After hapless pianist and ex-con John Elman is framed for murder, he is resurrected by a scientist after his execution.

A gang of racketeers frames down-on-his-luck John Ellman for murder. After a trial finds him guilty, evidence is brought forth proving his innocence, but it is too late and he is executed anyway. A doctor sees an opportunity to use an experimental procedure to restore him to life but is that entirely possible? ....Or desirable?—Ken Yousten <[email protected]>

The Walking Dead (1936) begins as a snappy, fast-talking gangster film, following the prosecution of a swindler. The brilliant but down-on-his-luck pianist John Ellman (Boris Karloff) is set up as a patsy for a mob killing and sentenced to death. His lawyer Nolan (Ricardo Cortez) is on the mob's payroll and does as little as he can to help Ellman. Two witnesses, a young couple named Nancy and Jimmy in all-American fashion (Marguerite Churchill and Warren Hull) are too afraid of the gangsters to speak up. However, they both work as assistants to the prominent scientist Dr. Beaumont (Edmund Gwenn), who is doing experiments with keeping human organs alive outside the body. After the execution Ellman's body is wheeled to Beaumont's lab, filled with crackling Strickfadens ripped straight from Frankenstein's castle, where the doctor is able to revive him with the help of a so-called Lindbergh heart. But the formerly mellow and jovial Ellman is turned into a brooding, pale, almost zombie-like Walking Dead, shuffling around dark alleys as if partially paralyzed on one side of his body. As one reviewer puts it: "a still, silent figure with a stiffened left arm and hand and a white streak in his hair, whose deep, sad eyes seem to hold a universe of unspoken secrets." Ellman now becomes a murderous avenger, and one by one the mobsters start turning up bereft of life. Interestingly enough, because of the Hays Code, we're not allowed to see the film's "hero" actually killing anyone, instead he stares them down until they meet with "accidental" deaths.

John Ellman (Boris Karloff) has been framed for murder by a gang of racketeers. He is unfairly tried, and despite the fact that his innocence has been proven, he is sent to the electric chair and executed. Dr. Evan Beaumont (Edmund Gwenn) retrieves his dead body and revives it as part of his experiments to reanimate a dead body and discover what happens to the soul after death. Although John Ellman has no direct knowledge of anyone wishing to frame him for the murder before he is executed, he gains an innate sense of knowing those who are responsible after he is revived. Ellman takes no direct action against his framers; however, he seeks them out, wishing to know why they had him killed. Each dies a horrible death, and in the end it is their own guilt that causes their deaths. While confronting the last two villains, Ellman is mortally shot. Dr. Beaumont hurries to his death bed, and although pressed to reveal insights about death, Ellman admonishes, "Leave the dead to their maker. The Lord our God is a jealous God" (from Deuteronomy 6:15). As Ellman dies, the two remaining racketeers are killed when their car runs off the road, crashes into an electric pole, and explodes. The film ends with Dr. Beaumont repeating Ellman's warning about a jealous God.