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Mantan Moreland really shines in this movie. He was a great character actor, and he had a LOT of screen time in King Of The Zombies. He wasn't a supporting character in King Of The Zombies; his part was equal among the main players and his name shared equal billing in the opening credits.

Forget what others say about racial stereotyping and enjoy his performance. The man worked with what he was given and took it to as much of a polished performance as possible. Blame Hollywood, not the actor, if you don't like his performance. His takes and reactions were superb. Smiley Burnette and Lou Costello did the same thing in "scary" situations, but Mantan Moreland had a flair for the comedy take that set him apart. He really was great on screen.

King Of The Zombies itself is not the best for a mystery/adventure movie from the time period, but it has the right feel for the time period if you like old movies. All the right elements are there for a fun movie. Why it doesn't really work better is a mystery. Don't expect too much and you will have a good time watching this one.

This little gem of a movie is actually better than it should be considering it is a Monogram picture with a low budget and unfortunate racial stereotypes which were typical for the early 1940's.

Mantan Moreland is the star of this picture. He was a great comedic actor who was stereotyped into playing the dimwitted servant in most of his movies, but he really shines in this picture. I laughed out loud when he tells his boss that he had been "zombiefied". Every scene he is in he steals. This picture was billed as a horror movie, but it is actually a comedy. There is nothing remotely scary about the plot, which involves a German doctor who has taken over an island and is turning the natives into zombies while trying to get classified secrets from a captured American admiral through the use of hypnosis. I really enjoyed this movie despite the cheap sets, silly plot and racial stereotypes. If you want a good laugh on a Saturday afternoon, then pop some popcorn and sit back and enjoy Mantan Moreland. He more than makes up for this movie's deficiencies.

This film (along with "Dr. X" & "Night Monster") rank as my all-time fave Top Three! (I own over 1k films)!

Why? That "Master of Scared-Reaction Comedy", Mantan Moreland takes an (other-wise) dull film & adds a lot of "zip" into it! I think this was his finest role! He does MUCH to improve a cast who's acting (especially the two "heros") is as "wooden" as the zombies themselves!

My favorite line is when the "hero" & Mantan are walking through a dark secret passage, holding a torch. Voodoo drums begin to sound. "What's that?", says the Hero. "I dunno", answers Mantan, "...but it ain't GENE KRUPA!". A scream!

This film WILL offend the "Politically Correct" as "degrading Negro stereotypes", but these people have to realise that Morelan was a Comic GENIUS who also played these "scared reaction" comedy roles for BLACK directors, and the Black Movie-Going Community of the 30's and 40's.

You MUST SEE this film, if only for Mantan's marvellous comedy!

Horror comedy from Monogram starring Mantan Moreland and a couple of forgettable bores. I'm not a big fan of Moreland but I'll admit he outshines these two guys by a country mile. It's basically an old dark house film with the three men stranded in said house on an island with a mad scientist (Henry Victor in a role originally meant for Bela Lugosi).

There's a lot of stuff about voodoo and zombies, which is just an excuse to let Moreland do his bug-eyed double-takes and "afraid of spooks" routine. This is the part of Moreland's comedy shtick that I have never enjoyed. And it's not because of the offensive racial element of it, but rather because I'm not enamored with comedians who rely heavily on goofy facial expressions for laughs. I've voiced the same complaints about the likes of Red Skelton and Huntz Hall. But there is a part of Moreland's act I do like and that's when he falls back into his vaudeville routine of having a snappy back and forth with another actor. We see a bit of that here when he shares scenes with the maid (played by Marguerite Whitten). Those scenes were my favorite parts of the movie.

Anyway, the horror isn't all it's teased to be as there's an espionage plot that's a lot less interesting. It was 1941, after all. It's not a great movie but it's not terrible by Poverty Row standards. It moves along quickly enough, which helps. But the entire film rests on Moreland's shoulders. If you love him, you'll probably laugh your tail off watching this. If you don't, this will go over like a lead balloon.

Insignificant and anonymous little 40's horror production, saved from total oblivion by one man: Mantan Moreland. Several ideas in the script are quite good and the enthusiasm of all the cast and crew members is more than admirable, but the film simply lacks a decent budget. The story is set on a Caribbean island during WWII, where the military plane of James McCarthy crashes whilst on a mission to seek another military admiral who disappeared in the same area. McCarthy, along with his pilot and black servant, receive shelter from a mysterious Professor of German origin who runs a suspicious business on the deserted island. He uses the natives, and even his own family, for hypnosis-experiments and turns them into zombies for the German army. Exactly as in other old zombie-movies (like "White Zombie" and "I walked with a Zombie"), the living dead are portrayed as disciplined and docile slaves, which severely affects their spookiness-impact. You can imagine that it's not very eerie to see a bunch of zombies distinguishably line-up to eat soup! It won't be for another 30 years, with George A. Romero's groundbreaking "Night of the Living Dead", until zombies become real terror icons that hunt and kill for their own interest. Still, 'King of the Zombies' is certainly worth a look, if it were only to listen all the witty remarks of Mantan Moreland's character (McCarthy's black servant). He won't shut up for a minute and most of his lines are spot-on hilarious.

