After having enjoyed Bela Lugosi's surprisingly strong 1941 movie Invisible Ghost,I decided to take a look at another Lugosi title from a Mil Creek,which along with later inspiring the name for future writer/director Rob Zombie's Industreal band,is also credited with being the "first ever" zombie film.
The plot:
Arriving in Haiti for their upcoming wedding,fiancé's Madeline Short and Neil Parker head to plantation owner Charles Beaumont home,so that they can begin preparing the wedding reception.Heading to Beaumont's house,Short and Parker's carriage is stopped in its track's by a gang of locals from fellow plantation owner "Murder" Legendre's plant.Nagotiating his way around the gang,the coach driver gives the couple the good news that workers at Legendre's factory are "Neither living,or dead".
Shaken by what they have seen,Parker and Short attempt to relax when they at last reach Charles Beaumont's house.With being focused on making the wedding as perfect as possible,Parker and Short fail to notice Beaumont developing a deep desire for Short.Desperate to get his hands on Short,Beaumont decides that he is going to do everything possible to turn Parker into one of Legendre's undead workers.
View on the film:
Saved from being lost forever thanks to a surviving print being discovered in the 60's,the film impressively contains a transfixing atmosphere,which along with still having a real kick after its now 81 years ago origin,is also able to make the "damaged" soundtrack something that is easy to forgive.
Despite shooting the movie in only 11 days,director Victor Halperin reveals a sharp eye for in- camera special effects,with the scenes of Parker realising about Beaumont's desire for Short having a strong icy chill,and Haperin also including a delightfully black comedy raven,that helps to give the movie a real Gothic edge.
Placing Parker and Short's romance at the centre of his adaptation of William's Seabrook's novel The Magic Island,the screenplay by Garnett Weston sadly makes the paternally exciting subtext that the "upper class" see all of the workers as slaves/zombies one that is disappointingly underdeveloped,with Weston instead focusing on the romantic side of Short and Parker's relationship,which despite having a charm about it,leaves the film from fully grasping its tantalising plot threads.
Along with a wonderfully stern Bela Lugosi,the cute Madge Bellamy, (who also starred in John Ford's overlooked Western The Iron Horse)gives an excellent performance Madeline Short,thanks to Bellamy showing Short go from a rosy cheek youngster,into becoming an undead whiter shade of pale.
The plot:
Arriving in Haiti for their upcoming wedding,fiancé's Madeline Short and Neil Parker head to plantation owner Charles Beaumont home,so that they can begin preparing the wedding reception.Heading to Beaumont's house,Short and Parker's carriage is stopped in its track's by a gang of locals from fellow plantation owner "Murder" Legendre's plant.Nagotiating his way around the gang,the coach driver gives the couple the good news that workers at Legendre's factory are "Neither living,or dead".
Shaken by what they have seen,Parker and Short attempt to relax when they at last reach Charles Beaumont's house.With being focused on making the wedding as perfect as possible,Parker and Short fail to notice Beaumont developing a deep desire for Short.Desperate to get his hands on Short,Beaumont decides that he is going to do everything possible to turn Parker into one of Legendre's undead workers.
View on the film:
Saved from being lost forever thanks to a surviving print being discovered in the 60's,the film impressively contains a transfixing atmosphere,which along with still having a real kick after its now 81 years ago origin,is also able to make the "damaged" soundtrack something that is easy to forgive.
Despite shooting the movie in only 11 days,director Victor Halperin reveals a sharp eye for in- camera special effects,with the scenes of Parker realising about Beaumont's desire for Short having a strong icy chill,and Haperin also including a delightfully black comedy raven,that helps to give the movie a real Gothic edge.
Placing Parker and Short's romance at the centre of his adaptation of William's Seabrook's novel The Magic Island,the screenplay by Garnett Weston sadly makes the paternally exciting subtext that the "upper class" see all of the workers as slaves/zombies one that is disappointingly underdeveloped,with Weston instead focusing on the romantic side of Short and Parker's relationship,which despite having a charm about it,leaves the film from fully grasping its tantalising plot threads.
Along with a wonderfully stern Bela Lugosi,the cute Madge Bellamy, (who also starred in John Ford's overlooked Western The Iron Horse)gives an excellent performance Madeline Short,thanks to Bellamy showing Short go from a rosy cheek youngster,into becoming an undead whiter shade of pale.