Review of King of the Zombies (1941) by Andreas O — 23 Oct 2011

The only reason to watch this low-budget,lightweight comedy is Mantan Moreland. He delivers the best lines while our heroes stumble around on a remote island in the Caribbean at the mansion of Viennese Dr.

Sangre who gives them rooms and food to spend the night. James "Mac" McCarthy is flying with his friend Bill Summers and his black butler, Jefferson Jackson, when they enter an area somewhat like the Bermuda Triangle and wind up crashing on the island in--of all places--a graveyard.

As it turns out, U.S. General Wainwright has been captured by Sangre--who may be working for the Nazis--and Sangre wants to learn everything from Wainwright that he can about the defenses of the Panama Canal.

Monogram Pictures released KING OF THE ZOMBIES on the eve of World War II and like most pre-World War II movies, the Production Code Administration refused to let the studios assign a national identity to the enemies.

Mantan has a field day, especially when he mistakenly believes that he has been turned into a zombie. Dr. Sangre is prepared to do anything to extract the information from Wainwright. At one point, Sangre calls on a voodoo priestess to try to get the information out of the reluctant Wainwright and into another person.

Dick Purcell plays the rugged one of the two who tangles with Dr. Sangre and becomes a quasi-zombie. Zombies in this movie are nothing like those in a George Romero flick. They don't munch on people and drink their blood.

They merely shuffle about and they don't take salt in their food.