StunnaKrypto
Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.
Holstra
Boring, long, and too preachy.
AnhartLinkin
This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
Yazmin
Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.
utgard14
Cheapie horror comedy from Monogram, a sort of sequel/remake of King of the Zombies. Mantan Moreland was in both pictures playing the same character. There are small differences in the plots of the two films but essentially they're the same - a couple of white guys and their black valet (Moreland) wind up in a spooky old dark house where a mad scientist (John Carradine) is experimenting with zombies for the Nazis. Moreland is an acquired taste but he's pretty much the only person in this who appears to be trying. Even John Carradine looks bored. There's not a lot about this to love. It's not as cheesy or fun as you might hope. As much as I didn't care for King of the Zombies, there were at least some funny moments here and there. This is just blah.
Cristi_Ciopron
Actually a very funny and pleasant movie, with a Dixie setting where the quick and the living dead seem to coexist even by daylight, also with at least a couple of subplots (a puzzle: the zombie wife's will, and of course the cause of her death; and an espionage subplot also, announced by the march of the zombies at the beginning), immensely helped by a good director, Sekely, and three exciting performances, from people who had all the requisites of movie stars: Carradine (who plays a scientist, a physician, not insane but evil), Moreland and Veda Ann Borg (who gave a bit of dignity even to an ingrate role), but the main plot being a zombie tale, done as comedy and also as SF, our chance to visit a not too dazzling but nonetheless intriguing laboratory; in fact I liked it even better than 'Lady in the Death House', and here the storyline seems fast without being rush (though in the later movie that wasn't an error, since the very nature of the subject, the race against a deadline, imposed it, requested it). But Sekely was one of the masters of the genre; here, filming for Monogram. The sense of humor is genuine, and the style, light, in another unpretentious movie. There are a lot of things I enjoy here.The visitors don't seem to realize that some of the servants, in fact Lazarus, are living dead. The lovable black chauffeur gets to see other zombies at work, digging dispassionately, as becoming, in the 1st half of the movie. But the script was good, with most of the dialog being appropriate and well written. So, comedy, zombies, mystery, espionage, SF; and just to make a point: 'Revenge
' isn't a zombie drama with humorous relief, but a comedy, it is a comedy that happens to be about zombies, which is another thing altogether. Now in other words: these aren't zombies from a horror movie, but zombies from a SF (and one overtly political, proceeding with the march of the zombies and following with the espionage subplot). The will's mystery is, anyway, dropped; the mean used to murder the wife is explained, perhaps also the need to do it (as the scientist was getting ready for his getaway), but we can only presume that the widower's pretense of not knowing the dispositions in the will was indeed to gull or disorient his guests.Thank you for reading, if you did.
dbborroughs
John Carradine, in one of his occasional starring roles from the 1940's, plays a mad doctor working in the Louisiana swamps on a method of creating zombies for the Nazi cause. In order to perfect his method he's gone so far as to turn his wife into one. Things get complicated when his wife's brother shows up with a detective nd doctor in tow. Worse still is the fact that his zombie bride seems to have a mind of her own.This is a mostly good horror mystery espionage thriller. For most of the films brief running time the film is a clever at and mouse game between the doctor and his guests. The trouble is that in the final fifteen minutes the film goes through so many gyrations of the plot that you'll swear that someone left a reel or two out the film. Its twist upon twist upon nonsensical turn. Its fine in the B movie way the film is constructed, but at the same time it considerably lessens what should have been a better film.Over all this is an amusing film (some nice comedy is provided by the great Mantan Moreland). Its definitely worth checking out if you run across it or can pick it up, as I did in the the bargain bin.
Robert J. Maxwell
It's instructive to compare this tale of zombies in da bayou country being raised to provide Hitler with an indestructible army, with Val Lewton's almost contemporaneous production, "I Walked With a Zombie", over at RKO. Both are saddled with lurid title and a low budget. Both have a few recognizable names at the head of the cast. But "I Walked With a Zombie" is immeasurably better than this one because of the care that Lewton put into his minor masterpieces. "Revenge" seems to have been thrown together hastily, made up of comic, dramatic, and mystery elements -- something for the whole war time family including the half-dozen kids. Maybe ESPECIALLY the kids.The plot is absurd, naturally, but generally speaking the notion of zombies is kind of interesting from a cultural perspective. Think of it. A horde of mindless workers who never die, never eat, and never get paid. Slaves who don't mind their condition. It's the very model of a traditional agrarian society. Zombies provide labor-intensive enterprises with the rough and unskilled hands they need. It's no surprise that we associate zombies with the Caribbean and the Gulf Coast. That's where plantations of rice, sugar, cotton, and tobacco thrived.Oh, yes. The movie.All done by the numbers. Everything is pretty much rudimentary, from the photography to the direction by Steve Sekely and set dressing. John Carradine gives the only truly smooth performance. Gale Storm is cute but irrelevant. Mantan Moreland does his usual eye-bulging number but never gets around to saying, "Feets, don't fail me now!," which might have salvaged at least one scene.Otherwise, the acting is no better than you or I could do. Of course the performers get no help from the script but it would hardly matter. If you doubt it, stand in front of your bathroom mirror and recite this line, "Gentlemen, I think that it's imperative that we see no unholy rites are performed over Mrs. Altermann." If that particular line is troublesome, try this one. "Forgive me, Hair Doctor, but I can't believe you would turn your wife into a zombie." Well, it's not entirely without its virtues. The movie provided employment for a number of African-American actors and actresses outside the flourishing black cinema of the period.The skeleton in the closet -- the one called "Charlie" -- is actually a female. The pelvic girdles are the windows of the skeleton.