Bury Me Dead (1947)

It pays to ignore first impressions, especially when they are several years old. I saw Bury Me Dead several years ago and, to be honest, I really didn’t remember enjoying it a whole lot. But I decided to see it again, and I am really glad I did. True, it is a B film with a very low budget, and this lack of money shows in almost everything about the film, including the first time that the star, June Lockhart (playing Barbara Carlin), appears on-screen. She is supposed to be dead, and she shows up to attend her own funeral. The veil she is wearing looks like a thin piece of untrimmed burlap died black, pleated with pins, and thrown over her head!

In spite of the low budget, Bury Me Dead portrays a tight story of less than seventy minutes. It is deadly serious (pun alert!) about its murder and other crimes, but a lot of the story is told with humor that makes the film surprisingly fun to watch. The cinematographer John Alton does a fantastic job making the best of the budget to create shadowy sets that emphasize the action and the characters’ emotions. The film is worth watching just to see a master’s lighting techniques. Just imagine what it would have looked like if the print was restored to its original condition.

Bury Me Dead is available for free online. Click here to watch it at the Internet Archive. I watched the film on DVD because it came with audio commentary (by Jay Felton), but the print quality is rather poor both on the DVD and at the Internet Archive.

The opening credits appear over a minimalist shot of a bare, leafless, dead-looking tree that looks more like an artist’s rendering, then the film cuts right away to a conflagration. A barn is supposed to be burning, but Jay Fenton says in his commentary that it is stock footage used with rear projection. (I found it convincing.) Horses neighing and running, with some being rescued, add to the chaos. Viewers learn that someone, Barbara Carlin, is unaccounted for and presumed dead. Right away, before the fire is even out, the housekeeper, Mrs. Haskins, points the finger at Rod Carlin; she thinks he is responsible for his wife’s death. She has no evidence to back up her suspicions, so Rod is free to go when his lawyer Mike Dunne (played by Hugh Beaumont) shows up to take charge.

Barbara Carlin and her husband Rod are having some problems in their marriage, and she had decided to take a break and spend time at Arrowhead, her summer place, at the time of the fire. She reads about the fire and her own death in the newspaper. (This film was released in 1947, way before the Internet and social media were introduced.) Rather than rush back to reveal that she is alive and well, Barbara decides to show up at her own funeral to find out what she can. Who is in the casket at the burial? Was her death an accident, or was it really murder? And if it was murder, who wanted her dead?

(This article about Bury Me Dead contains some spoilers.)

After the ceremony, Barbara asks for a ride with Mike Dunn. He doesn’t recognize her behind the tacky black veil, nor does he recognize her voice (which was a bit unbelievable for me, quite honestly). But when she lifts her veil and reveals her true identity, Mike is in a state of shock. He asks her, reasonably enough, why let the funeral go on? But Barbara wants to know if someone really is trying to kill her, and she wants that person or persons to think that she is dead. Mike says that it was an accident, but Barbara has her doubts.

Next, Barbara and Mike visit Rusty, Barbara’s adopted sister, because Barbara noticed that she did not come to the funeral. Rusty is not home, but they get an idea of her current state of mind by examining the books she has left lying around: Misconceptions of Psychoanalysis and The Neurotic Personality. (Later in the film, Rusty tries her hand at amateur psychology and tries to convince Rod Carlin that he is really in love with her.)

In a flashback, Barbara explains to Mike the shock she and Rusty both suffered when their father died: Rusty was never adopted by the father, and Barbara and Rusty aren’t related by blood. They aren’t the sisters that they both thought they were. Rusty’s insecurities were heightened by this revelation. Rusty was in love and is still in love with Barbara’s husband Rod. There’s a bit of competition and jealousy between them, but it seems to come mostly from Rusty. Or was Barbara always insincere about her feeling for her younger sister?

Rusty wasn’t the only complicating factor in Barbara and Rod Carlin’s marriage. Rusty became infatuated with a prizefighter named George Mandley, but Barbara disapproved of him. George is mostly beefcake and not too bright, but Barbara falls for him anyway, much to Rusty’s and Ron’s consternation. But it isn’t too long before George Mandley’s secretary Helen Lawrence becomes Rod Carlin’s mistress.

It quickly becomes evident through the flashbacks and their many revelations that there is no shortage of suspects if Barbara’s death is indeed a murder. Each flashback fills in details and casts suspicion on different characters as they are introduced. A lot of the story is told in flashback, and almost everyone could have a motive for killing Barbara. The remainder of the film follows Barbara’s investigation of her own murder. It also includes more humor than is typical for film noir: lots of puns, physical slapstick, dark banter between Rod and Barbara Carlin about her death, and the fight scenes between Barbara and Helen and between George and Rod.

The DVD commentary by Jay Fenton, a film restoration consultant, has lots of great information about the film, the actors, and the production. Here are just a few of the points that he made:

◊ Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) was considered the lowest of the B studios, but it managed to attract talent in all departments.

◊ PRC had no interest in preservation or restoration. The company did not renew the copyrights for its films, including Bury Me Dead.

◊ Bury Me Dead is a comic noir and has many comic moments. The first one is the double-take by the cab driver taking Barbara Carlin to her own funeral. It lets viewers know that the film will have comic elements. The humor also deflects suspicion: Viewers find it hard to believe that a comical character can commit murder.

◊ Many don’t consider Bury Me Dead a noir at all because of the humor. But the humor serves a purpose (see above). The comic noir is the most unusual subgenre of noir.

◊ Sets from Bury Me Dead were also used in The Amazing Mr. X.

◊ The cinematography is beautiful, especially the indoor scenes. John Alton put the same effort into all his films, both B and A.

◊ Alton liked to light the good women so that their lips and eyes glow, their hair is backlit. The femme fatale, if there is such a character, is lit with darker lighting.

◊ The fight scenes are well staged. The fight scene between Rod Carlin and George Mandley used stunt performers.

For viewers who have watched June Lockhart and Hugh Beaumont in television shows like Lassie, Lost in Space, and Leave It to Beaver, it’s a pleasant change to see them in a darker film, even if it does include more comedy than is typical of film noir. The cinematography and the lighting give it a polish that minimizes the tight budget, especially once Barbara Carlin gets rid of that awful burlap veil.

So there really is plenty to recommend Bury Me Dead. It’s free to watch online, and it’s a great way to spend about seventy minutes.

October 18, 1947, release date  •  Directed by Bernard Vorhaus  •  Screenplay by Dwight V. Babcock, Karen DeWolf  •  Based on the radio play Bury Me Dead by Irene Winston  •  Music by Emil Cadkin  •  Edited by W. Donn Hayes  •  Cinematography by John Alton

Cathy O’Donnell as Rusty  •  June Lockhart as Barbara Carlin  •  Hugh Beaumont as Michael Dunn  •  Mark Daniels as Rod Carlin  •  Greg McClure as George Mandley  •  Milton Parsons as Jeffers, the butler  •  Virginia Farmer as Mrs. Haskins, the housekeeper  •  Sonia Darrin as Helen Lawrence  •  Cliff Clark as Detective Archer  •  Charles Lane as District Attorney Brighton

Distributed by Eagle-Lion Films  •  Produced by Ben Stoloff Productions, Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC)