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While not a zombie freak per se, as a general rule I prefer my undead slow, mindless and lumbering. They’re more menacing that way. (Call me old fashioned.)
Zombie films of roughly the last 15 years, however, depict the resurrected dead much differently than the days of old. The creatures are often strong, sometimes uncharacteristically intelligent and even more mobile than they were prior to reanimation. Lightning fast zombies? Come on. (The 2004 remake of George Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead, 2007’s I Am Legend, and 28 Days Later and its sequel are just a few examples.) Those ghouls don’t hold enough suspense in those films. There’s no slow, building drama as far as I’m concerned. Not like in the old stuff.
Which leads me to my first of several Halloween posts for the season. I decided to start things off with the pre-code classic White Zombie, in some ways a prototypical zombie flick filled with old school corpses brought back to life and subject to the powers of a voodoo master.
Now, believe it or don’t I’d never seen White Zombie previously. I’ve heard about it, know who’s in it. I’ve seen lots of stills from the film courtesy of my love of Famous Monsters Of Filmland and other horror books. But I’d never taken the time to sit down and take the film in. I figured it was time to do so to see what I’ve been missing … which, as it turns out, isn’t much.
At its conclusion and in truth, White Zombie was rather the disappointment. Oh … it was atmospheric enough and I even recognized some of the sets from other films. But the story was flimsy, the acting verged on the comical and there just wasn’t any real *umph* to it.
The film was moderately popular for the time, Bela Lugosi being the main draw with his successful turn a year earlier as the blood-sucking titular character in the classic Dracula. Released in the summer of 1932 White Zombie, however, showcased him with poor dialog, lots of awkward banter between characters and sometimes humorous forced stares throughout the film.
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As it goes, Madeleine and Neil (Madge Bellamy and John Harron, respectively) arrive in Haiti on invitation of local plantation owner Charles Beaumont (Robert Frazer). Not only do they plan to marry, afterward the new groom will to go to work for their host. En route to Beaumont’s estate, they bump into Murder Legendre (Lugosi) a sugar cane mill owner who, as it turns out, employees the undead to handle all the labor of his business, both legitimate and devious. Beaumont becomes enamored with Madeleine and enlists Murder to work his magic on her so he can win the woman for himself. Of course, this means she must die and come back to life as a zombie, complete with frontal lobotomy-like demeanor. Some catch, huh? Beauty, no brains.
Legendre offers Beaumont a drug he must get Madeleine to take which will eventually simulate the girl’s demise. Shortly after she and Neil marry, she “dies” and the new groom is overcome with grief and goes on a bender. After Legendre and Beaumont retrieve her “corpse” and revive her, the plantation owner finally gets the girl … albeit under the spell of Legendre. Well, not only is three a crowd but Beaumont isn’t necessarily doing back flips over his new brain-dead companion.
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Again, there were enough atmospherics evident in the tale and some rather creepy zombies doing Legendre’s evil bidding, be it grave robbing or running the sugar cane factory. But I was confused as to what Lugosi’s character was really trying to accomplish, if anything, in the story. He didn’t seem to have any goal. Was he out to be the dastardly fiend? Because if that was the case the film failed miserably on that front. Was Legendre simply content to control the zombies under his watch as simplistic, lumbering farm workers and nothing more? It certainly seemed that way, which isn’t much in the way of evilness. (I mean, other than grave robbing in order to garner more zombies.) He kind of stumbled on the two lovebirds and equally found himself hired to do Beaumont’s bidding. But on his own it didn’t seem he was much of a threat … unless you considered him staring at you to the depths of your soul with his trance-inducing eyes a threat.
WARNING: SPOILER ALERT! Read no further if you don’t want to know the ending of the film.
In conclusion, Legendre dies, Beaumont dies (no real loss there, a consequence of his desire for an already taken woman) and the newlyweds are reunited, the girl free and aware and whole again of Murder’s spells with his demise and Neil thrilled to get his lady love back once more.
Am I glad I got White Zombie under my belt after all the years of hearing and reading about it? (I mean, it is a classic … and a pre-code classic at that.) Yes, I’m glad. It just wasn’t up the standard of a Frankenstein or Dracula or other old school standards of the time.
Still, there are some redeeming qualities to the film. Take it in and find them out for yourself.
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