Among the Living

Unmistakably inspired by two different films released in 1931, James Whale’s Frankenstein and Fritz Lang’s M, Stuart Heisler’s Among the Living is an early Gothic noir that would have fit in perfectly with Val Lewton’s string of RKO horror noirs (The Leopard Man, 1943; The Seventh Victim, 1943; The Body Snatcher, 1945, etc.) which commenced the following year. The film centers on a disturbing, dual performance by Albert Dekker as John Raden and his identical twin Paul, the brain-injured lunatic who has been straitjacketed, locked away in a secret room, and guarded by servant Pompey (Ernest Whitman) for decades. When Paul murders Pompey and escapes on the same day as his father’s funeral, he migrates to the city (a tidy Paramount sound stage) and tries to lead a normal life while his continued mental degradation and ignorance of human civilization drive him to fits of deadly rage. Susan Hayward plays his morally dubious neighbor, Millie Pickens, who romantically manipulates Paul after she learns of his financial resources. Editor Everett Douglas makes a disproportionate contribution not only through seamless twin effects that rival Siodmak’s later The Dark Mirror (1946) but through a frenetic, kaleidoscopic nightclub sequence during which Paul enters a psychotic state and acts on his desire to kill (the prolonged chase scene, which includes rapid cross-cutting, long shots, and crane shots, is a highlight of not only the film but of the early noir cycle).