O Fantasma de Mora Tau

One of the many plot implausibilities in this enjoyably awful Sam Katzman-produced dreck occurs when Allison Hayes, she of the killer figure, is murdered by diamond-loving zombies and becomes one of the walking dead. She's clearly a zombie; Marjorie Eaton, trying to preserve her dignity as the Maria Ouspenskaya-like hideous matron, tells everyone she's a zombie; she walks like a zombie, and her face is even blanker than when she was alive. But the rest of the avaricious crew treats her like a real live girl, vowing to get her to a doctor as soon as possible for a diagnosis. That leads to plot extensions that add on another 20 minutes or so, though the entire nonsense clocks in at a little over an hour. A pretty high body count for '50s horror, direction and production values not far above the Ed Wood level, and hilarious "underwater" photography round out this Grade Z programmer, which is inept but not dull.

Although slammed by most of the critics, this flick isn't a bad little time waster.A search party arrives at a plantation off of the coast of Africa. They're looking for a sunken ship with a load of diamonds. The group laughs off the warning of the 10 man zombie crew unable to rest until the diamonds are destroyed. The zombies have wiped out every other expedition to date.The laugh is on the search party as they meet face to face with the walking dead. These bad boys even get around underwater!Will the zombies or the explorers win out? You need to see this for yourself and judge it on its own merits. It easily has creepy scenes that may have influenced later zombie movies.Decent late night viewing!

I can never resist a good Zombie movie, and this one gives that interesting twist ....the zombies appear to be amphibious! They are protecting their treasure resting at the bottom of the murky waters....and do so by scaring the treasure-seekers with their horrible looks! Ahhhh!! It seems every group of treasure-seekers that tries to steal the loot, end up dead, so good ole granny (who seems to be the only one who accepts these walking weirdos) takes it upon herself to have the grave sites pre-dug for their convenience....how charming... This flick also provides us with our standard staple of "ear-piercing scream" from the helpless and unknowledgeable "Jan" The underwater sequence becomes quite amusing when the zombies casually stroll along the bottom of the lake towards their sunken ship....I guess being dead prevents the burning of calories, thereby giving them that extra weight to stay down............happy viewing!

Adventurers tangle with zombies who can walk underwater. (Did George Romero ever catch this?)

The fifties were a fallow decade for the walking dead. Scary zombies may have roamed INVISIBLE INVADERS and CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN, but they were sci-fi generated. (PLAN 9, anyone?) MORA TAU more or less sticks to the hoodoo playbook, but its finale is unforgivably weak, and the underwater scenes, which should have been a highlight, are blatantly bogus. If the story were rewritten on land, it would have spared lots of trouble and unintended laughter.

On the plus side, quickie director Ed Cahn always aced day-for-night shots, and nearly all of the action here occurs in darkness. The film is free of stock wildlife footage and white dudes dressed as natives. The cast seems to appreciate scripter Bernard Gordon's snappy dialogue. Cult actress Allison Hayes pulls double duty as a shrewish moll and a zombie. Can't act worth stale jujubes, but still a treat to watch. There's also plenty of gaffe guffaws, my favorite being the portly zomb who "chases" victims down a staircase as he clutches the railing.

A bunch of people go to the island of Mora Tau. Right off the coast of it, a ship sank with diamonds aboard and they want them. There's nice guy Jeff Clark (Gregg Palmer), Dr. Eggert (Morris Ankrum), George Harrison (!!!) (Joel Ashley) and his slutty wife Mona (the immortal Allison Hayes). What they don't know is that the ship is guarded by zombies who kill anyone who tries to take the jewels.

Admittadely novel idea is almost completely destroyed by a silly script and some pretty bad acting. The "underwater" scenes are actually pretty hysterical. They're obviously shot on a sound stage with the actors moving very slow and having bubbles pour out of their diving suits! Notice how the plants on the "ocean" floor never move.

Still I have a certain fondness for silly movies like this. It takes me back to my childhood where these popped up on Saturday afternoon TV constantly. It does have a little creepy scene when the zombies attack at the end and Hayes (a seriously under rated actress) is very good in a nothing role. Also I saw a nice, clean, letter-boxed (!) version of this on TCM. Silly but fun.