Catalog From The Beyond: WHITE ZOMBIE (1932)

Catalog From The Beyond is my chance to take a look at movies found a little further down cinematic icons’ filmographies. Most of our favorite directors have plenty to offer beyond the material they’ve become irrevocably linked to over the years. These films may be only slightly lesser-known than their big name counterparts, or they may be movies no one has ever heard of. They might be hidden gems that don’t get enough love, or they may be titles that jump out of the horror genre.

Back in 1931, Universal Studios gave the world its very first horror icon in Bela Lugosi. His turn in Dracula introduced the horror genre as a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood, and Lugosi’s depiction of Transylvania’s most infamous import set the bar for which all other depictions would be measured against. While Lugosi and Dracula have become inextricably linked, Lugosi of course has dozens of other films to his credit (115 according to IMDb). Today, I’m going to take a look at a Lugosi film that dismissed vampires in favor of another creature that would go on to dominate the genre: the zombie. I’m talking, of course, about Victor Halperin’s 1932 movie, White Zombie.

Set in Haiti, White Zombie tells the story of engaged couple Madeline (Madge Bellamy) and Neil (John Harron), who are invited to the Haitian plantation of Charles Beaumont (Robert Frazer), an acquaintance of Madeline’s who appears to be helping the couple get started with their new life together. Beaumont wants Madeline for himself, however, and he recruits the help of Lugosi’s witch doctor, “Murder” Legendre, to turn Madeline into a mindless drone so that he can steal her away. Of course, in dealing with a man named Murder, Beaumont gets more than he bargained for (cue evil laugh).

One of the things I love about this movie is that it was filmed by an independent studio, which I didn’t know was even a thing back in the 1930s. I assumed that back then, there were maybe two or three studios producing everything put to film, and that they were all secretly run by one billionaire in a white suite smoking cigars while his frazzled assistant read the latest stock updates from a ticker tape machine in the middle of the office. The fact that there were independent studios operating back then warms my heart, and that independent spirit shines through in White Zombie. Apparently, it had such a small budget that it was forced to shoot at nights to use the sets that other movies filmed on during the day.

Without the money to attempt much in the way of special effects, director Halperin was forced to find other ways to create atmosphere and dread, such as a phenomenal use of sound. The score is minimal, but there are some nice, creepy suites played at key points in the film. Additionally, sound effects are used quite well, such as a vulture whose screech sounds alarmingly similar to a woman’s scream, or the grinding of mill blades that induce a sense of menace when Beaumont meets with Legendre at his lair.

Halperin also set up shots that let the audience’s imagination do some of the heavy lifting for him rather than attempt visual effects that just wouldn’t have worked (ahem, I’m looking at you, Dracula. That rubber bat on a string isn’t fooling anyone). In a shot of the inner workings of Legendre’s operation, we get a good, close look at the deadly blades swirling in the mill moments before we see one of the zombified workers fall expressionlessly into it. It’s an abrupt shot that’s viciously casual, and the audience sees nothing of what becomes of the man, so our minds are left to wander.

In terms of the performances, they are all certainly of their time, which is to say that “talkies” had only been recently introduced and the actors were still getting used to performing in a medium that didn’t require wild gesticulations to convey emotion. Lugosi is his usual fiendish self as Legendre, although I couldn’t help but think, “This is Dracula, but with a goatee.” They even gave him that famous widow’s peak, and I found myself checking his mouth for fangs.

The lead couple played by Madge Bellamy and John Harron do fine, with Harron hamming it up as he drunkenly pines for his lost love while Bellamy essentially stares into the distance for most of the movie while in her zombified state. For me, though, the standout of the movie is Robert Frazer’s Beaumont, who transitions from manipulative cretin to repentant hero in a compelling, believable arc.

While I enjoyed almost everything about this movie, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that it is, frankly, super racist. I know what you’re thinking, “Gee, a movie made in the 1930s may have some racial insensitivity? What a revelation!” But this has some pretty glaring problems. For a movie set in Haiti, there were at most a handful of black actors given very minor roles. They even go so far as to have white actor Dan Crimmins appear in blackface. Supporting character and apparent voice of authority Dr. Bruner (Joseph Cawthorn) often dismisses Haiti as “full of nonsense and superstition,” and when Neil is confronted with the notion that Madeline may still be alive, he claims she’d be better off dead than with the natives.

On one hand, you have the argument that these elements were just unfortunate relics of the 1930s, but it still made it hard for me to fully enjoy the movie, particularly because this was the very first movie to incorporate zombies, and these were not the undead variety that George Romero would create decades later with the Living Dead series. The zombies in White Zombie are mindless drones compelled by an evil master—an element taken from Haitian lore. Instead of contemplating our relationship with Haiti at the time, however, this dynamic serves as a snapshot of the xenophobia that permeated our culture. In a way, this is still important, as we should be willing to acknowledge our cultural low points, but it also doesn’t inspire me to give Victor Halperin a pat on the back.

If you can get past the racial issues, there really is a lot to love about White Zombie. It plays to Lugosi’s strengths, it never drags as other movies of that time tended to, and every bit of the film’s meager budget makes its way onscreen and then some. It’s a fun bit of melodrama where the good guys win, true love prevails, and the bad guys get theirs. White Zombie may not have the substance that later living dead movies would generate, but as the zombie movie prototype, it planted the seed that would allow the sub-genre’s decayed, stench-ridden flowers to bloom.