You had better be a fan of Mantan Moreland's clownish behavior not to mention racial stereotyping in order to sit through King Of The Zombies. In the days of the studio system this could only come from the mind of Sam Katzman at Monogram who probably just wanted to get use of the jungle set on the Monogram lot for a dirt cheap picture.
Dick Purcell and John Archer looking for a lost admiral get fooled by a false radio signal and crash on the island of Dr. Sangre, second cousin to Dr. Moreau. Henry Victor is the good doctor and when he's not working for German Intelligence he's conducting experiments in hypnosis and voodoo with the natives. He's convinced a lot of them that they're zombies.
Mantan as Archer and Purcell's manservant is with his employers and he does the whole Mantan shtick during the film while one of them is taken captive. It was the usual claptrap up to the very end.
But when one of our intrepid heroes, now convinced he's a zombie, keeps coming for Victor as he fires point blank into him without any effect and knocks Victor into a flaming pit. And then in the explanatory postscript we are told he's just ailing a bit and he'll be up and around good as new in a bit, I throw my hands in the air.
As did I'm sure many who saw this travesty on the big screen in 1941. It's not even decent wartime propaganda.
Unless you just Mantan Moreland, stay away from this stinker.
Dick Purcell and John Archer looking for a lost admiral get fooled by a false radio signal and crash on the island of Dr. Sangre, second cousin to Dr. Moreau. Henry Victor is the good doctor and when he's not working for German Intelligence he's conducting experiments in hypnosis and voodoo with the natives. He's convinced a lot of them that they're zombies.
Mantan as Archer and Purcell's manservant is with his employers and he does the whole Mantan shtick during the film while one of them is taken captive. It was the usual claptrap up to the very end.
But when one of our intrepid heroes, now convinced he's a zombie, keeps coming for Victor as he fires point blank into him without any effect and knocks Victor into a flaming pit. And then in the explanatory postscript we are told he's just ailing a bit and he'll be up and around good as new in a bit, I throw my hands in the air.
As did I'm sure many who saw this travesty on the big screen in 1941. It's not even decent wartime propaganda.
Unless you just Mantan Moreland, stay away from this stinker.