Revenge of the Zombies

The title implies a far greater sense of purpose than the walking dead actually display in this Monogram quickie. Zombies usually stagger, but this time they orderly march in line, their slow pace presumably compensated for by the fact they work for no wages. They're an emaciated bunch apart from Veda Ann Borg, more unnerving than usual since for once she hardly says a word.

Poor John Carradine. He made a fatal mistake in thinking that he could turn his wife into a zombie and that she would obey his every command. Even dead, the wife is always right.

Carradine starred as Dr. Max Heinrich von Altermann, a NAZI scientist that was trying to develop an army that would not have to eat and would be impervious to bullets for Hitler's army. He should have stuck to men and not tried to use his wife to prove his success. It proved his undoing.

The film also featured the famous Mantan Moreland who, when he wasn't sniffing after the lovely Sybil Lewis, was engaging in the oft criticized stereotypical behavior that he was famous for, including the famous line "feet don't fail me now."

This is surprisingly well made. The direction features quite a bit of camera movement for a quickie, the photography boasts some moody shadows and interesting wide angle lens effects, the swamp graveyard set is cool, and above all it's well acted--with Moreland doing his thing but the rest of the cast giving their all. And the music score is also well done not too much music either--not the wall to wall stock music approach in this film.

There is a lab/montage scene that is pretty elaborate and well done. There is another nice tidy montage to show time passing at a dinner party which has a funny pay off line and the last shot has an unusual pay off as well.

Carradine fans will enjoy his bug eyed entrance into the film but for the most part he plays it pretty straight/sober and he has a kind of memorable exit from the film--not to give it away.

The intentions I guess are mainly comic though it's not all that funny you almost wish they had just gone for serious horror yet it isn't campy for the most part and it's an all professional job.

The script holds it back from becoming above average though it is above average in all departments for this low budget genre of the era. Even the sets though not memorable don't look impoverished and the lab has quite a bit of gear in it.

The direction really impressed me with always making the most out of every situation--within the restricted scale of the movie.

One interesting thing, and you know this right away, is Nazi scientist Carradine kills and zombifies his wife, she does occasionally speak and they do a kind of interesting hollow sound to her voice. I think this film may be the first of the Nazi dead army plot movies tough it's certainly not the best one.

All said and done on a script level you pretty much get what you'd expect which isn't much but the movie almost won me over and fans of this era of genre films could do a lot better but you could do a lot worse as well.

A pretty ordinary cheapie from Monogram Studios that begins with some promising atmosphere and visual style, but ultimately deteriorates with a lot of talk and some lame attempts at comic relief by black funny-man Mantan Moreland, who's not so humorous this time around.

A very youthful John Carradine plays it surprisingly low-key as an unconvincing Nazi scientist trying to create an army of non-scary zombies to fight for the Germans. He even turns his own wife into one of them, the fiend. These living dead sleepwalkers are more like what you'd call the "marching dead" as they step about in silly and perfect militaristic formation, like mindless robots. Those viewers unfamiliar with "pre-Romero" zombie movies are bound to be left especially stumped.

** out of ****

A somewhat fun Monogram horror movie. The wife of Dr. von Altermann (John Carradine) has died mysteriously. Her brother and a hired detective (hunky Robert Lowery) investigate. It seems the doctor is quite mad and experimenting on human beings and turning them into zombies.

Yes, it's a cheap no budget movie but it's fun. It has a nice atmospheric opening, a few amusing lines, some funny bits by Mantan Moreland and an interesting plot. Also Carradine gives a good performance and Lowery is tall, handsome, muscular and pretty good in a nothing role. A light enjoyable horror flick. Good viewing around Halloween. I give this a 5.