LET
SLEEPING CORPSES LIE (1974)AKA: BREAKFAST AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE, THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE, DON'T OPEN THE WINDOW
Director: Jorge Grau
Anchor Bay Entertainment
LET
SLEEPING CORPSES LIE (1974)Being one of the earliest European films paying homage to George Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, this is also one of the best zombie films ever made (some fans think it's even better than NOTLD). Far better than any of the Italian gut munchers later inspired by the enormous worldwide success of DAWN OF THE DEAD, this film has finally been unleashed from relative stateside obscurity.
George (Ray Lovelock), an antiques dealer specializing in the occult, hops on his motorcycle and takes off for a peaceful excursion to the English countryside. As he departs the city, we see glimpses of a deteriorating society; dead birds, pollution galore, and listless pedestrians roaming the streets. So numb are these people that a shapely female streaker can't even manage to turn a head.
When stopping to get fuel, George's bike is smashed up by Edna (Cristina Galbó) and can't be fixed for a few days. Edna agrees to give George a lift to his destination, but in a moment of untrust and chauvinism, he takes the wheel. Stopping near a lake, George gets out to ask for directions, and Edna is suddenly attacked by a tall, dripping wet, red-eyed man. She gets away safely and when describing her attacker, a local jokes that it sounds like old Guthrie, a vagrant (Guthrie in fact drowned himself days ago).
Later that night, the two unlikely companions arrive at the home of Edna's sister Katie, whom they discover outside in a state of shock. Her husband Martin is found dead and bloodied, and Edna is convinced that it was done by the same man that attacked her. Katie is a heroin addict, so the Police Inspector (Arthur Kennedy) without hesitation believes that she killed her husband in a fit of drugged-out rage. George and Edna are also marked as suspects, and asked not to leave town.
What follows is an adventure of epic proportions, as the young couple confront the living dead while the bigoted Inspector proclaims them as devil worshipping cultists every time a dead body shows up. Arthur Kennedy plays his role with gusto, always displaying loath for the youth culture ("You hippies with your faggot clothes and long hair..." "...and you hate the police, don't you?," he narrates to the shaggy Lovelock). Lovelock (with heavy Cockney accent dubbed in) and Galbó are very likable as the leads. They are decent people who are innocent, but always catching a bad break, moving from one horrifying event to another.
This Italian/Spanish co-production was filmed mostly on location in England and interiors were shot in studios back in Europe. The film relies on careful characterization, and ultimately builds into a masterpiece of horror, one piece at a time. Jorge Grau's direction is superb, delivering some of the most terrifying sequences ever filmed, most notably the heroes surrounded by the undead in a dark crypt, and the fiery finale which is set in a hospital.
Even though this is a low budget production, it is able to conceal this by concentrating on isolated incidents of the dead coming back to life (here, the zombies are born from an experimental pesticide machine, but only Lovelock's character is convinced of this). With crimson flaring eyes and pasty white faces, the make-up on the zombies is ghoulishly convincing, and not overblown. One of the undead is shown straight from an autopsy and is horrible to boot (and looks remarkably like The Who's Pete Townsend!). The film does not rely on gore to scare its audience, but there are plenty of unsettling images to turn the stomach (a cop has his intestines torn out, a nurse has her breast ripped open, a doctor is axed in the head, etc.), thanks to Gianetto De Rossi's remarkable effects.
LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE was released in the U.S. by the infamous Hallmark distribution company. Unfortunately, it was issued here under the misleading title DON'T OPEN THE WINDOW, and trimmed of most of its meat and potatoes (the hospital massacre was almost totally eliminated). Hallmark could've had a major drive-in success (as they did with LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and MARK OF THE DEVIL), but opted to edit it to a less offensive level instead of cashing in on the sensationalism of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Never released on video in the States and furthermore remaining virtually unknown in this country, Anchor Bay has rescued this classic just in time for the recent DVD horror craze.
Previously, the most common way that this film was available was on a Japanese import laserdisc (long out of print and sometimes selling for hundreds of dollars) which has been bootlegged to the hilt. The Japanese laser transfer had dull colors and was very dark, where as Anchor Bay's new DVD (transferred from the original negative materials) looks fantastic. The Eastman color photography is now brought back to life, giving this very attractive film a vivid quality never before seen. Dark scenes no longer drown out detail as they did on the Japanese release (the discovery of a corpse in the crypt was unidentifiable in this version, but it's now clear as day).
Also when compared to the Japanese laser, Anchor Bay's transfer has different credits, and has a few extra seconds during Ray Lovelock's opening motorcycle excursion. The sound is Dolby Digital 5.1, and really stands out for a low budget horror film of this vintage. It is letterboxed at 1.85:1 and 16x9 enhanced.
The best extra on this disc is an interview with director Jorge Grau (who also introduces the movie). Spry and youthful looking (despite his 70 years), he gives enthusiastic insight on his major cult achievement, and rightly so, comes across as very proud of it. Relating a number of interesting anecdotes, he also tells how he was instrumental on the unforgettable soundtrack, creating a lot of the sound effects, as well as devising the horrible noise that the living dead make in the film. At the end of the 20-minute conversation, Grau even does a little walking corpse impersonation!
Other extras include a U.S. TV spot, radio spots, and a Poster & Still Gallery. Anchor Bay has also gone the extra mile and released a limited (to 5,000) collectible tin edition of LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE. This includes a 24 page color booklet containing photos and liner notes by British writer Nigel J. Burrell, a "Manchester Morgue" toe tag replica, and a postcard size original theatrical poster replica. If you're a longtime fan, get the tin; if not, get the regular edition, but add this title to your collection nonetheless! (George R. Reis)