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Tuesday, March 08, 2011




I'm a White Zombie Zombie






At what point do you fall asleep when watching White Zombie? For me, it's about the half mark, where Bela Lugosi and assist are removing Madge Bellamy from premature crypt-ternment. No matter how long I'm out, it always seems they're waiting in that mausoleum for me to rejoin them. All us White Zombies have patience in common. Those 1932 shadows permit me to drift thither/yon and not really miss anything. If White Zombie had a European director, it might enjoy Vampyr's reputation and maybe a Criterion box release. They both work on me like sleeping powders (not to say I don't revere them). So where does Greenbriar come off posting on a film Gary Don Rhodes wrote an entire book about? Well, partly it's fact I've come increasingly round to placing White Zombie among personal Top Five of all 30's horror, a status it could not have achieved in boy days when stations, at least around here, never ran the thing. Again I'm on ground well trodden by others. Has any so cheap a film been covered as extensively? Many cite fairy tales qualities in White Zombie. "Dream-like" has been bandied (having taken me there, I'd concur). Some call it poetic. I'd label White Zombie insistent in its fascination, where all that is good rolls triumphantly over much that isn't. Our generation will have to take White Zombie with us, as I don't look for younger ones to willingly pick up this banner.

















Fans of White Zombie are protective of it. They know what they're up against. Late historian George Turner wrote of how he followed WZ from 1932 first-run through multiple screenings at LA's Regina Theatre of reissue legend. Dick Bojarski chased white zombies through Brooklyn flea pits during the late forties, and Arthur Lenig, author of definitive The Count, says he was first to hail it a classic. William K. Everson was a notable champion in his 1974 book Classics Of The Horror Film. They all had to assume a defensive posture in the face of mainstream disdain for White Zombie, exemplified best by a November, 1970 New York Times piece wherein Vincent Canby used terms like immensely absurd, unintentionally funny, and so on to describe a revival booking wherein White Zombie played in support of Freaks (WZ being of a much lesser order than its screen companion, he'd add). I read Canby's smack-down at age sixteen, long before White Zombie came into my life and just assumed he was of a Steven Scheuer persuasion that classed all horror films as junk. Well, hadn't we grown up resigned to such placement by a stuck-up critic's establishment?






































Part of White Zombie's appeal comes of its (some say) wretchedly antiquated technique and hard-luck cast. The fact gold was spun from this is wondrous. Madge Bellamy and John Harron are actors you might imagine plunging into an abyss with zombie unfortunates in the film's final scene, so critcally reviled are their performances. These two did much to foreclose serious recognition for White Zombie, and to some extent, still do. Yet there is minor player Robert Frazer, barely known for much else, giving a good account of what's actually a role of some depth. His foray to Lugosi's sugar mill is perfection itself, a blessed segment for which you'd otherwise forgive White Zombie anything. Sound is put to remarkably creative use throughout, White Zombie doing wondrous things with noise, whether it's cane being ground or a wooden box pushed into a burial vault. Stock music was borrowed from heaven knows where and works beautifully for not quite fitting situations on screen, while rented sets lend grandeur not expected in a quickie (11 days) with a $62K negative cost.















Bela Lugosi figured they made millions off White Zombie, "they" being the independent producing Halperin brothers. BL managed on short change somewhere north of $750, so legend states. It galled Lugosi to watch White Zombie on 50's television and know he'd not realize one cent for broadcasts. Many old-timers were of like mind, having performed for flat fees and shut now out of residuals. Lucky teen boys who befriended Lugosi would join him tube-side for White Zombie and others of his inventory. To imagine such makes present day fans swoon. There's really no more a definitive Bela part than this one. Never did he look better or exhibit greater command. White Zombie made some folks rich by 30's standards. Certainly there were profits beyond what even major studio horrors earned. The skinned-to-bone budget was assist toward that. Domestic rentals of $252K and foreign adding another $118K amounted to happy payday for (presumably) the Halperins and distributing United Artists. White Zombie stayed in more or less perpetual release from there on. Houses big and small filled dates with it ... many used WZ as screen lure with on-stage spook acts, some with Lugosi himself in leaner times. Our Liberty Theatre brought it in for a July 1947 date at flat rental of $20 (Charlotte exchange Kay Films being payee). 35mm leasing was handled by Sherman Krellberg, who roamed dealer rooms at collector cons into the seventies (hoping, no doubt, to work one last con of his own). Video peddlers got interested when fans requested White Zombie in something other than muddy prints. A laser disc from the Roan Group finally put things right as possible (considering a long gone camera negative) and their release got mainstream press attention that was a near-first for humble White Zombie. The Roan disc remains best of the many WZ's in circulation (their DVD an improvement even on a mid-nineties restoration the Roans oversaw).

