Score : 5/10
Year : 1932
Country: USA
Language: English
Duration: 1h09
In white zombie, a young young
woman, Madeline and her fiancé Neil arrive to an estate where they are to be
married. Only, their host lusts after Madeline and wants her all to
himself...
I can't say that white zombie is
a good movie, because it's not. But I can say that it's entertaining with its
laughable minimal and overall silly dialogues and rather dismal acting, both of
which are the fruits of the shift between silent film and talking movies, which
is understandable.
What is less easy to accept are
the goofs and factual errors, with a fake bird of prey, said to be a vulture,
whose scream in the movie is so badly made, you cannot stop from laughing.
Bela Lugosi's "tantalizing" eyes
and his sorcerer's joint-hands to take control over zombies are equally
entertaining, but not due to their quality. He does have one of the coolest
character names, though : 'Murder' Legendre, which is never said in the movie.
Madge Bellamy (née Margaret
Derden Philpott, unrelated therefore to Ralph and other Bellamy people) has
very few dialogues, for a reason...
She has the prettiest gown which
is the best part of the entire movie!
She plays very well a vacant
expression her character Madeline has to convey.
There are some nice attempts at
artistic shots and at times, nice cinematography (for its period).
A note, however, on the rather high 5/10 score. By todays standards, this is a terribly made movie. However, in its genre and period, with a rather well research into Haitian culture, the film does present better aspects than many others.
As I said, on the other hand, there are quite a few errors, and the acting isn't what you'd call great, far from it. But, it fulfils the main goal of entertaining.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the media...
My DVD edition EAN 3700173216365 has a horrible sound and image quality, with many sections with green tint which may be the result of pressing onto this early dvd a damaged film, uncleaned and processed somehow as greens instead of black and white.
There is a whole section where both image and sound degrade even worse, making it distinctly difficult to see and hear well. It lasts about 5 minutes.
Specifications :
Duration 1h07 (cover says 1h10)
Sound : original mono
B&White
Format 4/3 ; 1.33 (original was 1.37)
Forced French subtitles
Zone 2
Bonus : a 26 minutes-long documentary Couples & Duos : Boris Karloff & Bela Lugosi. Presented in French dubs as well as original English. Written and produced by Laurent Préyale.
Comments
Post a Comment