Tuesday, October 29, 2024

King of the Zombies (1941)

Spooky goings on at cliché island.


After the plane carrying James (Dick Purcell), Bill (John Archer) and Jeff (Mantan Moreland) is forced to land in bad weather on a mysterious island they are met by Dr Sangre (Henry Victor) who apparently lives there as an Austrian exile. Something weird is going on, including zombies wandering the place and women in traces appearing and disappearing before our heroes very eyes! There is a dark secret on the island involving voodoo rituals, hypnotism and the quest for secret plans...

A voodoo/zombie romp which clicks every cliché box and being a film of it's time there is a enemy agent sub-plot, but is a fine enough film with a fast moving if unoriginal plot. Mantan Moreland makes the film as the cast is otherwise quite bland, though competent. Most of the humour comes from him, though some of it may be dated and a bit stereotype these days.