Main Cast: Richard Boone, Theodore Bikel, Peggy Maurer, Howard I. Smith
Release Year: 1958
Country: US
Run Time: 76 minutes
Plot
Unjustly ignored by many books on the horror film, I Bury the Living is a bone-chilling little mood piece, almost completed dominated by Richard Boone. Expertly avoiding the obvious throughout the film, Boone gives a thoroughly credible performance of a troubled man who labors under the misapprehension that he is God. Boone plays the new chairman of a large cemetery; in his office is a map of the grounds, with black pins representing the occupied plots, and white pins representing plots that have been purchased but not yet filled. When Boone inadvertently mixes up the black and white pins, several of the plot owners suffer untimely deaths. Inevitably, Boone becomes convinced that he has the power of life and death--a conviction that doesn't completely dissipate once the secret behind the sudden deaths is revealed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
E. Vokapich - Art Director, Edward Vorkapich - Art Director, Albert Band - Director, Frank Sullivan - Editor, Gerald Fried - Composer (Music Score), Frederick Gately - Cinematographer, Albert Band - Producer, Louis Garfinkle - Producer, Louis Garfinkle - Screenwriter
Robert Kraft (Richard Boone) is the newly appointed chairman of a committee that oversees a colossal cemetery. The cemetery is so large that a map is kept in the cemetery office displaying the grounds and each gravesite. Filled graves are marked by black pins and unoccupied but sold graves are marked with white pins. New to the position and unobservant, Kraft accidentally places a pair of black pins where they don't belong, only to discover later that the young couple who had bought the gravesites in question died in an automobile accident soon afterwards. Under repeated tries, he finds that every time he places a black pin over an unoccupied grave, someone dies. Kraft slips into deep guilt and depression and believes he is cursed, while the cemetery caretaker (Theodore Bikel in a heavy Scots accent) knows more than he's telling.
