Klili Gordon (Fredi Washington) is a light skinned mixed race female plantation owner and a Voodoo priestess in Haiti. Klili is in love with a white plantation owner, Adam Maynard (Philip Brandon). Adam has just spent the last two years in New York City. While there he meets and falls in love with Eve Langley (Marie Paxton). Adam takes Eve with him back to Haiti to be married. Klili had gone to New York to find Adam. She finally finds him on the ship with Eve. Klili tries to seduce Adam and win him back from Eve, but Adam spurns her. Klili vows to get even with Adam.
Back in Haiti Klili is approached by LeStrange (Sheldon Leonard) the overseer for Adam’s plantation. LeStrange is in love with Klili and wants her to be with him. Klili spurns LeStrange. Big mistake. Klili then decides to take her revenge on Adam. Being a Voodoo priestess, Klili raises a couple men from the dead making them mindless zombies to do her bidding. Her plan is to kidnap Eve and make her a human sacrifice.
“Ouanga” AKA “The Love Wanga” AKA “Drums in the Night” was released in 1936 and was written and directed by George Terwilliger. It is an American low budget horror film. A remake of the film with an all-black cast was done in 1939 called “The Devil’s Daughter”.
The timing of the film seems to have some confusion around it. Supposedly the movie was completed in 1933 but UCLA, the people who restored the film, claim that it was completed in 1935. Others claim it was done in 1936. The final release of the film was then labeled as 1941 or 1942 and titled “The Love Wanga”. There are also questions concerning who actually produced the film, the U.S. or Britain? This mainly comes from the Hayes Code issues that would have prevented the movie from being an American release as opposed to a British one.
The movie stars Fredi Washington as Klili. Washington was a light-skinned, green-eyed actress of mixed race. This had a tendency to limit the roles she was eligible to play, and she was often criticized as not being “black enough” for many roles. One of the other stars of the movie is Sheldon Leonard, who plays the plantation overseer, LeStrange. Leonard is a white Jewish actor playing a black character. Another main character is Philip Brandon who plays the white plantation owner Adam Maynard.
The sexual dynamics between all these characters created some issues for the filmmakers. Washington’s mixed race, which was bad enough at the time, is the reason for the problems. In the film it is suggested that Klili had an affair with Adam and LeStrange. In real life, Klili’s relationship with Adam was taboo at the time. Her relationship with LeStrange would have been allowed except for the fact that, again in real life, Washington was black and Sheldon Leonard was white. The entire situation, both off and on screen, roused lots of racism and titillation, not to mention firmly coming up against the Hayes Code.
To make matters worse, the film was originally being shot in Haiti, but the filmmakers ran afoul of real Haitian Voodoo priests. To remove the problem filming was moved to Jamaica. It didn’t stop the rumors of curses, but filming did continue. Other rumors cropped up concerning the theft of actual Voodoo artifacts, illnesses and actual deaths that add to the unusual back-story of the film.
It is believed to be the second zombie movie made by the U.S. after “White Zombie” 1932. The zombies themselves are typical but not all that impressive. The movie as a whole is mostly bland but the interracial aspects, as well as the behind-the-scenes stories, give the film its draw.