King of the Zombies (1941)

the audience applauded

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This is a very scary movie. It is scarier then The Shinning and that is not easy to do. This movie has a great story line. It also has great acting. It also has great special effects. 5.3 is a good ratting. But this is such a great film that 5.3 is underrating. I give it a 9. I is very scary. This is scarier then A Nightmare on elm street and that is not easy to do. This is scarier then Friday the 13th V a new beginning and that is not easy to do. This is scarier then Halloween resurrection ever could be. This is scarier then Hellbound Hellrasier II and that is not easy to do. This about people trapped on an Island with zombies and a zombie cult the raised then. It is one of the scariest movies of all time see it.

Well, I do declare! Thems were different days back then. Two US air force guys and their valet Jeff are forced to crash on an island in the West Indies, and find themselves staying at a strange house with an even stranger Germanic doctor, his out-of-it wife, and her niece. At first they are welcomed in the house, but gradually they realise that all isn't right. For one thing, Jeff, being black, is assigned to kitchen duties with the rest of the staff and encounters zombies. Also, there seems to be another pilot being held there for reasons unknown. Our three heroes do a bit of investigating (involving secret passageways, something that always makes me enjoy a film more), but we know what happens when folk investigate where they shouldn't, right? Before you know it our heroes are getting turned into zombies (including a hilarious scene where Jeff is turned. "Move aside boys, I'm one of the gang now.") It's all down to pilot Mac to help his mates, kick voodoo arse, sort out the Bosch and be back home for eggs and bacon. Oh yeah!Although the Lordy Lordy antics seem a bit weird with all us folks living in the future, I thought Jeff's character was brilliant. He gets all the best lines and makes to the two white leads seem like two well clothed store dummies. The zombies themselves are pretty good too, although not as creepy as those in White Zombie, they do their fair bit of shuffling around, which is always good. This is a better than average zombie film with plenty of laughs, voodoo nonsense, and some World War 2 leanings.

This movie reminds me of an episode of Scooby Doo, with Henry Victor playing the part of the spook master, the two bland men-of-action white guys playing the roles of Fred and Daphne, and Mantan Moreland playing the parts of Shaggy and Scooby. (I suppose the role of Velma is split between the white female lead and the black female lead, since they both appear to be waaay smarter than the men.) Obviously intended as a spooky comedy of sorts, the one good thing you can say about it is that it gives Moreland a chance to do his stuff, and he does so: he basically steals the movie with a wonderfully consistent and energetic performance.I realize that this sort of role might be painful and jarring for modern "politically correct" viewers to watch, but as a creation of his time and place, Moreland had the stuff. He wouldn't have been out of place on something like the Flip Wilson show in the 60s before people like Richard Pryor and Dick Gregory evolved black acting and comedy to the next step.The rest of the movie and cast is competent in that early B&W 40's Monogram way - the movie gets the job done, but it's nothing to get excited about.

You might want to dismiss this as a low budget horror film, but you would be wrong on two counts.First, the film garnered an Oscar nomination for it's music.It also features the famous Mantan Moreland who, when he wasn't sniffing after the lovely Marguerite Whitten, was engaging in the oft criticized stereotypical behavior that he was famous for.The presence of Moreland changes this from a zombie horror film to a zombie comedy.The rest of the film, which included Admiral Arthur Wainwright (Guy Usher) was just what you would expect from the 40's.