright 2022 E.C.McMullen Jr.

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