I was sat home alone one Sunday afternoon with nothing to do so i decided to give this movie a chance. I was expecting nothing from it and was very pleasantly surprised. I believe anyone going into this film with any expectations of a chilling horror film will be truly disappointed.

I wouldn't really know how to describe the film other than an interesting way to pass some empty time and the perfect sort of film to watch with a few friends over a drink or two.

The ending of the film could be longer and built up better but all in all i enjoyed this movie

Well, I do declare! Thems were different days back then. Two US air force guys and their valet Jeff are forced to crash on an island in the West Indies, and find themselves staying at a strange house with an even stranger Germanic doctor, his out-of-it wife, and her niece. At first they are welcomed in the house, but gradually they realise that all isn't right. For one thing, Jeff, being black, is assigned to kitchen duties with the rest of the staff and encounters zombies. Also, there seems to be another pilot being held there for reasons unknown.

Our three heroes do a bit of investigating (involving secret passageways, something that always makes me enjoy a film more), but we know what happens when folk investigate where they shouldn't, right? Before you know it our heroes are getting turned into zombies (including a hilarious scene where Jeff is turned. "Move aside boys, I'm one of the gang now.") It's all down to pilot Mac to help his mates, kick voodoo arse, sort out the Bosch and be back home for eggs and bacon. Oh yeah!

Although the Lordy Lordy antics seem a bit weird with all us folks living in the future, I thought Jeff's character was brilliant. He gets all the best lines and makes to the two white leads seem like two well clothed store dummies. The zombies themselves are pretty good too, although not as creepy as those in White Zombie, they do their fair bit of shuffling around, which is always good. This is a better than average zombie film with plenty of laughs, voodoo nonsense, and some World War 2 leanings.

You might want to dismiss this as a low budget horror film, but you would be wrong on two counts.

First, the film garnered an Oscar nomination for it's music.

It also features the famous Mantan Moreland who, when he wasn't sniffing after the lovely Marguerite Whitten, was engaging in the oft criticized stereotypical behavior that he was famous for.

The presence of Moreland changes this from a zombie horror film to a zombie comedy.

The rest of the film, which included Admiral Arthur Wainwright (Guy Usher) was just what you would expect from the 40's.

"King of the Zombies" certainly is one of the most MAGNIFICENT horror spoofs ever made - although, or maybe BECAUSE it was made by 'poor little' Monogram Pictures. Monogram had always had a VERY fine crew of actors, directors and screenwriters to make the very best of whatever means of production they had; and one of their best steady cast members was Mantan Moreland, known today mostly for his role as 'Birmingham' in the Monogram Charlie Chan movies. But here he's not just the second assistant to the great detective and his sons, but kind of a semi-lead - and of course the very core of the comical part of the movie.

And just like the Monogram Charlie Chan movies always managed very elegantly to hold the balance between crime mystery and comedy, so does "King of the Zombies" with horror and comedy. There's everything the horror film fan's heart desires: an isolated island, a mysterious mansion with dark vaults, a strange scientist, zombies - and the adequate musical score to send shivers down your spine; and on the other hand, there's Mantan Moreland, better than ever (and getting, of course, a lot more opportunity to show his magnificent comical talent, with his eyes popping with fright and his knees shaking, and at the same time wisecracking and flirting with fate as well as with the kitchen maid...

This much-underrated movie surely deserves more attention and a much higher ranking among classic horror comedies; the atmosphere is haunting, but at the same time you find yourself in the middle of a creepy zombie tale, you can't help laughing with the jokes thrown in at the most improbable moments - FIRST-CLASS entertainment from a small but classy production company, and a sublime cast and crew!

I agree with what was said of Mantan Moreland, because this really is his show. He was really good at what he did and could have been in many, many better movies. With that aside, this movie is a schlocky laugh riot, combining Moreland's intentional humor with everyone else's unintentional humor to make a horror-comedy classic. One of the greatest laughs is an unintentionally hilarious moment where the "Irish" guy gets into a fight with some less-than-alive assailants. The oh-so-diabolical Henry Victor character blames the attack on over-zealous guards, but the "Irish" guy aggressively comes back with, "Are ya sure it wasn't a zombie?!" I also love it when Victor is given lines like, "That's nonsense, zombies don't eat... meat." Aside from Victor, Moreland seems to be the only real actor out of all of them. Some of the intentional humor is hit-or-miss ("Look out, admiral, here we come"), but Moreland carries nearly every joke with comic flair. I don't consider "King of the Zombies" a total classic by any means (as schlock or otherwise), but it is fun and more than worth the four bucks I spent to buy it.

