Revolt of the Zombies (1936)

Undescribable Perfection

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

In cinematic language 'sequel to' and 'follows' are frequently very loose - often ambiguous - terms. This is the case with Revolt of the Zombies which supposedly 'follows' the far superior 'White Zombie' of 1932. The tenuous connections in this case are that both films were made by the Halperin Brothers and both feature zombies. An even more tenuous connection is that the great Bela Lugosi starred in the first film whilst here only his eyes intermittently appear on screen as the zombies of the title are created.The gist of the story is that a Cambodian priest has the power to turn men into zombies, aptly demonstrated at the beginning by having them battle against the enemy in the First World War. Unfortunately the allied commanders are so appalled by the threat of zombies taking over the world that when he refuses to reveal his secrets they imprison him. After his murder an expedition is launched to Cambodia in order to find and destroy the means of zombification.The plot becomes more complicated with the development of a love triangle between our three main protagonists. Our hero Armand Lougue (Dean Jagger) is a man of honour and integrity, his brash friend Clifford Grayson (Robert Noland) has a philosophy of taking what he wants at any cost and their love interest Claire Duval (Dorothy Stone) is a manipulative two-timer quite willing to play both men off against each other.Our hero and heroine become engaged only for her to break it off citing her love for his friend. Disillusioned, he embarks on a lone but successful crusade to find the secret. As the story develops his metamorphosis into a madman intent on ruling the world with a zombie army is matched by the change in both his friend and the heroine who sacrifice their mutual love in order to ensure each others' survival.Amazingly, this is all packed into slightly over one hour - and this would seem to be where the problem lies. The short running length does not justify the complicated plot structures nor does it give time for proper character development. Other cast members, despite their importance to plot, seem to be peripheral - Roy D'Arcy for instance as the villainous Mazovia. Whilst Dean Jagger had a long Hollywood history, Claire Duval appeared in only six productions and this was Robert Noland's only film appearance. Stock footage and some rather shoddy sets along with rather inapt musical accompaniment certainly do not help. Despite this there are good moments to be had although anybody expecting a classic zombie film will feel disappointed which probably goes some way to explaining the low overall vote.Other than some rather old-fashioned - almost as if it were a silent film - acting, I, like other reviewers noted that there seemed to be some editing issues where scenes were cut almost before completion. Whilst there is no production information available it is possible that the original version of this film was cut down for some reason prior to release. We can but wait in expectation and hope...

Being in the mood this weekend to watch a quick and easy black and white "monster movie",I decided to have a lot at a pile of DVD's containing films which I have been meaning to revisit for some time.Getting near the end of the pile,I was pleasantly surprised to discover a triple feature disc,that along with the surprisingly good The Amazing Transparent Man and the disappointing Attack of the Giant Leeches also contained a Zombie movie,which I have been meaning to re- watch,since seeing the film for the first time on Halloween 2011.The plot:Reciving information from one of his most trusted soldiers-Armand Louque that secret experiments are taking place in a part of Cambodia that are turning the residents of the area into a powerful army of Zombies,General Duval decides to gather a group of his loyal soldiers to come along with him on an undercover mission to destroy what ever is being used to turn people into Zombies.Arriving in Cambodia with hope of having gotten there before the experiments destroy everyone,Duval and Loique begin to fear that they may have arrived too late,and are now unable to stop the revolt of the Zombies from taking place.View on the film:Giving the film an intriguing Cambodia setting,the screenplay by director Victor Halperin,Howard Higgin and Rollo Lloyd disappointingly waste the opportunity's given to them with the setting,by using the moment that Duval and Louque enter the Cambodia jungle to change the movie from a fun "men on a mission",into an annoyingly plodding Romantic Drama,which leads to all of the Zombie elements of the film being pushed to the side and being left as dead,empty shells.Despite Dean Jagger giving an extremely wooden performance as Louque,the cute Dorothy Stone gives the movie some much needed jungle sass as Duval's daughter Claire Duval,while George Cleveland gives a cheerfully hammy performance as General Duval.Whilst the screenplay that he co-wrote is sadly flat,director Victor Halperin does show that he has a good eye for creating a boiling appearance.With a stabbing committed in the shadows and a search for a long lost artifact being particular highlights,Halperin also uses the last 3 minutes of the film to show the revolt at full flow,which also sadly shows what the rest of this 62 minute "revolt" should have been.

I'm working my way through the Horror Classics 50 Movie Pack Collection and REVOLT OF THE ZOMBIES is one of the movies in the set. I am watching them with my soon-to-be seven-year old daughter, which makes most of these movies a laugh riot.I had high hopes for REVOLT OF THE ZOMBIES, after watching White Zombie, which is really the precursor to so much that is the mainstay of zombies in cinema (think Clive Barker's Serpent and the Rainbow and James Bond's Live and Let Die funeral scene, NOT Night of the Living Dead).However, even though the title includes the word "zombies," it is little more than a love triangle, involving anthropologist Armand Louque, who is smitten with Claire Duval; who in turn is taken with his companion Clifford Grayson. What a yawn-fest, my daughter fell asleep half-way through.I had a real hard time deciphering who these people worked for -- the allies or the axis; but, I guess that doesn't really matter.I was shocked to see Bela Lugosi in the credits for this movie; but, of course those were his eyes (from White Zombie) serving as the mind-control device for the zombies.

Wimpy stuffed shirt Armand Louque (blandly played by veteran character actor Dean Jagger in a rare lead role) joins a group of researchers who want to find and destroy the secret technique of creating zombies. Armand falls for the lovely Claire Duval (fetching blonde Dorothy Stone), who uses the meek sap to get Armand's colleague Clifford Grayson (the hopelessly wooden Robert Noland) to marry her. Furious over being used and spurned by Claire, Armand uses his knowledge of voodoo to get revenge. Sound exciting? Well, it sure ain't. For starters, Victor Halperin's static (non)direction lets the meandering and uneventful talk-ridden story plod along at an excruciatingly slow pace. Worse yet, Halperin crucially fails to bring any tension, atmosphere and momentum to the hideously tedious proceedings. The mostly blah acting from a largely insipid cast doesn't help matters any; only George Cleveland as the hearty General Duval and E. Alyn Warren as the irascible Dr. Trevissant manage to enliven things a bit with their welcome and refreshing hammy histrionics. The drippy stock film library score, the painfully obvious stagebound sets, and the crude cinematography are pretty lousy and unimpressive as well. In fact, this feeble excuse for a fright feature is so crummy that not even the uncredited starkly staring eyes of the great Bela Lugosi can alleviate the brain-numbing boredom. A dismally dull dud.