White Zombie (1932)
Overview
In Haiti, a wealthy landowner convinces a sorcerer to lure the American woman he has fallen for away from her fiance, only to have the madman decide to keep the woman for himself, as a zombie.
Cast
Bela Lugosi
Legendre
Madge Bellamy
Madeleine Short Parker
John Harron
Neil Parker
Robert Frazer
Charles Beaumont
Joseph Cawthorn
Dr. Bruner
Frederick Peters
Chauvin- Zombie
Brandon Hurst
Silver
Clarence Muse
Coach driver
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CinemaSerf
This is quite a decent little Zombie mystery with a wonderfully evocative opening few scenes as the couple drive to the eerie plantation home of "Beaumont" (Robert Frazer). Now I'm sure Haiti would be a beautiful place to marry in 2020, but back in the 1930s it was an island awash with voodoo and coffin lids that go bump in the night, so when "Beaumont" takes a shine to Madge Bellamy "Madeline" he turns to the local witch doctor "Legendre" (Lugosi) to help him lure her away from her dashing fiancée "Neil" (John Harron). It's got all the usual flaws: (really) poor writing; Bellamy is as theatrical as she can possibly be, but Lugosi is much less like a dodgy Austrian Archduke and the paucity of lighting actually helps to create a suspenseful atmosphere. It's certainly at the better end of the scale for these cheap and cheerful horror stories and well worth an hour of your time, late at night, after a wee cognac or three...
The first on-screen use of the word 'zombie'! A must watch if you are interested in the history of the horror genre, and although it is interesting, it's not the most entertaining. Robert Frazer was good as Beaumont and Lugosi was great as always, also has some nice matte painting work, but other than the historical significance, it's a pretty bog-standard early B-movie. 2/5
