WHITE ZOMBIE(Victor & Edward Halperin Productions / US / 1932)
HOLY S***!!!It's not everyday you find some really low-budget ($50,000) independant production that looks and feels more lavish, classier and more exciting than one of Universal's early-30s horror classics. THIS is it!
A lot of films from the early-30s really look and feel totally strange and alien to modern audiences and styles, and this is no exception. Parts of it really feel like I'm watching a silent film.
A Haitian land-owner hopelessly in love with an engaged woman invited her and her fiancee to get married at his plantation, with a job offer for the latter to become his New York "agent". But he's really desperate to convince her to change her mind and run off with him instead. When this fails, he reluctantly turns to a neighbor for help, who promises he can deliver... "
for a price". During the reception, the woman suddenly falls ill-- and dies in her husband's arms. But... DID she?
According to longtime resident missionary Dr. Bruner, there is a very big difference between native "superstitions" and native "practices"-- and Haitian law books actually has VOODOO and ZOMBIES on their law books. According to Bruner, drugging someone to simulate death is legally considered "attempted murder", and actually burying someone in this condition is considered "murder", regarless of the outcome of the situation.
Thus, this film's wimpy romantic leading man Neil follows Bruner to visit "the house of death", built into a huge, rocky cliffsite, to see what's really going on, and if possible, to rescue his beloved Madeline, who may not be dead after all.
In the wake of
DRACULA (1931), Hungarian immigrant Bela Lugosi had trouble finding films that lived up to that one's standards, but he struck gold here-- creatively, if not financially. Allegedly one of his favorite of his many films, Lugosi was also frustrated that he wasn't paid enough for a film that became such a surprise hit at the box office.
The sets and location work (and at least one shot I believe was a matte painting) totally blow
DRACULA out of the water, and the film has a marvelous music score from start to finish, consisting of various pieces of classical music. But while
DRACULA had the likes of Dwight Frye & Edward Van Sloan backing Lugosi up, the closest we have here is John Cawthorne as Dr. Bruner. He reminds me a bit of Ralph Richardson, but with a totally-different accent. Crazy enough, I checked the resumes of several of the main cast members, and while some of them had quite extensive careers, I've hardly seen any of them in ANYTHING else.
Madge Bellamy, as Madeline (shades of "House of Usher") was in
CHARLIE CHAN IN LONDON.
Despite being reissued in the early 1950s, somehow by the 1960s the film was considered "lost", but then upon rediscovery it was generally only available via really shoddy prints. If I get this right, Sinister Cinema had a decent 35 mm print, which was used to do a proper restoration by Holland Releasing. There are moments where the picture quality jumps from really sharp to really fuzzy, but I put that down to different source material being used. I only wish the sound clean-up was as good as the picture.
Kino Lorber decided to put out 2 versions on their Blu-Ray-- the restoration, and the "raw" version, which while rough-looking, manages to have FAR-more visual detail! The disc also comes with an audio commentary track, and, most remarkably, a 1932 interview with Lugosi, where he talks about his career in Hungary, his pride at becoming a US citizen and learning American slang, his love for doing sulpture, and how he shies away from "Hollywood parties". He also apparently has a joke at the expense of the interviewer, which had me nearly falling out of my seat from laughing. It really made me wish I could have met him in person back then. What a character!
The "dead" at their work.
Unlucky wedding...
1932's version of "
The Master".
He took his enemies-- and turned them into his mindless slaves!
It's like "
THE PREMATURE BURIAL" here...
This reminds me of the opening scene from Corman's "
PIT AND THE PENDULUM"
This just about puts Castle Dracula to shame!
Lugosi gets to exhibit far more depth of character and just plain EVIL than he did as Dracula!
Madeline in a trance.
I got the feeling a similar scene in "
DRACULA A.D. 1972" was inspired by this!
I find myself wondering-- was this a set, partly a matte painting, or an actual location shot? Because I'd SWEAR this exact same stairway later appeared in "
THE DUNWICH HORROR" (1970).
"
Have you got a match?" (The film's HERO, Joseph Cawthorn as Dr. Bruner.)
Here's a FABULOUS review of the film on the "
And You Call Yourself A Scientist?" site.
andyoucallyourselfascientist.com/2016/05/01/white-zombie-1932/
