Product Description

Young couple Madeleine and Neil are coaxed by acquaintance Monsieur Beaumont to get married on his Haitian plantation. Beaumont's motives are purely selfish as he makes every attempt to convince the beautiful young girl to run away with him. For help Beaumont turns to the devious Legendre, a man who runs his mill by mind controlling people he has turned into zombies. After Beaumont uses Legendre's zombie potion on Madeleine, he is dissatisfied with her emotionless being and wants her to be changed back. Legendre has no intention of doing this and he drugs Beaumont as well to add to his zombie collection. Meanwhile, grieving 'widower' Neil is convinced by a local priest that Madeleine may still be alive and he seeks her out. Written by Gary Jackson {garyjack5@cogeco.ca}

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #67184 in DVD
• Published on: 2005
• Released on: 2005-03-22
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 73 minutes

Review
hands from the screen of the Rivoli yesterday and tried to hynotize blondes into killing their boy friends. A legion of individuals, with deceased minds but alert bodies, threw butlers into subterranean streams. Eagles screamed and vultures carried on a terrific caterwauling all around a mountainous castle. And half way through the picture that inspired all these things an actor wistfully remarked:

"The whole thing has me confused; I just can't understand it."

That was, as briefly as can be expressed, the legend for posterity of "White Zombie." Charity still the greatest of the trilogy suggests that the sentence be allowed to stand as comment. To go on would lead only to a description of why the eagles screamed, and that would prove very little, indeed, in the orderly scheme of life. There was, in short, no great reason. Nor was there, to be candid, much reason for "White Zombie." The screen, shuddering slightly, can go on; it can forget, it can be a Zombie, too.

The idea of the picture is that in Haiti there are individuals who dig up bodies, invest them with motive power but not with intelligence, and set them to work. They make good servants. They can carry off blondes without getting ideas in their heads, which helps in these mad days. When they have served their fell purposes, moreover, they can walk off high cliffs and out of the picture. But not the necromancers; they must be shoved over, off and out.

Of the cast, Bela Lugosi plays the chief part that of the lad who has the power to turn corpses into automatons. Madge Bellamy is the blonde, John Harron the young man in the affair and Robert Frazer a sort of semi-tropical villain. All the actors have strange lines to say, but appear to enjoy saying them. Those given to Mr. Harron seem, on retrospection, to be the most fantastic if a superlative of any sort is allowable in a discussion of "White Zombie."

"Not that," he says at one point. "Better death than that."

Yes, indeed, much better. --The New York Times

From the Studio
The term ‘zombie’ only came into general use in 1929, after the publication of William B. Seabrook’s The Magic Island. In this book, Seabrook describes the first ‘zombie’ he came across in this way:" The eyes were the worst. It was not my imagination. They were in truth like the eyes of a dead man, not blind, but staring, unfocused, unseeing. The whole face, for that matter, was bad enough. It was vacant, as if there was nothing behind it. It seemed not only expressionless, but incapable of expression."

This is a good description of the zombies that appear in the first zombie movie, Victor Halperin’s White Zombie, made in 1932 and featuring that emergent horror drawcard, Bela Lugosi. A2ZCDS have brought this old Hollywood Classic feature films on DVD.

THE PLOT: Madeleine (Madge Bellamy) and Neil Parker (John Harron) are in for a rude shock when they arrive at Charles Beaumont’s (Robert Frazer) Haitian mansion to celebrate their wedding. Beaumont, who is madly in love with Madeleine, asks ‘Murder’ Legendre (Bela Lugosi) to use his magic to help him seduce the girl. Neil is horrified to discover that his fiancé has been turned into a zombie and is at his wits end to rescue his ladylove from the grips of lunacy and the wicked Legendre’s spell.

