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Summary: "For you, my friend, they are the angels of death!"
Review: In remote Haiti, a voodoo-master spins webs of hypnotic power and revenge. He transforms his enemies into a nightmarish bodyguard of zombies, and rules mind-numbed slaves by terror. Bela Lugosi makes this film a success. After Dracula, this is perhaps the most effective performance of Bela's horror flicks from the early '30s. The independent production suffers from creaky technical qualities and archaiac dialogue. For its age, however, the film has some impressive visuals of the Haitian night and a spooky Gothic castle perched on a craggy cliff above the thundering breakers. Lugosi does well creating an air of mystery as the voodoo-master, sometimes called Legendre. His distinctive manner of expression, devilish whiskers, and glaring eyes combine into a satanic effect. The rest of the cast is undistinguished. The hero, Neil Parker, is an ineffectual wimp played by an unknown actor. Madeline (Madge Bellamy), the inevitable woman in the story, is the love interest of several men. Why she is the object of so much desire is puzzling, but it moves the plot along. Legendre can't wait to put her under his spell. Mesmerized, she looks like a combination of a flapper and a kewpie doll. Her bobbed hair and pursed little mouth blend with her large eyes into a vacuous trance. The zombie gang, similarly undemonstrative, is nevertheless more exciting. As they gang up to kill Parker, he rather irrelevantly shouts, "Who are they?" Bela's reply is one of the best lines in old horror flicks, "For you, my friend, they are the angels of death!" This old movie is not for everybody. Regardless, fans of Bela Lugosi and collectors of classic horror flicks need this movie for their collection. ;-)
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Summary: voted "my favorite ambient horror" film
Review: Incredible movie. The scenery is absolutely breath-taking (especially the castle perched on a cliff). The soundtrack is magnificent (reminiscent of what a Brian Eno nightmare soundtrack might sound like). This film is all about mood. After seeing it on tv.... I bought my own copy. Highly recommended. In my opinion, it is Lugosi's best movie.
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Summary: FANTASTIC DVD A MUST FOR LUGOSI FANS
Review: JUST FINISHED WATCHING THIS DVD AND ITS GREAT, I AM IN TOTAL AGREEMENT WITH OTHER REVIEWERS ABOUT ROAN TRANSFER. I ESPECIALLY LOVED THE INTERVIEW BY LUGOSI AS AN EXTRA ON THE DVD. GO OUT AND BUY IT IF YOU LOVE LUGOSI.
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Summary: White Wedding...
Review: Madeline (Madge Bellamy) and Neil (John Harron) are two young lovers on their way to get married. It's unfortunate for them that they ran into Mr. Beaumont (Robert Frazer), who convinces the couple to travel to his home in Haiti to tie the knot. Once there, things get really weird! Beaumont is so obsessed with Madge that he seeks the help of the local sugarmill owner / voodoo-meister named Murder (!) Legendre (Bela Lugosi) in captivating and possessing Madge. Well, old Murder has plans of his own, of course, involving his horde of zombie slaves and the potion that stupifies and de-humanizes them. WHITE ZOMBIE is a great movie with a nice, dark subtext about control and the consequences of obsession. Ms. Bellamy radiates innocence and beauty, while Bela is the perfect nemesis, giving stares that could curdle milk! A "must own" for horror / zombie fanatics (like me)...
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Summary: Be Aware of What You Wish For!
Review: Monsieur Beaumont has invited Dr. Bruner, Neil, and his fiancée Madeleine to his plantation on Haiti to have their wedding in his mansion; however, Beaumont has an alternative motive. This motive involves a sinister man by the name of Legendre (Bela Lugosi) who runs a plantation where the people work continuously day and night without stopping for meals or sleep. The question is whether Beaumont can trust Legendre to carry out his part of the deal and not double cross him. White Zombie is a piece of horror history that should be seen with an understanding of the budget and technological equipment that were provided at the time of production, which provides an enjoyable experience.
