White Zombie is my favorite Bela Lugosi movie. I'm not alone in that opinion I suspect. This early independent horror flick by the Halperin Brothers features a vital Bela just months away from his defining role as Dracula playing an even creepier sorceror who enslaves the living and the dead.
Murder Legrande is a great villain, self-abosbed and absolutely ruthless. He doesn't seem to care a whit about anyone but himself. The movie is rich with atmosphere and if a bit stodgy in spots, nonetheless an enthralling movie.
Revolt of the Zombies is the belated sequel to White Zombie and this one I'd not seen until recently. Both this movie and its precursor are in public domain so it can be found for the cheap on many collections of old fright flicks. Coming to this one with a profound appreciation of the original, I had read that it was a bit weak. I found it stronger than I expected. The story is clever in that it eschews the setting of the original and goes to the Far East for its atmosphere. This is very smart and gives the film its own character. The acting is pretty decent, at least as good as the original save for Bela, and the plot ain't all that bad. But it suffers from a terrible ending, one that could've been outstanding but alas falls victim to the budget.
Unlike Murder Legrande, the villain here is a man torn by his passion for a woman who utterly and callously rejects him. We are more able to understand this "nice guy" seeking another solution. His choices doom him and many others, but it's a story that requires more identification with the badguy than the original. Dean Jagger in the lead role is pretty darn good. White Zombie is pretty scary for what it seeks to do, and this one is far less so, but it does offer up a few creepy sequences and at least one iconic image of zombies marching into battle. That's a chilling sequence for sure.
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