About the Actor
It's ironic that Martin Landau won an Oscar for impersonating Bela Lugosi (in Ed Wood (1994)) when Lugosi himself never came within a mile of one, but that's just the latest of many sad ironies surrounding Lugosi's career. A distinguished stage actor in his native Hungary, he ended up a drug-addicted pauper in Hollywood, thanks largely to typecasting brought about by his most famous role. He began his stage career in 1901 and started appearing in films during World War I, fleeing to Germany in 1919 as a result of his left-wing political activity (he organized an actors' union). In 1920 he emigrated to the US and made a living as a character actor, shooting to fame when he played Count Dracula in the legendary 1927 Broadway stage adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel. It ran for three years, and was subsequently, and memorably, filmed by Tod Browning in 1931, establishing Lugosi as one of the screen's greatest personifications of pure evil. Sadly, his reputation rapidly declined, mainly because he was only too happy to accept any part (and script) handed to him, and ended up playing pathetic parodies of his greatest role, in low-grade poverty row shockers. He ended his career working for the legendary Worst Director of All Time, Edward D. Wood Jr.. He was buried in his Dracula cape. IMDb Mini Biography By: Michael Brooke

Customer Reviews

Reasonable If Not Best Remaster of a Seldom-Seen Horror Classic
The term "Zombie" and the concepts it conveyed did not really enter American conciousness until the publication of William B. Seabrook's THE MAGIC ISLAND in 1929--but once established, it fired popular imagination, producing everything from a host of pulp fiction shorts to a fairly lethal mixture of rum and tropical juices. Released in 1932, THE WHITE ZOMBIE is generally considered to be the first motion picture on the subject--and it would pretty much set pop culture ideas about zombies, voodoo, and Hati for decades to come.

The film is interesting in several respects, not least of which is the fact that it an independent production, something rare indeed for a film of its era. Unfortunately, this fact also gave rise to a series of legal battles between writer Kenneth S. Webb and producers Edward and Victor Halperin. What with one thing or another the film itself was considered lost from about 1935 until it resurfaced in 1960, when it once more touched off another legal battle between the same parties and their estates. In consequence, and although it has indeed turned up at special screenings and on the late-late show, the film has never really been widely seen since its 1932 debut--and most of the prints available were pretty dire. This was certainly the case when I saw the film in a "big screen" film festival in the late 1970s: the sound was poor, the visuals worse, and it was very difficult to tell what all the fuss was about.

Fortunately for fans of 1930s horror, THE WHITE ZOMBIE is now available in numerous DVD versions--but it is very much a case of "buyer beware," for most of them are extremely dire. Roan Group has released an exceptional restoration of the film; PC Treasures has a reasonable budget release in tandem with the cult classic CARNIVAL OF SOULS. The Timeless Classics edition falls somewhere between the two: the age of the elements show and it isn't a patch on the Roan edition, but its a darn sight better than most.

As for the film itself, even by 1932 standards THE WHITE ZOMBIE was not a "screamer" in the same sense as DRACULA or FRANKENSTEIN were; it is instead lyric, at times poetic in nature, disturbing in the same manner of an Edgar Allen Poe poem. The story is quite simple: Madeline Short (Madge Bellamy) and Neil Parker (John Harron) have come to Hati--and en route have met estate owner Charles Beaumont (Robert Frazer.) Beaumont falls in love with Madeline; unable to convince her to leave Parker, he goes to zombie master 'Murder' Legendre (Bela Lugosi), who works his evil spell upon her. But Beaumont soon finds himself at odds with Legendre, and Parker, with the aid of missionary Dr. Bruner (Joseph Cawthorne) has set out to rescue Madeline at all costs.

The cast is quite fine, and many critics consider that this is really Lugosi's best performance of the early 1930s, surpassing his more famous turn in DRACULA. Indeed, he is a remarkable presence in the film, ugly and sinister and yet at times--it is difficult to describe--one sees the unexpectedly attractiveness of the man in both physical and psychological terms. It is a memorable performance. But the big thing about THE WHITE ZOMBIE isn't so much the story or the performances as "how the thing is done."

The cinematography is simple, but it has a misty quality, and one is always aware of the texture of black and white; shadows are important in the film, and the overall look is quite unlike anything to come out of Hollywood up to that point--and even today it remains largely unique. There is an elegance to the way the scenes are staged and photographed that rarely occurs in any film of any era.

