“They are not men, monsieur, they are dead bodies.”
Madeleine Short (Madge Bellamy) and Neil Parker (John Harron) plan to be married. They are in Haiti as guests of Charles Beaumont (Robert W Frazer). He owns a large plantation on the island. On the way to Beaumont’s plantation they pass a man named Murder Legendre (Bela Lugosi). Murder is a Haitian voodoo master. He commands a work force of zombies that labor in his sugar mill.
Beaumont goes to see Murder at his mill. He wants Murder to do something that will make Madeleine fall in love with him. Murder tells him that the only way he can get Madeleine to stay with him is to make her a zombie. He gives Beaumont a potion and tells him to put it in some wine and have her drink it. Madeleine dies and is buried. Parker is devastated. He gets drunk and goes to her grave sight only to find that it has been dug up. He finds out that she is now a zombie.
Beaumont has begun to regret his decision to have Madeleine turned into a zombie. He asks Murder return her back to the living. Murder refuses. Instead he uses his power on Beaumont and slowly begins to turn him into a zombie. Murder has other plans for Madeleine.
“White Zombie” was released in 1932 and was directed by Victor Halperin. The movie was produced during the pre-code era. Also known as the Hays Code, named after Will H. Hays who, at the time, was the president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA). (from 1922 to 1945.) The advent of sound in the motion picture industry opened up a tremendous amount of material that could now be presented that was previously limited to visual cues. This material also brought problems. Those of the moral kind. Prior to 1934 the film industry had no restraints and issues of the human condition were regularly expressed on the screen. Sex for one. Drugs for another. Many films were spiced with sexual innuendos, drug use, white slavery, adultery, rape, etc., etc. It is an involved subject that is best explored in full another time. Suffice it to say that “White Zombie” contains some of the subjects that would, had the movie been made when the code was in place, probably have meant that the movie would possibly never have been made. Yes, had “White Zombie” been made in 1935, well, it just wouldn’t have.
Although subtle, it contains white slavery, drug use, possible necrophilia, and adultery. Is your curiosity peaked yet? First Madeleine is already married to Neil when Charles gives her the drug. Next is the drug itself. It does alter your personality. It makes you a zombie. Zombie, a dead person. Charles is in love with said dead person; that had been buried. So is Murder, who “has plans for her”. The necrophilia goes hand in hand with the white slavery.
The same issues could also be applied to some of the other pre code movies that we all love. Such as “Dracula” 1931, “Frankenstein” 1931, “Tarzan the Ape Man” 1932, “The Black Cat” 1934, “King Kong” 1933 and many more. Whether they depict these issues or other issues contained in the Hays Code, these movies are only here because of when they were produced.
All that being said, “White Zombie” is a really interesting movie. And it deserves better treatment than it has received in the public domain. Partly because of the subject matter, partly because of Bela Lugosi’s performance and partly because of Jack P. Pierce’s make-up. It is one of the first zombie movies ever, and still kinda creepy.