Friday, April 08, 2016

Movie review - "King of the Zombies" (1941) **

Low budget horror comedy in the vein of The Ghost Breakers is actually quite fun if you can get past the political incorrectness (okay racism). Three men - pilot, rich white guy, rich white guy's servant - crash on an isolated tropical island inhabited by a mad doctor and bunch of zombies.

The real star of the movie is actually the black guy, Mantan Moreland, doing a variation of Eddie Anderson's Rochester character, a smart talking valet to Jack Benny on radio. He's constantly being terrified, sassing his bosses, and is the first one to figure out what's going on. Yes, he's a "comic darky" but he gets to drive a lot of the action.

The zombie moments are fine, there are some laughs and I enjoyed the atmosphere, especially the zombie ritual at the end, and the wackiness of Nazi agents turning up on the island. A big flaw for me was the lack of star names - Belga Lugosi was originally meant to be cast and he would've been great as the mad doctor. Victory Henry is fine but lacks spark. The two white leads are forgettable. Only Moreland stands out.

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