Bela plays a character called Murder Legendre. You can't get more blatant than naming a character Murder. Also we have a young couple named Madeleine and Neil, they are to be married but Monsieur Beaumont has a thing for Madeleine. Beaumont convinces the couple to come to Haiti to marry, his alterior motive is to steal the young girl away.
Beaumont goes to Bela for help in a great scene. He goes to see Lugosi in his sugar mill, all the workers in the mill are zombies and do a great job of looking very creepy, slowing operating machinery with dead expressions. Much like real factory workers i suppose.
Bela gives Beaumont a potion which will create a zombie out of the young love interest. Reluctantly, he takes it.
As the couple marry, Bela stands about outside carving a candle in to some type of voodoo doll. It should be pointed out that Lugosi has the most awesome facial hair ever in this film. He looks like Dick Dastardly but even more evil. He even rocks a unibrow and makes it look cool.
So at the wedding reception, the bride dies from her drinking the potion and rather unstandably, her husband is a bit upset. He goes and gets drunk in a bar that has a very german expressionist feel to it and he can see his dead wife. She may be a ghost, a zombie, or he's pissed.
Much of the acting is a little cheesy, the only one who isn't is Lugosi, which is funny considering that Lugosi, as much as i love him, could be very cheesy at times.
Another criticism of the film that i have to make is that it can be very slow in places. It moves like a hungover snail. Moments such as close ups of Lugosi's eyes, although Bela does the creepy stare very well, they seem to linger on these shots far too long.
Neil goes to his wifes tomb and to the surprise of nobody but him, she is gone. He seeks help from Dr. Bruner and informs him about Lugosi and his zombie making ways. Together they go to Murder's cliffside castle to rescue Madeleine.
She sits in the castle with Beaumont, unresponsive to his gifts and affection. Beaumont realizes that she isn't who she was and we get a really good line, "I thought that beauty alone would satisfy. But the soul is gone. I can't bear those empty, staring eyes."
Bela enters and gives Beaumont some wine. Not just any wine, but some voodoo wine, turning poor old Beaumont in to a zombie too. Neil shows up but Bela is on to him and sends zombie Madeleine to kill him.
Dr. Bruner knocks out Lugosi and this breaks his control over his zombies and they all fall off a cliff!
Lugosi awakes and Beaumont struggles with him, they both fall off the cliff and die. The good news is that Madeleine is no longer a zombie and everybody except all the people that died, live happily ever after.
If you can ignore some of the over the top acting from the supporting cast, White Zombie is a good film. It's setting and lighting combined with a great performance from Bela Lugosi make for a cult classic. Considering it was an independent film too, makes it even more impressive. So if you like a good b-movie, check it out.
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