10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for the kind words on the Roan Group's White Zombie.

It's an honor to be associated with that great old film in even the slightest way.

3:13 PM  
Blogger Christopher said...

Watching WZ on the couch with Bela might get kinda skeeeery! =:oO
I've seen it several times and have probablly fallen asleep each time myself.It does work its voodoo well.I wonder what goes on in those moments of dark delerium before I'm awakened by the squaking of the bird?

3:19 AM  
Blogger Reg Hartt said...

The Roan Group's WHITE ZOMBIE is the only way to see and hear this film.

Those who have only seen it in the versions offered in discount video collections are just not seeing it.

I tracked down a gorgeous 16mm print of the film for use in the first Toronto Film Festival only to see it run on a crappy projector that burned the center of every frame.

The Fest refused to replace the print. I was F.....D.

I ran the Roan print through a 3D conversion system. WOW!

If you are ever in Toronto come by and see WHITE ZOMBIE as you have never seen it before.

5:54 AM  
Anonymous Kevin K. said...

Lugosi's "Scared to Death" put me to sleep -- twice -- as I tried to watch it over the course of two evenings. And it's less than 70 minutes long.

The zombie workers in "White Zombie" are incredibly creepy. I can't imagine the effect they had on audiences in the '30s.

10:38 AM  
Anonymous Bob said...

One of my favorites ... I love this film unreservedly. It was a key part in a life-long obsession with all things Lugosi.

11:22 AM  
Blogger MDG14450 said...

>Has any so cheap a film been covered as extensively?

Night of the Living Dead? Detour? Carnival of Souls?

In any event, some movies (like the ones above) are that much more satisfying for being done on the cheap.

I'll have to give it another watch--last time was Halloween before last, sound off, with the TV turned to be visible to trick or treaters as they came to the door.

The performances never bothered me--for a cheap production this early in the sound era they didn't seem bad.

11:54 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

For a film that predates the idea of sound design, it makes remarkably effective use of audio (and silence).

While transferring the 35mm print (from a 50s re-release, if I remember right), we found scenes where the dialogue would go slightly in and out of synch from shot to shot.

Had it been that way since '32?

12:41 PM  
Anonymous mido505 said...

I need to get that Roan disk. Just last week, I gave a crappy DVD copy of WZ to a young lady friend who loves zombie flicks, to show her where it all started, and she loved it. Lugosi is an enthrallingly physical actor, with a masterful control of his body and face; just the way he uses his hands in WZ is enough to hold my attention.

Rumor has it that Lugosi directed a big chunk of WZ. If so, that would be even more reason for resentment at low pay and zero residuals.

5:36 PM  
Anonymous Scoundrel@provide.net said...

WHITE ZOMBIE deserves all the praise due to a film designated as a "Classic" in the horror film genre.

Featuring 'high voltage' acting chops from Bela Lugosi and the enhancements of Jack Pierce along with the best sets and atmospheric camera tricks money could rent, WZ has always been underappreciated IMHO, due to those who couldn't sit still long enough to watch this classic tale unfold.

With a performance that equals DRACULA and channels the best qualities of the Mephisto, it's no wonder that Bela was miffed to see his excellent work on broadcast TV without any recompense for his efforts.

With kudos for the Roan DVD as well as Gary Don Rhodes definitive book, WZ is truly "Desert Island" material.

11:47 AM  
Anonymous Chris U. said...

If White Zombie had a European director, it might enjoy Vampyr's reputation and maybe a Criterion box release. They both work on me like sleeping powders (not to say I don't revere them).

Some of my favorite movies work their magic this way ... and most of them are certainly European. Joseph Losey's "Boom" and Antonioni's "Red Desert" spring immediately mind. Each is a celluloid narcotic, and revere-able as such. I'd expect to be disappointed somehow if I managed to make it all the way through without falling asleep, but I don't think it will ever happen .... Occasionally such movies work exceptionally well first thing in the morning after a solid breakfast (eggs, at least) with a giant cup of coffee in hand, but I admit that I haven't tried that yet with these two.

1:19 AM  

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