Buried Alive (1939)

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Victor Halperin, who make such excellent work of both "White Zombie" (1932) and "Supernatural" (1933) obviously had an off day when he agreed to direct "Buried Alive" (1939) (available on a quite good Alpha disc), which is actually not a horror film by any stretch of the imagination, but a slack prison picture in which the luckless hero is condemned to an endless stretch. So no-one is actually physically buried alive at all. It's merely a figure of speech. That, in itself, is more than somewhat disappointing. But there is even more bad news to come! Burdened with a surfeit of dialogue and a totally uninteresting cast (including throaty-voiced Beverly Roberts in her final movie appearance — and who could blame her for quitting after being incarcerated in this turnkey turkey?), it makes for a boring 62 minutes, despite an obvious borrowing from John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men".

A prisoner with a spotless record, about to be paroled, encounters a series of misunderstandings, unlucky accidents, and set-backs that jeopardize his freedom and his future with the blonde prison infirmary nurse he's fallen in love with. Sound interesting? IT'S NOT!This movie is so badly written, it might be used as a textbook example of how not to construct a story. The exposition wanders around, trying to get a story started, and fails miserably.It's not even clear who the main character is until about 45 minutes in. The script seems to have been written as some kind of protest piece against capital punishment. A worse punishment is trying to sit through this movie to the end.Wooden dialog, poor acting and direction, and scene after scene in which characters' actions make absolutely no sense. This is almost Ed Wood- bad, but sadly it's not "so bad it's good". It's "so bad it's depressing".

Let's see now. A central figure is the guy who throws the switch at electrocutions. There are three guys in love with a woman who works as a nurse at the prison hospital. One of the prisoners gets to dress up in a suit and drive people around. The warden spends all of his time trying to help this guy. The security is non-existent. The nurse falls in love with the convict rather than the three guys who are in love with her. If prisons were run like this, they would be empty. Everyone would have walked away. My favorite character is the executioner. He has the shakes but can't seem to quit the job. About once a month he puts the juice to someone. He really wants to buy a farm and raise chickens. Oh, there's also a chaplain who is in love with this woman. Then there is an evil reporter who frames the poor schmoe. Does this sound like something you'd like to see?

despite the title buried alive is'nt a horror film,nor is it a film about anyone being buried alive,its a well made PRC poverty row prison melodrama about a prison trustee(Robert Wilcox) who gets in a jam after helping a prison employee in a bar room brawl.he gets hurt and ends up in the prison sick bay and falls in love with the prison nurse(Beverly Roberts)it has the look of an old warner brothers crime drama,i kept waiting for the dead end kids to show up.for a low budget movie its pretty good.warner Oakland and don Rowan(both from the buster Crabbe flash Gordon serials play supporting roles.it was directed by victor halperin(white zombie)i bought this DVD for a buck at a local dollar store,it has 2 features on it,the other is the infamous ;i bury the living with Richard Boone.now thats a bargain.as a fan of vintage horror and dramas I'm always on the prowl for these bargains.buried alive is 7 out of 10,pretty good b-movie.