In the 1940's horror seemed to go through an identity crisis of sorts. This led the genre to think that audiences needed to laugh along with the chills. In fairness these were the war and post-war years, so I guess the average person welcomed a good laugh, these were very bad times in our history. The comedy-horror was in fashion as a result but when you look back on those old films the common problem is that they are neither scary nor funny anymore, so they rarely appear very good. King of the Zombies is another example of this. It takes the voodoo zombie idea of 1930's films such as White Zombie and Revolt of the Zombies and adds a good slice of broad humour. In this case provided mainly by Mantan Moreland. While there seems to be some viewers who found him quite amusing, I personally didn't laugh once. I thought the humour was pretty miserable to tell you the truth, while the horror element was half-hearted at best. Even the fairly poor Revolt of the Zombies was better than this because at least it took itself seriously. King of the Zombies doesn't really do this and really just misses the mark with its rubbish comedy and lifeless thrills. It's not director Jean Yarbrough's worst film though, that accolade has to go to the quite painful Hillbillys in a Haunted House but it's a far cry from even The Devil Bat, where at least he produced something that cuts out the supposed funny bits. Venture at your peril.

KING OF THE ZOMBIES begins with a three-man airplane crew making an emergency landing on a remote island. It's there they find the home of an eccentric doctor, his servants and, of course, an attractive young woman. Things get even more bizarre when a few individuals from the non-living ranks -- the result of the fine doctor's experiments, we learn -- begin roaming around.

Despite the potential for black and white B-movie fun, KING OF THE ZOMBIES is a very forgettable, unspooky effort. It's a slow mover with too much buildup and not enough reward. Fans often point to the antics of Mantan Moreland, playing the pilot's black servant, as the saving grace. However, Moreland is more of an annoying distraction, to say nothing of the racial stereotype he represents (of course this was 1941). In trying to strike a balance between humor and horror, the film succeeds in neither.

Whatever you think of KING OF THE ZOMBIES, it will most certainly go down as the most unlikely picture ever nominated for an Oscar. Incredibly, it was up for the 1942 Academy Award in the Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture category. That fact is actually more unbelievable than the plot of this or any other zombie movie!

Dr Mikhail Sangre (Henry Victor) is a man who isn't big on company. Hidden away on his Caribbean island, he keeps his wife (Patricia Stacey) in a state of perpetual hypnosis while he attempts to transfer the mind of a captured US admiral (Guy Usher) into the head of his reluctant stepdaughter (Joan Woodbury) in order to unlock the secrets within. He also digs up recently deceased locals and turns them into zombies to create an army to aid the axis powers in their war against the allies. Such were the heights of comedy-horror writing at the poverty row Monogram Studios back in the 40s.

Into this cosy domestic scene crash our intrepid heroes James 'Mac' McCarthy (Dick Purcell) and Bill Summers (John Archer), and their not quite so intrepid butler Jefferson 'Jeff' Jackson (Mantan Moreland, all bulging eyes and astonished double-takes), who are searching for the missing Admiral. Quite why the intrepid duo felt the need to bring their manservant along is never explained, but it's fortunate for the film that they did because Moreland is by far the best thing in this half-hearted comedy-horror. Only Marguerite Whitten as a sassy maid comes close to him, and they share a number of amusing scenes.

Seeing zombies everywhere while his 'masters' see nothing, Jeff, like Shaggy and Scoob whose cartoon adventures this film perfectly foreshadows, always waits until they have disappeared before thinking of alerting anybody. It's all pretty grim and unimaginative, as you'd expect from an ultra-low budget forties flick, but while some may find Moreland's routine politically incorrect in today's enlightened times, there's no denying the fact that he was a talented comedian with impeccable timing. He's far better than the material he is given to work with here and manages to single-handedly lift the film above the level of completely terrible.

The role of Sangre is crying out for the familiar figure of Bela Lugosi rather than the rather bland features of Victor. While he's OK in the role, he fails to generate any sense of menace as he attempts to ensure his unwelcome guests never leave his island. Purcell and Archer needn't even be there: just vanilla wallpaper against which Moreland performs his high jinks, while Woodbury has uniquely attractive looks but little to do. While this film does have some entertainment value, most people would be better off giving this one a miss unless they're a fan of Moreland.

