This is generally recognised as the first zombie film and we're lucky it wasn't the last as it's abysmal from start to finish.
An engaged couple Neil and Madeline travel to Haiti to marry at the home of a plantation owner Charles Beaumont who has befriended them. Unknown to them Charles has designs on Madeline and conspires with the local voodoo master Murder Legrande ( Bela Lugosi again ). He supplies a potion which apparently kills then resurrects her as a zombie mistress for Beaumont. Beaumont doesn't seem to have realised that a zombie would be even more resistant to his charms and regrets the transaction while Neil and a local missionary plan to rescue her.
The idea is sound but it's woefully executed with shabby special effects and a murderously slow pace. Lugosi essentially plays Dracula again with his usual aplomb but some of the other acting is terrible especially John Harron as Neil who is just embarrassing. At least Madge Bellamy as Madeline has a decent excuse for being wooden.
Madge Bellamy ( as Madeline )
Sex : No
Death : Survives
Madge was a successful silent actress who began to struggle in the sound era. Her career was already moribund when in 1943 she fired three shots at her former lover Albert Murphy and got a suspended sentence as she hadn't hit him . She sued him for divorce but he was able to prove they were never married. She later ran a shop. She died in 1990 aged 90.
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