Modern viewers without significant interest in films of this period are likely to find THE WHITE ZOMBIE mannered and a bit slow--but if you have an interest in early sound films, and even more so in horror films of the 1930s, THE WHITE ZOMBIE is an essential in your collection.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Moody and Mysterious
This movie, which I believe was the first zombie movie ever released, relies a lot on shadow and mood rather than action, which is sporadic, though intense. This film often bores fans of modern film because they expect action to dull them into senselessness rather than getting into the atmosphere of a film. Fans of classic movies will enjoy the texture of the film and the creepy feeling the film does a very good job of instilling.

Madeleine Short (Madge Bellamy) and Neil Parker (John Harron, who appeared in minor roles in dozens of movies until his untimely death in 1939) have journeyed to Haiti to get married. Once there, their host Charles Beaumont (Robert Frazer, who appeared in dozens of movies, though many of his roles were uncredited) falls madly in love with Madeleine. Beaumont turns to Murder Legendre (Bela Lugosi, who one year earlier created the standard for all future Dracula wannabes) for assistance. Legendre is a zombie master, and uses his abilities to turn Madeleine into a zombie.

Neil Parker is beside himself with grief because he thinks Madeleine is dead, but her death is only in appearance because of the drugs that Legendre used. Parker discovers that Madeleine may be alive, and enlists the aid of missionary Dr. Bruner (Joseph Cawthorn) to track her down and rescue her.

Though the end of the movie has some measure of predictability, the value of this movie is in the journey and not the destination. The movie has an eerie quality throughout, partially due to the sets and partially due to cinematography. Bela Lugosi's piercing eyes are prominent and with a big screen television it is easy to see how intimidating his eyes can be. This movie used techniques that were ground-breaking at the time, including split screens and overlays. I am not sure how the director created the view of the castle, but the beach scenes featuring the castle were outstanding considering this movie was filmed in 1932. The result of all these features is that the movie is very artistic and interesting to watch.

"White Zombie" is a relatively slow movie that relies almost completely on atmosphere. The action is limited to brief moments, though intensity is important. For example, there is a scene with a zombie falling into a grinder. The scene is very graphic and the sound effects are realistic and disturbing. Fans of gothic horror, Bela Lugosi and zombie movies will find this movie a treat and one they will want in their collection.

Use caution in buying this movie. I know that many people have tried, and failed, to get a good copy of this movie off the internet. For some reason the sound off these copies is poor. This movie is one that you should probably purchase as a DVD if you wish to have it in your collection. Other reviewers consider the version by the Roan Group to be the best available version, and it is (currently) cheaper than this version. I have not seen the Roan Group version myself, so I take this assertion based on the expertise of reviewers who have seen both versions. You may wish to do a bit of research before deciding which version meets your needs the best.

Enjoy!

Vintage post-Dracula Lugosi
Close on the heels of portraying the immortal Dracula, Bela Lugosi turned his suave eeriness and trademark powerful stares to 1932's White Zombie. He manages to make an otherwise forgetful horror flick into something worth watching, although I admit I was far from captivated by the movie. It gets off to a promising start. Neil and his fiancé Madeleine have to pause on their way to the home of their supposed benefactor when they encounter a nighttime burial in the middle of the road (so no one will tamper with the dead body, you know), then soon meet up with the creepy, mysterious Legrende (Lugosi) and some of his pet zombies. Once they arrive at their destination, their host, Beaumont, confesses his love for Madeleine but finds that his Harry Houdini haircut does not succeed in winning her over. Naturally, he decides to invoke the help of Legrende, who promises Beaumont that there is a way for him to claim her. I'll give you three guesses as to what this involves. Neil runs around half crazy even before discovering that the tomb of his beloved is empty, then manages to get the support of the local missionary in finding his apparently not fully deceased wife. I'm afraid I didn't particularly care for the ending of this film; it's a little too predictable, and Neil's clumsy antics are almost as annoying as the pipe-smoking missionary's repeated requests for a match. There are some interesting little film production techniques here -- split screens, overlays of ghostly images, and the like, but it is the story that seems to come up a little short. Haiti doesn't seem quite the proper setting for Lugosi, but the filmmaker got a lot of terrific mileage out of close-ups on his piercing eyes. Lugosi fans won't want to miss White Zombie, but others may not get much out of the movie.