The plot to "Among the Living" is silly and impossible to believe. However, it does appear to be the inspiration for an episode of "The Simpsons"--the one where Bart discovers that he has an identical 'evil' twin who's been locked in the attic for many years! Homer and Marge feed Hugo fish heads and have kept his existence a secret for years! Who would have thought a film would have dared have such a bizarro plot?!
When the film begins, the family patriarch dies and his son John (Albert Dekker) arrives for the funeral. Little does John know that his identical brother, Paul (also Dekker), is STILL alive and did not die as a small child. The family doctor (Harry Carey) divulges the family secret to John...Paul is still alive and insane and has been kept hidden in a secret room in the family mansion! Coincidentally, at this same time, Paul kills his keeper and escapes! Now two identical looking guys are running about town...and one is on occasion unpredictable and homicidal. So it's up to the Doctor and John to try to find Paul...however the heartless Doctor soon tries to stop John from contacting the police by threatening to destroy him! However, Paul is not intend with only killing his keeper...and the bodies start piling up in town. And, soon John is assumed to be the crazed killer by mistake!
As I mentioned above, the plot for this one is just insane...so you really have to suspend disbelief in order to watch this one. Despite this, I did enjoy Dekker's performance as he played both characters, particularly Paul, quite well. Goofy and still very watchable.
Among the Living
1941
Drama / Film-Noir / Mystery
Among the Living
1941
Drama / Film-Noir / Mystery
80% - Critics
50% - Audience
6.3
Keywords: noir, evil twin
Synopsis
Paul Raden (Albert Dekker), hopelessly insane son of Maxim Raden, hated owner of the Radentown mills, is in a strait jacket in a secret room in the family mansion, while the body of his father is lowered into a grave. Twenty-five years earlier, the brutal father had hurled Paul against a wall when the young boy had tried to defend his mother and, with his brain injured forever, Paul's last memory, before descending into the shadows on insanity, was his mother's agonized scream. At the graveside are Dr. Ben Saunders (Harry Carey), Paul's twin brother John (Albert Dekker) and John's wife Elaine (Frances Farmer). Pompey (Ernest Whitman'), the family servant who has cared for and guarded Paul and kept the family secret for a quarter of a century,watches from afar. That night Dr. Saunders tells John that his twin, who he thought dead, is alive as the father, refusing to commit him to an institution, had bribed the doctor to sign a false death certificate and then bury another child's body as Paul. John and the doctor visit Radenhouse and find Pompey strangled and Paul vanished. While they search frantically for Paul, the latter revels in his freedom and falls in love with the first girl he meets, Millie Pickens Susan Hayward), an unemployed mill worker. He wanders into a honky-tonk filled with dancing jitterbugs, where a pretty blonde, Peggy Nolan (Jean Phillips), flirts with him. Her body is found the next morning near the closed-down Raden Mills. Terrorized by the second murder and the thought that a homicidal maniac is on the loose, the town goes mad with fear and greed when Dr. Saunders tricks John into offering a $5,000 reward for the killer. Millie swipes her late father's revolver and persuades Paul, whose demented mind has forgotten the murders, to accompany her to Radenhouse on her hunch that the murderer is hiding there. —Les Adams
Uploaded By: FREEMAN
March 29, 2022 at 06:28 PM
Director
Tech specs
720p.BLUMovie Reviews
Perhaps the inspiration from a "Treehouse of Horror" episode of "The Simpsons".
Radon Family Values
Although Among The Living is a B film from Paramount it's a real nugget of gold among a lot of B dross. You will rarely see mob violence depicted as well as in this film. Two films that this stands comparison with in that regard are Fury and Night Of The Hunter.
It's also a great example of the mobility of careers. Frances Farmer whose career was heading down is in a relatively colorless part of the wife of one Albert Dekker. Susan Hayward plays the slutty daughter of a boardinghouse owner who gets involved with the other twin Dekker. She's got the far juicier role and makes the most of it.
Once upon a time a man had two twin sons both of whom grew up to be Albert Dekker. As is told by the town doctor Harry Carey, one was sent to a prep school, the other stayed at home. By all accounts dad was a tyrant at home and at work where he owned the mill that employed most of the town. The twin that stayed at home witnessed dad beating on mom and tried to stop it. Dad picked him and threw him against a wall injuring his brain.
Rather than risk exposure dad had his friend Harry Carey fake a death certificate and they kept the kid in a locked room. Now father is dead and the kid who has grown up to be Albert Dekker is a now quite unhinged and murders a family servant to escape.
And while out murders a woman that the town blames his brother for. Quite a dilemma for the sane Dekker and wife Farmer.
Hayward gives a good account of herself, but the film really belongs to Albert Dekker. This is quite possibly his career film, even more so than Dr. Cyclops. Especially playing the mad son, you really do feel for him knowing it's not his fault the way he is.
With a good does of both noir and Gothic horror, I highly recommend this film for fans of both genres. And definitely for fans of Susan Hayward as I am.
A Pulpish Take On HIGH SIERRA
Twenty years ago, the town's founder discovered one of his two twin sons was insane. He had doctor Harry Carey fake a death certificate, had an old servant at the house to care for him, then moved the other son and himself into the town's best hotel. Now he has died, the town mill has closed down until the sane son, played by Albert Dekker, decides to reopen it. The other son, also played by Dekker, kills the old servant, and flees into town.
In many ways, this movie is reminiscent of HIGH SIERRA; Susan Hayward, who plays the love interest to the insane son, even gives a performance reminiscent of Ida Lupino in the other movie. It's a very watchable movie, with Dekker quite convincing as the two men, particularly the naive insane brother. It doesn't live up to its competitor, because it elevates the pulpish and melodramatic aspects of the plots, and doesn't make use of the introspective elements that the other movie emphasize. At 67 minutes, it lacks the time to do so. With Frances Farmer, Gordon Jones, and Maude Eburne.
