White Zombie

Alternate title(s):
Foreign Title:
Date: January 01, 1932 to February 01, 1933
Dates Note: 1932
Country of Origin: United States
Place of Origin: United States
Languages:
Color: B&W
Silent: No
Based On:
Additional Info:

Preservation funded by the Packard Humanities Institute

Curator Notes

Film Series/Exhibition Title: 
UCLA Festival of Preservation 2016
Description: 

On the undead heels of Dracula, Bela Lugosi and his lugubrious stare are transported from Transylvania to the West Indies for another sensational tale. The proprietor of a sugar mill staffed by zombie laborers (“they are not worried about long hours”), Lugosi helps a plantation owner entrance an innocent young bride, a conquest that proves curiously unsatisfying. With its throbbing tribal drums, Gothic shadows, and ludicrously yet appropriately stilted acting, White Zombie set a precedent for many films to follow. It serves up its allegory of enslavement surprisingly raw—exploitation as both genre and subject matter.

Authors/Roles: 
Juliet Clark

Related People

  • Person: 
    Victor Halperin
    Role: director
    Person: 
    Garnett Weston
    Role: screenwriter
    Person: 
    Arthur Martinelli
    Role: cinematographer
    Person: 
    Bela Lugosi
    Role: actors
    Person: 
    Madge Bellamy
    Role: actors
    Person: 
    Joseph Cawthorn
    Role: actors
    Person: 
    Robert Frazer
    Role: actors
    Person: 
    UCLA Film & Television Archive
    Role: source