Monday, May 7, 2018
KING OF THE ZOMBIES (1941)
It's kinda hard to find any movies that starred Mantan Moreland. Outside of the all-black cast films he made in Harlem, many of which aren't even around anymore, he usually just plays a supporting role. In this one he's pretty close to the top though. Mantan, as Jefferson Jackson, crashes on an island along with 2 not as entertaining white fellows and ends up in a mansion that happens to have a mad doctor, played by Henry Victor but was originally supposed to be Bela Lugosi and then Peter Lorre who both backed out, and some old-timey shambling zombies. At one point a couple of zombies try and put the bite on Mantan but this was was before zombies were synonymous with flesh-eating ghouls so perhaps it was just some coincidental general monstrous hijinks they were getting up to. This is a pretty good example of a not very serious but still entertaining goofy classic and it was so popular at the time that they cranked out a sequel, REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES, 2 years later which I need to check out pronto.

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