White Zombie

1932 Horror 69 minutes Directed by Victor Halperin

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About White Zombie

In Haiti, Charles Beaumont asks the voodoo master Murder Legendre to take Madeleine Short away from her fiancé, Neil Parker. Legendre makes her a zombie and keeps her. Beaumont is horrified when she no longer answers. Neil goes after her. Bela Lugosi plays Legendre. Madge Bellamy plays Madeleine. The script uses William Seabrook’s travel book The Magic Island.

Cast & crew

More about White Zombie

Victor Halperin directed. Edward Halperin produced. Garnett Weston wrote the screenplay. Arthur Martinelli photographed it. United Artists released it. The New York premiere was 28 July 1932 at the Rivoli Theatre. A preview of the first cut, on 16 June 1932, ran 74 minutes. Distribution prints ran 69 minutes. Wikipedia also lists circulating times of 67, 68, and 70 minutes. The picture was shot in eleven days in March 1932, at night, on a budget reported as $50,000. Sets and props were borrowed on the Universal lot.

Themes

  • A man who hires a sorcerer
  • A woman who stops answering
  • A fiancé who comes after her
  • Murder Legendre
  • Madeleine
  • zombie
  • Haiti
  • Neil Parker
  • Charles Beaumont
  • Bela Lugosi

In film history

It is counted as the first feature-length zombie film. It did not set the rules used later: there is no bite that spreads, and Madeleine is held by Legendre’s power.

Making

The Halperins had eleven nights and a borrowed Universal horror stock of sets. Legendre’s zombies are workers under his control, taken from Seabrook’s Haiti chapters rather than from a later walking-dead film.

Reviews

The New York opening notices attacked the plot and the performances. Later writing has praised the atmosphere and compared the film to Val Lewton’s horror pictures of the 1940s.

Look

Arthur Martinelli shot the borrowed mill and the night exteriors at Bronson Canyon, with Lugosi’s eyes and the zombie mill as the recurring images.

Preservation

Distribution prints survive at about 69 minutes. The 74-minute preview cut is a separate length. Copies are on the Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons.

Notes

  • Robert Frazer plays Beaumont. John Harron plays Neil. Joseph Cawthorn and Brandon Hurst are in the supporting cast.
  • Most of the cast, aside from Lugosi and Cawthorn, were silent-era names.
  • New York reviews called the story implausible and the acting weak. The film still made a profit as an independent release.
  • A loose sequel, Revolt of the Zombies, opened in 1936.
  • Copies are on the Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons.

Scenes

  • Beaumont asks Legendre to take Madeleine from Neil.
  • She is a zombie in Legendre’s house and does not know Beaumont.
  • Neil goes into the mill after her.

Influenced by

  • William Seabrook’s The Magic Island

Influenced

  • Revolt of the Zombies (1936)

Also available

  • Internet Archive (WhiteZombie)
  • Wikimedia Commons (White Zombie (1932) by Victor Hugo Halperin HR.webm)