1st watched 8/16/2009 - 2 out of 10 (Dir-Jean Yarbrough): Lame and boring zombie movie where every scene appears manufactured and contrived. The story involves a couple pilots and a servant who crash on an island and encounter a strange doctor and his weird counterparts. He, of course, welcomes them to his mansion quite graciously but the servant realizes early on that things aren't right with him. Of course, he sees the zombies on the Island and no-one believes him initially because he's just a servant. The plot becomes a lot more complicated when we realize there is also a lost admiral whom the mad doctor is trying to get information out of by hypnotizing him. The complications in the plot really don't help the movie because it moves at such a slow pace and even the zombies are pretty ho-hum. There is also a very lame comedy attempt thrown in with using a racist portrayal of a black man with big eyes providing the hucks, although they are obviously borrowed from other movies. And then of course, the mean count has the Lugosi-like foreign accent and the local folk get involved with the voodie attempts on the admiral. I really can't believe how many of these type of movies were made in this timeframe. Hopefully they weren't all this bad.

implicitly intended for an urban African-American audience, this film is mantan Moreland's masterpiece performance. a wicked parody of the b-movie horror cycle that washed over American screens in the wake of the success of the universal monster movies, Moreland - with blessings from director Jean Yarbrough and writer Edmond Kelso - uses his role to rip, tear, kick, and generally trash all the expectations concerning race in his culture, rightly pinioning it as little better than the racism of Nazi Germany.

the white 'heroes' of this film are completely stupid, especially the Anglo-Saxon guy John Archer as 'Bill Summers', who can't quite figure out how he could be trapped on an island just because his plane crashed and the local Nazi doesn't want him to leave.

although the Nazi's role was clearly intended for Bela Lugosi, Henry Victor does a pretty good job sounding like a slimy spy who doesn't even like Irish people, so we can guess what he thinks of blacks.

but it's the black guy who saves the day - the black guy who solves the mystery - indeed, the black guy who even figures out that there is a mystery, while the hokey white boys scratch their heads. and along the way, he drops a lot of little gags about the African-American cultural experience, especially in Harlem, then de-facto capital of African-America, and how he would rather be there than chasing 'hants' on some dumb Nazi's jungle island.

this is a Jean Yarbrough film, so of course there are a lot of silly goofs and gaffs, and unintentionally funny stuff - i especially like the line about the guy who just got shot through the chest five times getting better in a little while; yeah.

but this is an historically important film because it is not only mantan Moreland's one leading-role star-turn, but because it is clearly designed to subvert the culture that made it impossible for actors and comedians as good as Moreland from getting their fair share of star-turn leading roles - a culture which, sadly, still needs some subverting today, 65 years later.

but like it or not - and i happen to love this film - this is the first, the beach-head in that ongoing underground cultural war for civil rights and justice in all areas of American life, even the Hollywood film.

During WWII, a Govt, Agent Bill summers (John Archer) is searching for an admiral whose plan went down somewhere in the Caribbean. He's accompanied by the search plane pilot "Mac" (Dick Purcell) and his servant Jeff Jackson(Mantan Moreland).

While searching, their own plane goes down and crashes into a cemetery on an island. They are taken into the residence by Dutch Dr. Sangre who claims to have fled there from the Nazis. He's accompanied by his wife who walks around in a trance-like state.

Not only that, but there's several black zombies skulking about the creepy house that only Jeff ever seems to encounter. It's soon revealed that Dr. Sangre is a nazi conspirator who has the Admiral captured and is using a voodoo priestess to try and get sensitive military info out of him.

Along the way Jeff get's "Zombie-fied" by the doctor in the movie's funniest bit. This film really seemed to be a vehicle for Lugosi in the role of the mad doctor Sangre but Henry Victor does an admirable job.

Mantan steals the show with his one-liners and really brings some life to the film. Purcell is OK as the pilot but Archer is REALLY wooden as the would-be hero.

Yes it is a bit racially stereotyped as Jeff his told that he cannot stay in a guest room and must instead stay with the other black servants. But instead of running it down lets remember the era that the film was made in.

No one should much feel sorry for Mantan Moreland as he steals virtually every scene he's in.

The film is no gem but has some fairly atmospheric creepiness and better than average Monogram film.

Billed third, it is obvious within the first minutes that this is comic actor Mantan Moreland's picture. Given more screen time and lines than the "heroes" or villain, a Bela Lugosi clone, he carries what humor is to be found in this comic horror from start to finish.

Three stooges in a model airplane crash on an island run by a Lugosi manque, Dr. Sange (Henry Viktor). Sange tinkers with zombies but is also working as an agent for an enemy government. Two of the stranded are pretty dense to what is going on but Jeff (Moreland) with the assistance of a comely maid is soon up to speed.

Moreland's reactions and throw away non-sequitors are hilarious most of the way as you willingly give into the far fetched plot but outside of Viktor and Madame Sul-Te-Wan as Tahama the cook the chills remain tepid and it is left up to Mantan to give scenes any life with his wide eyed, mumbling responses in what is basically a one man show..