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Summary: LOVE IT OR HATE IT
Review: most people it seems,either love this movie or hate it. i for one,love this film. if you dont like it,your taking it way too seriously.just sit back and and enjoy it for what its worth. a good old fashioned saturday matinee creep show! this particuler dvd lives up to the claims of the makers,and the opinions of most of the other reviewers. the restoration is phenomenal!this is the best quality print of this film available! if you are one of those that do love this film. this dvd is a must! bela lugosi in my opinion, has always been a class act.(even at his cheesiest,in which he is not in this flick)well... maybe just a little. some of the casts acting is a little over the top, but is forgivable.in my book,its a classic.well worth the cash!and is a great edition to any classic horror movie collection! look, gone with the wind it aint! but its not supposed to be!just have some fun, and stop taking things so seriously!
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Summary: Overlooked Classic
Review: Seldom seen today, The White Zombie is less a typical 1930s shock-and-shudder show than a weirdly alluring, highly atmospheric 1930s art film, the rather romantic tale of a young bride enslaved by zombie-making Bela Lugosi at his eyebrow-squinting best. Beautifully filmed in moody black and white with some remarkable scenic effects, the film has a leisurely pace which may displease some but which actually adds to the overall strangeness of the piece, rather like a slow moving stream that suddenly boils into unexpected eddies. Lugosi fans, 1930s horror fans, and those in search of something quite different from this era in film will enjoy it tremendously.
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Summary: ". . . we may uncover sins the devil would be ashamed of."
Review: So warns the Christian missionary to Haiti who helps a young banker save his bride from voodoo-induced thralldom to a plantation owner who has kidnapped her.In White Zombie the sins were brought to Haiti by European colonizers. White Zombie (1932) is Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) transposed from an industrial society to the third world. The Haitian zombies slaving in Legendre's sugar mill are waiting for a Che Guevara, not a Lenin. In Metropolis a worker in the underground factory below the city continually moves the hands on a giant round clock, a task that doesn't seem to have any purpose. In White Zombie the undead go round and round in a circle, turning a mill to grind up sugar cane for Legendre, the mill owner who has simplified his labor relations by transforming his workforce into zombies. One zombie falls from his spot into a vat where he is ground up with the cane. None of his fellow workers notice; he doesn't even try to save himself as he falls.
Legendre has taken economic and political control of the island by enslaving its elite (the head of the gendarmerie and politicians), in addition to the unskilled peasants who make his sugar. Legendre gets the living betray their own kind. Once Madeleine has become a zombie she is tended by maids who obey their master rather than be turned into undead creatures themselves. Unfortunately for the Haitians, while Madeleine is saved from an eternity of playing Chopin on the piano with a glazed expression, the natives grinding the sugar cane are forgotten at the end. But once Legendre is out of the way, who will take care of the zombie mill workers and export the sugar? Maybe Madeleine's husband, the banker, can take over the mill. Everything will work out.
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Summary: "White Zombie" Never Looked Better
Review: The DVD release of "White Zombie" does justice to one of the great horror films of the 1930s, not to mention one of Bela Lugosi's finest hours. It looks and sounds terrific. In addition, the supplemental Lugosi interviews are a nice touch. If you never have seen "White Zombie," you're missing one of the most atmospheric and stylish horror films ever made. Transferred from a stunning 35mm print, the Roan Group has done wonders in its restoration of the Lugosi classic.
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Summary: The granddaddy of modern zombie films
Review: The great thing about zombie films is that you don't really need to spend any money on special effects if you don't want to: just the idea of the dead silently moving is horror enough. Many directors with low budgets and great imaginations have thus turned to the genre, producing such classic variations on the theme as I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, THE EVIL DEAD, and 28 DAYS LATER. But they all owe a debt back to this, probably the first "true" zombie film. Fortunately, this Haiti-set film holds up beautifully, with wonderfully evocative images. There's a completely wordless satanic mill, where the silence isn't even broken by the fall of one of the zombies into the great millstone; a haunted ruined castle by the sea like something out of Doré; a vulture that is used to wonderful effect in the film's last moments; and a beautiful undead heroine stalking around in her filmy negligee. (Inevitably she's named "Madeleine," so her irritating boyfriend can call after her, in BBC tones, "Oh, Madeleine... Madeleine... oh, Madeleine...") Bela Legosi, who was clearly not out for subtlety as the evil zombie master Legendre, is the perfect center figure for this expressionistic nightmare.
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