- Directed by Victor Halperin
- Written by Garnett Weston
- Starring
- Bela Lugosi
- Madge Bellamy
- Joseph Cawthorn
- Robert Frazer
- John Harron
- Produced by Edward Halperin
Well, I’ve reviewed the pseudo-sequel, Revolt of the Zombies (1936), I’ve reviewed Snake People (1969), which contains several inept nods to it. I might as well review White Zombie.
There are those who will sing the praises of this movie as an underappreciated classic. They’re right. There are also those who will contend that any quality it exhibits is almost purely by happenstance, a case of accidental art. They’re also right. Whatever praise White Zombie is worthy of comes almost entirely from the fact that Bela Lugosi stars in a script that’s content to let his presence provide most of the thrills, with a director who’s content to point the camera at him. Lugosi shines; everyone else civilly stays out of the way so they won’t suck too much.
Young almost-groom Neil (John Harron) escorts his almost-bride Madeleine (Madge Bellamy) across the night-enshrouded hills of Haiti when their carriage stops for a local funeral in the middle of the road. Literally; they’re burying the dearly departed between the wheel ruts. Why? Their driver (Clarence Muse) reveals that the locals are afraid that local graverobbers will steal and revive the corpse, forcing it to work in the sugar mills and taking jobs away from hard-working live Haitians. It’s the young Americans’ first introduction to the local lore of voodoo and zombies, and it seems little more than an amusement until they also meet a more ominous figure on the road: The sorcerous Legendre (Lugosi), followed by a cadre of shuffling dead men who panic the driver. It’s hard to see in some later movies, but roles like this demonstrate why Lugosi was a very well-respected theatrical actor before turning to motion pictures, as his stage presence is almost palpable; it’s entirely believable when Madeleine declares that his piercing gaze felt to her like hands on her neck. The fact that he exudes such presence while saddled with Luciferian yet amusing facial hair — a widow’s peak, a goat-tufty beard, and a well-groomed unibrow — is even more noteworthy.
“Up to a game of chess?”
The young couple does eventually finish the Midnight Local Color Tour and arrives at their destination, the mansion of one Mr. Beaumont (Robert Frazer), to get married. Madeleine has met Beaumont only on the boat over from the States, and Neil even more briefly, and the fact that he’s offered his home for the site of their wedding, and even proffered a job for Neil, raises no suspicion in their innocent little hearts. The truth, which Beaumont candidly shares with his butler (Brandon Hurst) as they conspire, is that he himself is smitten with Madeleine, and has brought them here to find some means to step between them.
Of course, it’s not like he’s given himself a whole bunch of time to work with; the canny old missionary Dr. Bruner (Joseph Cawthorn) arrives concurrent with the happy couple to perform the service, and the only delay is the requisite time involved in getting Madeleine properly dressed. Knowing that he’s got an hour (at the very least), Beaumont goes to visit his last resort: Legendre. Contentedly lording over his undead minions in his zombie-powered sugar cane mill, Legendre naturally offers Beaumont a zombie-themed solution (hey, if the only tool you have is a hammer…): a vial of the secret zombie powder, one speck of which will send its victim into a deathlike state.
“And the zombie powder goes very well with either red or white wine!”
Beaumont initially recoils at the suggestion, but when his last-ditch protestations of love for Madeleine fall on deaf ears (probably because such protestations come while he’s practically walking her down the aisle), he gives her a flower laced with zombie powder. One polite sniff later, the deed is done.
Though not immediately. This isn’t an entirely drug-based version of the zombie myth; in addition to the powder, Legendre also performs a little voodoo ritual outside the house during the post-nuptial dinner, using a wax candle carved into a human shape and a scarf he lifted from the couple’s coach when he first encountered them on the road. Once he puts the candle into an open flame, Madeleine slumps over, to all intents and purposes dead.
