REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES

 

Another Poverty Row zombie flick? Yes, it's Monogram's 1943 REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES, which has a lot of similarities with the company's earlier KING OF THE ZOMBIES. 

REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES starts right out with the "good stuff". On a stormy, windswept night, a mysterious fellow holding a lantern (James Baskett, who would later play Uncle Remus in Disney's SONG OF THE SOUTH) raises up a crop of the living dead from a cemetery by using a zombie call ("Ahhhhh-OOOOOOHHHH!"). Unfortunately this is the best scene in the film. The story is set in a spooky manor somewhere in Louisiana, where a Dr. Von Altermann (John Carradine) is experimenting with the local populace in order to create an unstoppable army for the Third Reich. The brother of Von Altermann's late wife (Mauritz Hugo)--along with his detective friend (Robert Lowery) and servant Jeff (Mantan Moreland)-- arrives to investigate how the woman died. Mrs. Von Altermann (Veda Ann Borg) has been turned into a zombie by her husband....but the late woman still has ideas of her own, and she eventually gives the doctor his comeuppance. 

REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES and KING OF THE ZOMBIES have a lot in common. Both movies have two leading men and a black servant investigating weird happenings at a creepy remote location, a villainous scientist whose loyalties are with Nazi Germany, a cackling old woman who works in the household (and is played in both stories by an actress credited as Madame Sul-Te-Wan), and, of course, zombies. It's a tossup on which film is best. Mantan Moreland doesn't get as much to do in REVENGE as he did in KING, and the story suffers as a result. John Carradine is a much more "proper" mad doctor in REVENGE than Henry Victor is in KING, but Carradine acts more haughty than crazy. 

In both features the zombies are a letdown. Dr. Von Altermann is convinced he can create a cadre of  invincible warriors with his subjects, but the zombies in REVENGE move so slow, they make Kharis the Mummy seem like Rickey Henderson in comparison. The character in REVENGE that makes the biggest impact is Mrs. Von Altermann, despite the fact that she spends most of her time wandering around in a nightgown. Every so often the woman reveals a disconcerting smile, letting the viewer know that she's not fully under the control of her husband. (Veda Ann Borg, who played the zombified missus, was a B movie queen who later became an unofficial member of the John Ford/John Wayne stock company due to her marriage to Andrew V. McLaglen. She got a small, but movie-stealing part in John Wayne's THE ALAMO.)

Robert Lowery and Mauritz Hugo are the usual dull heroes one finds in low budget thrillers like this. Cowboy matinee star Bob Steele shows up posing as a German agent, but he turns out to be a good guy, and Gale Storm plays Dr. Von Altermann's clueless secretary. 

The director of REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES was Steve Sekely, and one of the screenwriters was Edmond Kelso, who wrote KING OF THE ZOMBIES (no surprise there). Sekely tries a few visual tricks to get things hopping, but he's limited in what he can do (this is a Monogram movie, after all). REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES is a mid-level Poverty Row horror--it's not one of the best, but it isn't terrible. It's perfect for late night viewing when you can't sleep....and since it's only an hour, it won't take up too much of your time. (You can find it on just about every streaming service there is, as well as YouTube.)