This anomaly among horror movies of the period, and vampire movies in general, has the very long-working actor John Abbott as a sad, gentlemanly vampire who hates his "curse" and has chosen to live in "darkest Africa" presumably to suffer it in as much obscurity as he can find. Though modest, it's a nicely atmospheric film.
Charles Gordon, an appealing leading man whose career never went anywhere beyond a few more parts in Poverty Row features, is good as the plantation manager whose misfortune it is to discover Abbott's secret--rather surprisingly, he's the real "ingenue" in peril here, with less attention paid Peggy Stewart's innocuous love interest. (Interestingly, her career continued practically until her death at 95 just last year, while Gordon's was over by the end of the '40s.) Adele Mara--sort of a proto-Charo, in that she was a much earlier discovery by Xavier Cugat--does a flaming "exotic" dance at Abbott's club as the apparent mistress he's about to discard for Stewart.
The film's production values are not exactly elaborate, but it's got some handsome noir-ish lighting and attractive compositions. Though it allowed for a fair number of black actors to be employed (plus, strangely, Native American sports hero Jim Thorpe, who is apparently among the extras), the back-lot "Africa" setting is a novelty that's hardly exploited much-given the kinds of cliches on tap here, a South Seas "voodoo island" locale might have seemed more apt. It's interesting that Abbott grows more sinister as the movie goes on, yet remains somewhat sympathetic as a creature doomed to unhappy eternal life.
Charles Gordon, an appealing leading man whose career never went anywhere beyond a few more parts in Poverty Row features, is good as the plantation manager whose misfortune it is to discover Abbott's secret--rather surprisingly, he's the real "ingenue" in peril here, with less attention paid Peggy Stewart's innocuous love interest. (Interestingly, her career continued practically until her death at 95 just last year, while Gordon's was over by the end of the '40s.) Adele Mara--sort of a proto-Charo, in that she was a much earlier discovery by Xavier Cugat--does a flaming "exotic" dance at Abbott's club as the apparent mistress he's about to discard for Stewart.
The film's production values are not exactly elaborate, but it's got some handsome noir-ish lighting and attractive compositions. Though it allowed for a fair number of black actors to be employed (plus, strangely, Native American sports hero Jim Thorpe, who is apparently among the extras), the back-lot "Africa" setting is a novelty that's hardly exploited much-given the kinds of cliches on tap here, a South Seas "voodoo island" locale might have seemed more apt. It's interesting that Abbott grows more sinister as the movie goes on, yet remains somewhat sympathetic as a creature doomed to unhappy eternal life.