Neil takes this, well, hard; and after laying Madeleine to rest in a crypt, hits the bottle like a boatload of sailors. But even oceans of alcohol can’t keep him from the tormenting visions of sweet Madeleine, his wife for all of fifteen minutes. Which is why he’s dashing toward the cemetery, screaming her name, when Beaumont, Legendre, and his zombie posse (just for fun, he makes his zombified former enemies follow him around for grunt work) show up to reclaim her body. Neil arrives to find nothing but an empty crypt.
Oh, my stars and garters! Somebody cover my eyes!
After presumably consuming an entire carafe of strong coffee off-screen, Neil calls on Dr. Bruner for help, and the old missionary turns out to have a fair grip on the local situation. He notes that “legarthic coma” is certainly a possibility, given the things he’s seen and heard, and so go on a quest to find whoever may have snatched Madeleine’s body.
Beaumont, meanwhile, is having deep regrets about his actions; once revived, Madeleine has become nothing but a lifeless husk, staring blankly into space as she plays the piano incessantly at Legendre’s drafty old castle. Penitently he begs Legendre to restore her or release her; instead, Legendre slips him a bit of the zombie powder too, chortling at his wicked and cruel ways. This is more than average nefariousness1 on his part; Beaumont may be the first person to understand what’s happening to him as he slowly becomes one of the living dead.
I probably shouldn’t spoil what happens when Neil and Bruner track down Legendre’s drafty old castle via Bruner’s local contacts, but… I did mention it was a drafty old castle, didn’t I? Perched on the ocean cliffs? With plenty of broken spots in the wall to, say, fall from? Okay, then.
The secret ingredient to the zombie powder is, apparently, the coffee bean.
It’s easy to forget that this movie even attempts to offer anything more than Lugosi, giving one of his top-flight performances. He manages to be both intense and restrained, allowing the confident menace of his character to shine through even when wearing a beatific grin. And let’s not forget that overlooked attribute, his hands; there are moments when his hands alone steal the scene from all other actors present.
Not that that’s hard. The other characters are so vague and ill-defined that it’s hard not to long for Lugosi’s return whenever he’s not present. Neil and Madeleine, our central characters, are almost complete ciphers; their main defining attribute is their love for one another, but nowhere is that expressed outside the studiously proper exhibitions shown to other people. And because we have no stake in their relationship, Neil’s histrionics at Madeleine’s death simply have no impact. (Plus, he’s a dead ringer for Hugh Laurie.) Even worse off is Madeleine, who goes from being a passive character to an even more passive character. If you’ve always wanted to see a movie in which Madge Bellamy spends most of her screentime staring blankly into space, this is your baby.
Other technical elements whose deficiency shows up starkly once the radiant personage of Lugosi is accounted for: the camerawork seems more intent — fixated, really — on creating tableaus rather than moving forward the narrative. Granted, this is effective for some scenes, such as the leaden pace of the zombie caneworkers in Legendre’s mill. And sometimes the standoffish camera even becomes a benefit, such as when Neil finds Madeleine’s empty crypt and rushes inside, from whence his anguished scream issues soon thereafter. But in large part, a story without a great deal of momentum is rendered almost stationary by direction that treats the movie as a succession of discrete images.
“TO LET: Old, crumbling stone mansion. Suitable for mad scientist or voodoo master.”
And while the musical score certainly isn’t nonexistent, its jarring complete absence at key moments makes this movie a prime candidate for modern rescoring, a la the 1931 Dracula.
So. All in all, unignorably flawed, but yet it does provide a vehicle for one of Lugosi’s most memorable roles, arguably even more striking than his turn as Dracula. That alone is reason enough for a hallowed place in the horror movie canon.
Some Notable Totables:
- body count: 9 (assuming that Legendre’s zombie posse was in some sense alive, as Madeleine was)
- breasts: 0
- explosions: 0
- ominous thunderstorms: 0
- actors who’ve appeared on Star Trek: 0
- Nefarity?[back]
