Revenge of the Zombies (1943), dir. Steve Sekely, Monogram Pictures
By this point, John Carradine had a dream. He put most of his money into a theater company devoted to Shakespeare. Thus, he would need money and lots of it. Despite appearing in the Grapes of Wraith and Stagecoach, Carradine took an offer from Monogram to be in their remake of King of the Zombies.
In a crumbling cemetery, an oddly stiff fellow, later revealed to be named Lazarus (James Baskett), blows a strange call which prompts several corpses to rise from their graves. He hands out picks and shovels and gives them orders. One is ordered to the watch the home of Dr. Keating (Barry Macollum).
Inside the doctor's home, he greets two guests. The first is his old friend Warrington (Mauritz Hugo), and the second is a detective Warrington has hired-Larry Adams (Robert Lowery). It seems that Dr. Keating's sister Lila (Veda Van Borg) has recently passed away. He doesn't buy the official explanation and he wants Adams to find out what he can. He can begin with Lila's husband, Dr. Max Heinrich von Alterman (Carradine).
Adams' driver Jeff (Mantan Moreland) spots the zombie in the woods and has a freakout but when the men inside rush outside there's nothing out there.
Dr. von Alterman, meanwhile, is in conference with Mammy Beulah (Madame Sul-Te-Wan). He's brought Lila back to life, kind of. She's a zombie now, but I guess that's an improvement.
Of course Lila seems to have a bit too much personality for Dr. von Alterman's work; and what is his work? Zombie Nazis of course.
Always when you least suspect.
With his zombie troops growing, can Adams and Warrington stop the mad doctor?
Honestly not as bad as one would think. Carradine steals the show. He really makes you believe that he wants to bring zombies under his command to help him rule the world. Moreland is also surprisingly good, mostly because he isn't the vocal point of the narrative.
No comments:
Post a Comment