Tag Archives: mantan-moreland

Revenge Of The Zombies (1943)

John Carradine tries to create an army of voodoo zombies. With Mantan Moreland and Madame Sul-Te-Wan. 61min imdb

Movie 58min

Trailer

Recap:

So there is this man who goes to Florida because his sister has died, and he brings a friend (a cop) and his driver, a black stereotype comic relief. We soon find out that the sister has been poisoned with a zombie drug, and that’s not even the only fishy thing that’s going on.

So this one has John Carradine in it, but apart from that it’s pretty much the same as King Of The Zombies. Trouble is that Mantan Moreland this time is not zombiefied, which was the one thing that made the first movie worthwhile. I even file this one as horror, it’s not that it’s too eerie to be a comedy, but too unfunny.

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King Of The Zombies (1941)

Silly caribbean adventure with zombies, voodoo, hypnosis and what have you. With Mantan Moreland and Madame Sul-Te-Wan 67min imdb

Recap:

So there is a storm, and a plane lands on a mysterious island. The pilot and his two passengers find first a graveyard and then a manor where they can spend the night. Then, a whole lot happens, because the house is full of secret passages, undead zombies, a hypnotised woman, a love interest, a voodoo priestess and an american admiral who was imprisoned by the master of the house who claims to be austrian but really is a german spy.

Well, all in all the movie is rather so-so. It’s creepier and zombier than, say, Revolt Of The Zombies, but that doesn’t say much. And it’s not so much a semicreepy horror movie but rather a semifunny comedy. The one who keeps the story going is Mantan Moreland, a skilled comedian who plays the ungrateful part of the superstitious black coward as a comic relief for the white 1940s moviegoers, but the more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that he is the most sympathetic zombie that I’ve seen so far. But I don’t know whether that’s reason enough to watch this movie.

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