Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.
On the boat ride from new York to Haiti to meet her fiance Neil, Madeleine (Madge Bellamy) meets Charles Beaumont (Robert Frazer) who not only invites Madeleine and Neil to marry in his home, but promises that on their return to New York, he’ll offer Neil a job in one of his banks. In truth, Beaumont wants to get closer to Madeleine in hopes of stealing her away and marrying her himself. When she rejects his advances, he turns to local Voodoo prince “Murder” Legendre (Bela Lugosi). Legendre (whose sugar mine is staffed with the walking dead) gives Beaumont a drug that will make Madeleine his. The drug, however, puts Madeleine into a death-like coma which, when Legendre brings her out of it, will turn Madeleine into Beaumont’s mindless slave.
Neil (John Harron), distraught over his loss, turns to Dr. Bruner (Joseph Cawthorn), the missionary who married the Parkers, and together they realize what’s happened and set out to rescue Neil’s wife.
Now this is the kind of zombie movie I’ve been dying to see. I’m not sure how it is Hollywood’s managed to distort the idea of zombies from mindless slaves to flesh-eating monsters, but for a long time I’ve wanted to see zombies done the way they’re supposed to be. Granted, this version of the zombie isn’t as terrifying as the one who’ll eat you, but with the right story, they can still be made threatening.
WHITE ZOMBIE was released in 1932, and it shows. The quality is horrible in spots, there are jumps in dialogue where you can tell cuts were made. The actors are all too white--obviously wearing make-up for the black and white film stock. The effects are limited to a couple of double exposures and a bullet-hole appearing in one zombie’s stomach, but for all the old-time cheesiness, this is a hell of a good horror movie.
The zombies Legendre controls are creepy as hell. Silent working machines with blank stares, you get the feeling they’re capable of anything, and given they’re controlled by a man called “Murder”, you believe “anything” is exactly what they’ll do.
The principles, Bellamy, Harron, and Frazer, all give fine performances--fine for 1932. Frazer and Harron over-emote a bit (okay, Harron hams it up, but at least Frazer keeps it under control), while Bellamy plays her dual role--willful Madeleine, then zombie Madeleine--very well. Lugosi, however . . . once again Lugosi is his own worst enemy. The Lugosi stare is back in full effect in this movie. I sometimes find it funny when actors rely so heavily on one aspect of their performance to carry them through most of their roles, then complain when they’re typecast. And Lugosi as a Haitian? I think not.
But even with Bela “I played Dracula, then beat that horse to death the rest of my career” Lugosi, WHITE ZOMBIE succeeds where so many other “classic horror” movies fail. It tells a good story, it makes sense, and in places it creeps you out. And despite a running time of a mere 69 minutes, we still get to know enough about the characters and their situation to care when Neil is backed up against the ledge overlooking the ocean with half a dozen zombies shambling toward him.
I was surprised by WHITE ZOMBIE. After the previous 3 Lugosi movies (BLACK DRAGONS, THE INVISIBLE GHOST, and ONE BODY TOO MANY), I’d given up hope of finding a good one. And while he’s far from the best thing here, the overall experience is a rewarding one. Finally, a zombie movie about actual zombies, and it offers a few honestly unsettling moments, which is more than I can say for most of the other horror movies I’ve seen in the last 5 years.
WHITE ZOMBIE just might be strong enough to become a Halloween tradition. It’s that good.
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