White Zombie

1932's WHITE ZOMBIE provides Bela Lugosi with what I consider to be one of his best showcases.  As the evil Mr. ("Murder") Legendre, he's all eyebrows and menace, controlling his crew of the undead with the clasp of his hands.  Even though he's white, he's a voodoo master in Haiti.  This will immediately cause twenty-first century viewers some agita, and illustrates why it's hazardous to apply the current sensibility (as enlightened as it may be) to a historic document and its societal (to say nothing of Hollywood) zeitgeist.   I'm pretty sure there is a character in blackface as well, so there you go.

Legendre is called upon by the wealthy sugar plantation owner named Charles Beaumont (Robert W. Frazer) for some assistance as to how to woo the lovely Madeleine (Madge Bellamy) away from her fiance Neil (John Harron).  The advice is ghastly, and the "only way."   She must die and become a zombie.  Just a drop of a potion in her wine.   Beaumont is hopelessly in love, enough so not to think this through.  After the deed is done, he is distraught that his beloved is now an unsmiling automaton with dead eyes.  And boy, does Miss Bellamy have some expressive ones.  They could almost garner an Oscar on their own.

Meanwhile, a dejected Neil drinks himself into a stupor and suffers hallucinations of his dead wife-to-be.  Props to director Victor Halperin for the atmospheric scene in the bar, with impressive use of shadow and silhouette.  After discovering that Madeline's tomb is empty, Neil enlists local missionary Dr. Bruner (Joseph Cawthorn) to help discover what happened.  Did she really die? Should the authorities be alerted? Bruner scoffs, knowing that the law is no match for the supernatural - the powers of Legendre, essentially a puppeteer of the undead, many of whom were his former enemies and toil in Beaumont's mill.

WHITE ZOMBIE, a compact chiller in its sixty-seven minutes, has become a cult item, far less known than other genre pics of its time. It is considered the first full length zombie movie. Some of screenwriter Garnett Weston's ideas about the undead are mildly fascinating.  The low budget does not preclude an effective production design.  And Lugosi quietly nails it with calm malevolence.  Whittling a wax figure voodoo doll as he explains to Beaumont that he is the first victim to realize what is happening during his zombie transformation.  This would be a good one to watch alone, in the dark.  You'd be surprised at how eerie it is.