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OVERALL
BEASTS
BREASTS
Directed by:
Jorge Grau
Starring:
Cristina Galbó ... Edna
Ray Lovelock ... George
Arthur Kennedy ... The Inspector
Aldo Massasso ... Kinsey
Country: Spain | Italy
Runtime: 95 min
Original title: Non si deve profanare il
sonno dei morti. Aka: The Living Dead at
Manchester Morgue
Jorge Grau
Starring:
Cristina Galbó ... Edna
Ray Lovelock ... George
Arthur Kennedy ... The Inspector
Aldo Massasso ... Kinsey
Country: Spain | Italy
Runtime: 95 min
Original title: Non si deve profanare il
sonno dei morti. Aka: The Living Dead at
Manchester Morgue
LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE (1974)
This is the hippie tree-hugger's zombie film. I count myself lucky to be among the 5000 to have
purchased the tin-boxed special edition DVD for Jorge Grau's (Blood Ceremony) seminal Italian-Spanish
zombie thriller set in a backwoods town in England. Though known under many, many titles, most
notably The Living Dead At Manchester Morgue, this review will go under the title of the DVD I
purchased years ago and felt like rediscovering recently. I am glad I did, because my memory of the film
was not very favorable, but upon a second viewing I was reminded of how violently gory this zombie
classic can get at times, even if the pace is slower than a snail's lap around a quarter mile track.
The film begins when Edna and George run into each other, literally. She puts her car into reverse and
runs into his motorcycle, so he forces her to give him a ride to his house. Along the way, she asks to be
dropped off at her sister's place. They get lost and run into the film's first and only zombie for 57
minutes! This guy attacks three times, and the second time he manages to kill Edna's brother-in-law.
The third time he manages to awaken two other dead old people to join him in catching and eating our
heroes when they wander into a cemetery to find a way to clear Edna's sister of her husband's murder,
of which she has been accused. Before all this, unfortunately, we get some dull drama and the film
crawls along as you wait (none to patiently) for the zombies to make their appearance. Once they do, in
the cemetery, (not the Manchester Morgue, by the way, because it is only mentioned and never
featured!) the film gets bloody, which shocked the hell out of me. I wasn't expecting the zombie feasting
to be so viscerally gory, so when they rip into the stomach of an unlucky cop and eat his guts it took me
by surprise because up until then the film had been kind of dull.
The film's pace improves after this, but sadly not by much, my friends. George and Edna are aware of
the living dead now and are trying to let the cops in on it, but the coppers are more interested in
arresting them. George is sure that the cause of all the zombie madness (what little there is of it) is a
new product being tested nearby by the agriculture department. They have developed a gun that shoots
ultrasonic radiation into the ground to kill all insects and pests, and this sounds like a great idea, but
odds are that this is the thing causing the dead to rise and seek out gobs of fresh, wet human flesh. The
couple evade the police, evade the living dead, and eventually the film comes to a stunning conclusion
in the hospital where Edna has been rushed to after suffering mental collapse. In one jaw-dropping
sequence (and I wish there had been more of them) three zombies attack a nurse and while one of them
digs into her stomach to yank out her intestines, another grabs a hold of her left breast and rips it off of
her like it was cooked at Tony Roma's! This is the film's showstopper, and it comes right at the finale,
but if there had been a few more moments like this then the film would have rated higher with me.
George is played by Ray Lovelock, the great Italian/English actor who's appeared in such wonderfully
titled films as Queens of Evil, Live Like a Cop, Die Like A Man, and Fulci's ridiculous Murder Rock. He's
great here as the sympathetic hippie lead who hates the police. Edna is played by Spanish actress
Cristina Galbo, who has appeared in equally wonderfully titled films like I Kill, You Kill, What Have They
Done to Solange?, and The Killer Must Kill Again. She's not as convincing playing the scared damsel in
distress as Ray is playing the put-upon hippie biker, but she's not bad. In fact, the cast is great overall.
Arthur Kennedy (High Sierra, Peyton Place, Fantastic Voyage) is great as the angry and violent
hippie-hating Inspector. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the excellently eerie soundtrack by Giuliano
Sorgini which comes in at the right moments and is more atmospheric dissonance than typical musical
score. Also the gore gags by Gianetto de Rossi and others are not only worth mentioning, but they are
the film's only saving grace.
This is a much-loved film by zombie and horror geeks (most likely you've seen this film yourself and
know what I mean). I think it is championed mostly because of its underrated status and while I do like
the film and think it has some memorable stuff in it (like a tit being ripped off!!!), I don't consider this one
a great zombie film. Maybe I'm just used to hordes of living dead, but one to three zombies just doesn't
do it for me. Also, the film's sluggish pace works against it. Sure there's tons of mood and fog-shrouded
moors and two phenomenal gore scenes, but the stuff in between is yawn-inducing. It also tries to pull a
Romero and make a statement. This film's statement is that you shouldn't trust the government because
they use their technology to poison us instead of helping us. The agriculture department's radiation gun
is the source of my beliefs on this film's environmental (read hippie) message. I could be wrong, but I
don't think I am. There is nothing wrong with a "message film", but if it's going to be about zombies, then
give us some fucking zombies and less scenes of people trying to play detective or cops wandering
around trying to be cops. This is a flawed film, but worth watching if you are a zombie-cinema
completist...or if you just really want to see one heck of a boob-tearing scene!
- Jose Prendes
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