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Blu ray review: Revenge of the Zombies (1943)




In its continuing work at bringing important but overlooked cinema to home video, Kino Lorber has released this poverty row horror classic.

 

Revenge of the Zombies was made for the low budget Monogram studios during wartime, while the studio was producing such popular series as The East Side Kids, and was about to inherit the Charlie Chan series from Fox.  These B movies, running around an hour, were perfect second-features on double bill programs, along with playing at neighborhood theaters as part of the main program. They are breezy, entertaining, and important to film history. 

 

This is an ersatz sequel to King of the Zombies (1941) with some of the same cast.  John Carradine is a mad doctor conducting experiments on the dead, bring them to life as zombies.  Robert Lowery is a detective investigating the death of the scientist’s wife, along with her brother.  Mantan Moreland is his assistant, and provides his usual frightened comedy relief.

 

Revenge of the Zombies is an interesting little item, in which mad doctor Carradine brings back his dead wife (Veda Ann Borg) but unlike the docile zombies he masters, she has a will of her own.  The supporting cast includes Gale Storm, Bob Steele, and James Baskett who would earn a posthumous special Oscar for his portrayal of Uncle Remus in Disney’s Song of the South a few years later.

 

Director Steve Sekely was something of a specialist in directing low budget quickies at studios like Monogram and Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC).  He maintains the pace well, having worked with most of these actors on other projects.

 

Kino’s blu ray can be ordered at this link:  ZOMBIES

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James L. Neibaur
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