The Living Dead at [the] Manchester Morgue/Non si deve profanare il sonno dei morti [Do Not Disturb the Sleep of the Dead] (Italian title)/Fin de semana para los muertos [Weekend for the Dead] (Spanish title)/Don't Open the Window/Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (US titles) (1974)
Country: Italy/Spain
Production Company: Flaminia Produzioni Cinematografiche srl/Star Films SA
Producer: Edmondo Amati
Executive Producer: Manuel Pérez
Director: Jorge Grau
Screenplay: Sandro Continenza, Marcello Coscia
Editor: Vincenzo Tomassi
Cinematographer: Francisco Sempere
Music: Giuliano Sorgini
Production Designer: Carlo Leva
Art Director: Rafael Ferri
Special Optical Effects: Giannetto De Rossi
Special Effects: Luciano Byrd
Sound: Antonio Cárdenas
Locations: Manchester; Dovedale, Hathersage, and Castleton, Derbyshire; Barnes Hospital Cheadle, Cheshire
Length: 93 mins
Cast: Ray Lovelock (George), Cristine Galbo (Edna), Arthur Kennedy (McCormick), Aldo Massasso (Kinsey), Giorgio Trestini (Craig), Roberto Posse (Benson), José Ruiz Lifante (Martin), Jeannine Mestre (Katie), Gengher Gatti (Keith) Fernando Hilbeck (Guthrie), Vera Drudi (Mary) Vincente Vega (Dr Duffield), Paco Sanz (Perkins) Paul Benson (Wood) Anita Colby (Nurse), Joaquín Hinjosa (Autopsy Doctor), Vito Salier (Naked Man), Isabel Mestre (Telephonist)
Synopsis: Manchester antiques dealer George Meaning hops on his Norton and heads to Windermere to work with friends on his country cottage. On the way there, he encounters Edna, who reverses her car into his bike at a petrol station and is forced to take George to his destination. When they lose their way, he comes across a farm machine being used by the Experimental Unit of the Department of Agriculture to kill insects by turning them against each other. Meanwhile Edna is attacked by a man who bears a resemblance to Guthrie, a dead vagrant and it becomes clear that the machine may be affecting more than just insects.
Review: Receiving blanket fan-press coverage when it was first released in the UK in April 1975, The Living Dead at [the] Manchester Morgue (this release drops the second definite article), faded from view for many years, overshadowed by later works from Lucio Fulci, Marino Girolami, and Andrea Bianchi. Given atmospheric direction by Jorge Grau, who was part of the mid-sixties revival in Spanish cinema, and special effects make-up by Giannetto De Rossi, who would go on to provide similar services for everyone from Fulci (Zombie Flesh Eaters, The Beyond, The House by the Cemetery) to Alexandre Aja (Haute Tension/Switchblade Romance), we should be thankful to William Lustig's Blue Underground for finally giving this the release it deserves.
Grau's intelligent use of sound design (the zombies' wheezing was inspired by the post-mortem gasp of his father), and beautifully framed locations (Derbyshire, standing in for the Lake District) create a marvelously weird atmosphere and contrast nicely with the urban pollution and alienation present in the opening scenes, as George rides his Norton out of Manchester. The site of a girl, standing in front of Manchester Cathedral, suddenly stripping off her clothes and running into traffic to absolutely no reaction from onlookers is a suitably bizarre foreshadowing for the madness our ecologically-minded hero faces when he reaches the "safety" of the countryside.
Deficits in dubbing, and acting (Arthur Kennedy's "Where's Me Gold" Irish accent is particularly unfortunate), and the occasional charming error (the name of one establishment, viewed in reverse from inside a window, reads "The Old Olw Hotel") are more than made up for by the set pieces that take place in a graveyard (the Parish Church of St Michael, Hathersage, where Little John is reputedly buried) and a hospital (Barnes Convalescent Home, Cheadle, built in 1875, it now stands derelict at the junction of the M60 and M56) and while the story is clearly derivative of Night of the Living Dead, it's artfully put together from a script by Bava collaborators Sandro Continenza (Hercules at the Center of the Earth and Enzo Castellari's Inglorious Bastards) and Marcello Coscia (Black Sunday) and is easily one of the best Italian zombie films.
Quality: It's doubtful that the film has ever looked as good as it does on the Blu-ray disk under review, with both the 1:85:1 ratio picture and the sound (available in new 5.1, and 7.1 mixes as well as the original Mono) being pin sharp and perfectly clear.
Extras: "Back to the Morgue: On Location with Director Jorge Grau" (45 mins) is a tour of the original locations, in Italian with English subtitles. Grau is an engaging guide and talks enthusiastically about shooting the film and his admiration for the hard-drinking Kennedy. "Zombie Fighter: Interview with Star Ray Lovelock" (16 mins), is also enjoyable though surprisingly Lovelock speaks Italian, despite being half English. "Zombie Maker: Interview with Special Effects Artist Giannetto De Rossi" (17 mins) is the pick of the bunch with De Rossi dishing many trade secrets, including the use of quail's eggs and cotton wool for edible eyeballs and the value of a flat-chested actress in a breast ripping scene. A "2000 Interview with Director Jorge Grau" (20 mins), is touching as he tells of how much love he receives from the fans, and the disc is rounded out with trailers, TV and Radio spots, and a still and poster gallery. All extras are in Standard Definition.
April 18, 2016 at 3:45 AM
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