Review of I Walked with a Zombie (1943) by Antonius B — 28 Aug 2018

A nurse (Frances Dee) comes to the West Indies to help two brothers (Tom Conway and James Ellison) tend to the older of the two's wife (Christine Gordon), who is stuck in a perpetual trancelike state. Her doctor is mystified, but it's clear that voodoo from the locals must be involved. There are some nice scenes at night in the film, such as a walk through the rustling sugarcane fields, which evoke a dreamy and gothic feeling. The characters involved in the voodoo itself are fantastic, most notably, the solemn Carrefour (guardian of the crossroads), played by Darby Jones, who has an extraordinary appearance. He alone makes the film worth seeing, especially as it's so short at 69 minutes, but it's also great to briefly see the voodoo dancers.

Unfortunately, the film's three main characters are all uninspiring, wandering through this script as if they were the ones who were zombies, at least emotionally. A love is supposed to develop between Dee and Conway, which isn't based on anything we can possibly see, and is therefore unbelievable. The character actions also seem hard to believe at times as well, for example, when they discover the wife doesn't bleed when cut, nothing is done with this information. As in 'Cat People' (1942), also directed by Jacques Tourneur, there are some really nice, eerie moments in this film, but the rest of it is too understated for my taste, and lacking in emotion.