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White Zombie [1932]


...On arrival in Haiti, Madeleine Short reunites with her fiancé Neil Parker, with imminent plans to be married. On the way to their lodging, the couple's coach passes Murder Legendre, an evil voodoo master, who observes them with interest. Neil and Madeleine arrive at the home of the wealthy plantation owner, Charles Beaumont. Charles' love of Madeleine prompts him to meet Murder secretly in Murder's sugar cane mill, operated entirely by zombies. Charles wants to convince Madeleine to marry him and solicits Murder's supernatural assistance. Murder states that the only way to help Charles is to transform Madeleine into a zombie with a potion. Beaumont agrees, takes the potion, and surreptitiously gives it to Madeleine. Shortly after Madeleine and Neil's wedding ceremony, the potion takes effect on Madeleine, who soon dies and is buried. Murder and Charles enter Madeleine's tomb at night and bring her back to life as a zombie. In a drunken state, a depressed Neil sees ghostly apparitions of Madeleine and goes to her tomb. On finding it empty, Neil seeks out the assistance of the local missionary, Dr. Bruner, who recounts how Murder turned many of his rivals into zombies, who now act as Murder's closest guardians. The two men journey to Murder's cliff side castle to rescue Madeleine.


At the castle, Charles has begun to regret Madeleine's transformation and begs Murder to return her to life, but Murder refuses. Charles discovers he has been tainted by Murder's voodoo and is also transforming into a zombie. As Neil enters the fortress, Murder senses his presence and silently orders Madeleine to kill Neil. She approaches Neil with a knife, but Bruner grabs her hand from behind a curtain, making her drop the knife and walk away. Neil follows Madeleine to an escarpment, where Murder commands his zombie guardians to kill Neil. Bruner approaches Murder and knocks him out, breaking Murder's mental control over his zombies. Undirected, the zombies topple off the cliff. Murder awakens and eludes Neil and Bruner, but Charles pushes Murder off the cliff. Charles loses his balance and also falls to his death. Murder's death releases Madeleine from her zombie trance, and she awakens to embrace Neil.



- Béla Lugosi as 'Murder' Legendre, a white Haitian voodoo master who commands a crew of zombies.
-Madge Bellamy as Madeleine Short Parker, the fiancée of Neil who is turned into a zombie by Murder Legendre.
-John Harron as Neil Parker, a bank employee.
-Robert Frazer as Charles Beaumont, a plantation owner who is in love with Madeleine.
- Joseph Cawthorn as Dr. Bruner: a missionary who later helps Neil Parker save Madeleine.
-Brandon Hurst as Silver, Beaumont's butler.
-George Burr Macannan as Von Gelder, a formerly rich man who has fallen under Legendre's spell to become a zombie.
-Frederick Peters as Chauvin, a former executioner who has become a zombie under Legendre's control.
-Annette Stone as Maid
-John Printz as Ledot, a zombie
-Dan Crimmins as Pierre, a witch doctor
-Claude Morgan as Zombie
-John Fergusson as Zombie
-Velma Gresham as Tall Maid

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1 comment:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I've never seen this movie, but isn't this from where Rob Zombie took the band name of White Zombie?