Victor Halperin (1895–1983)

This atmospheric film about a happy young couple finding danger on a Hatian plantation is a “B” horror classic. Released shortly after Lugosi’s “Dracula,” White Zombie has much of the same atmosphere and look of that film.

Brothers Edward (producer) and Victor (director) Halperin used the Universal Studios backlot and worked with cinematographer Arthur Martinelli to give Garnett Weston’s story of zombies an eerie look and atmosphere. Anyone popping this one in some late and rainy night certainly won’t be disappointed.

John Harrow and the lovely Madge Bellamy star as young lovers who learn right away that those who work in the sugar mills by day, and the fields at night, are no longer men, but members of the walking dead. Lugosi is their master, controlling the glassy-eyed undead at every turn.

Plantation owner Charles Beaumont (Robert Frazer) is deeply in love with Madeleine (Madge Bellamy) but cannot persuade her not to marry her true love, Neil (John Harrow). In desperation he turns to Lugosi for help, but Lugosi has his own plans for the beautiful young bride. The discovery that her body has been removed will lead her husband Neil and his new friend, Dr. Bruner (Joseph Cawthorn), down a dangerous trail to Lugosi’s foreboding castle by the sea. It is there they hope to break the zombie spell and save her soul.

This is a “B” horror film that looks and plays like a bigger budget film. Madge Bellamy, a silent star at Fox (Lorna Doone), had been absent from the screen for three years due to a dispute with her studio before returning in this film. Her beauty and talent continued to grace a few low budget mysteries in the early 1930s. Her eventual slide to “B” films was an example of an off-screen personality contrasting too greatly with her on-screen image.

Surviving prints of this film were at best average for many years, perhaps obscuring just how great it is. The ending doesn't disappoint in this one. Marvelous fun!… (more)