I don't want to do it. It's talked about enough, but I feel like I have to address it. That giant elephant in the room of our culture anymore. Of course, I mean racism. It's such a touchy subject, but one that has become so implicit in our culture that it seems like you can't discuss any film anymore without defending or abusing it's portrayal of minority characters. The film should be judged, fairly, on its' comparison to other cheapie horror films of the era and how it stacks up, but there is so much discussion of the stereotyping of black characters in this movie that you almost have to discuss it. By not addressing at all, you run that risk of being labeled a racist yourself because you dared to embrace a film that has obvious stereotypes.I do not champion those stereotypes, nor approve of some of them, but I am also willing to say they are products of their age. That does not excuse them, but also does not mean that an audience looking at it with the benefit of 70 more years of racial understanding should judge it by today's standards. I'm already discussing this far more than I intended, so I will say this. Mantan Moreland is the star of this movie. He is hilarious. He is the entire reason that this movie is so enjoyable. It would be another 20 years before Hollywood really started giving starring roles to black actors, so I would say that Moreland is a pioneer here and should be appreciated for it. So, enough of my rant.The movie has a lot in common with the other Monogram Pictures of its time, cheap throwaway horror films, produced with a small budget, bad writing and bad acting and pushed out. Most of them had ridiculous plots with people acting in ridiculous ways and this movie is no exception. What it doesn't have, that a lot of Monogram's best known pictures have, is Bela Lugosi, but they got Henry Victor to do his best Lugosi impersonation.Two guys are on a mission to find a missing admiral who has crash landed in the Caribbean. Naturally, they bring their servant along because you can't go on a trip without your valet, now can you? They end up crash landing on an island that seems to be mostly jungle except for a creepy European guy who has a big, Gothic mansion in the middle of the jungle. It's filled with his sleepwalking wife, his young niece and a house full of zombie servants. It is, actually, one of the last films that I can think of where Hollywood used the old style zombie, the idea of the Caribbean style mindless minion that became popular horror fodder in movies like WHITE ZOMBIE and I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE. The movie is full of jungle drums, mindless walkers, hidden passageways and a big voodoo ceremony in the finale. On the surface, the Nazi type character is doing research on hypnosis and mind control. Ultimately, he is using it as a plot to help his allies with a nefarious plot against the Americans they are at war with.The two main characters are really just window dressing. We have the secret agent man, young and dashing, out to win the girl and save the day, but he's completely generic and forgettable. His buddy, the pilot, is along for some comic relief and to become the plot device as he is brainwashed by the evil scientist. It is Moreland who is the star. He has a majority of the screen time. He gets all of the best jokes. He is, also, the hero. Moreland is the one who realizes that something is afoot. He uses the other servants of the house to dig up information on what is really going on in this plantation. In the end, it is Moreland that saves the day. His sense of humor is fantastic. Yes, typical of the day there are a lot of one-liners and witty comebacks, but his facial expressions and use of body language is, also, just spot on.The humor makes this movie shine, but there is plenty of Saturday matinée monster goodness to satisfy my cravings. Watch this in a dark room on a Saturday night and it's perfect. The zombies go perfectly with the jungle drums, setting an exotic scene of scariness. The main villain plays his role well. Yes, he's clearly aping Lugosi, but he does it well. The creepy voodoo witch adds a nice touch, leading up to a finale, complete with voodoo masks that reminded me of something straight out of a Scooby Doo cartoon, which is what this whole movie feels like to me.

Well, I do declare! Thems were different days back then. Two US air force guys and their valet Jeff are forced to crash on an island in the West Indies, and find themselves staying at a strange house with an even stranger Germanic doctor, his out-of-it wife, and her niece. At first they are welcomed in the house, but gradually they realise that all isn't right. For one thing, Jeff, being black, is assigned to kitchen duties with the rest of the staff and encounters zombies. Also, there seems to be another pilot being held there for reasons unknown. Our three heroes do a bit of investigating (involving secret passageways, something that always makes me enjoy a film more), but we know what happens when folk investigate where they shouldn't, right? Before you know it our heroes are getting turned into zombies (including a hilarious scene where Jeff is turned. "Move aside boys, I'm one of the gang now.") It's all down to pilot Mac to help his mates, kick voodoo arse, sort out the Bosch and be back home for eggs and bacon. Oh yeah!Although the Lordy Lordy antics seem a bit weird with all us folks living in the future, I thought Jeff's character was brilliant. He gets all the best lines and makes to the two white leads seem like two well clothed store dummies. The zombies themselves are pretty good too, although not as creepy as those in White Zombie, they do their fair bit of shuffling around, which is always good. This is a better than average zombie film with plenty of laughs, voodoo nonsense, and some World War 2 leanings.

Three people in a small airplane get lost due to bad visibility and crash land on a small island somewhere in the Caribbean. All three manage to survive and take refuge in a large house owned by a mysterious man named "Dr. Miklos Sangre" (Henry Victor). Even though he politely offers them his hospitality it becomes clear that there is something peculiar about him. This is further reinforced once they are introduced to his wife, "Alyce Sangre" who appears to have limited motor functions and no will of her own. But this is shrugged off by two of the members of the plane crash who accept Dr. Sangre's explanation of her infirmity. However, the valet "Jefferson 'Jeff' Jackson" (Mantan Moreland) happens to observe other strange happenings and tries to warn his companions. But his concerns are dismissed as the product of an over-active imagination. At least at first. Filmed in black & white with a mostly unremarkable cast this film is definitely a diamond in the rough as it combines horror with some pretty good comedy. I especially liked the performance of Mantan Moreland and the Marguerite Whitten (as the maid, "Samantha"). Although a bit short (only about 67 minutes) this is a very good movie that I recommend for those who enjoy films of this type.

You might want to dismiss this as a low budget horror film, but you would be wrong on two counts.First, the film garnered an Oscar nomination for it's music.It also features the famous Mantan Moreland who, when he wasn't sniffing after the lovely Marguerite Whitten, was engaging in the oft criticized stereotypical behavior that he was famous for.The presence of Moreland changes this from a zombie horror film to a zombie comedy.The rest of the film, which included Admiral Arthur Wainwright (Guy Usher) was just what you would expect from the 40's.