TRANSCRIPT 🔗
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Welcome back, listeners, to the introverted obelisk.
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I'm your host, Owie Knox, and November has arrived here at the Introverted Obelisk, and this month we're digging into the history of one of Horror's most recognizable monsters, the zombie.
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This month's theme is The Dead Are Coming to Dinner.
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But the Walking Dead weren't always interested in eating people.
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In fact, before they started chasing survivors through abandoned cities, they were being controlled by sinister figures who had discovered that the dead made remarkably obedient servants.
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So, over the next four episodes, we will be following the zombie from its earliest appearance on the silver screen through Hammer's Gothic interpretation, and finally to George Romero's reinvention of the genre in 1968.
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And there's no better place to begin with than the film that helped introduce The Walking Dead to movie audiences in the first place.
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That film is 1932's White Zombie.
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Now, there's something deeply unsettling about the idea of losing control over your own mind.
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And in fact, most movie monsters threaten to kill you, which, let's be honest, is certainly unpleasant.
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But at least you generally know, you know, what they're after.
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But imagine someone who doesn't want to kill you, at least not permanently.
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But in fact, they want to take away your ability to think, make decisions, and in any way resist whatever they have planned.
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You'd still be walking around, you know, performing whatever tasks they assigned you, but the person you used to be would effectively be gone.
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And if that sounds like a particularly miserable arrangement, wait until you find out what the working conditions are like.
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Our film tonight is White Zombie, and it was released in 1932, and starred Bella Legosi.
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Bella Legosi as Murder Lysander, a man with a remarkable talent for turning other people into obedient servants.
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Now, generally recognized as the first feature-length zombie film, it arrived during an extraordinary period in American horror cinema, when filmmakers were experimenting with supernatural threats that audiences had rarely encountered on screen already.
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So the film was directed by Victor Halpern and produced independently by his brother Edward Halpern, and released in 1932 of July, and it followed the enormous success of Universal's Dracula and Frankenstein, two films that had demonstrated just how profitable frightening an audience could be.
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But White Zombie was not a universal production.
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It was made independently, on a relatively modest budget, with the filmmakers making use of existing studio facilities, uh, also borrowed sets, and the atmosphere created by lighting, shadows, and carefully arranged scenery.
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And the result is a movie that sometimes looks far more expensive than it actually was.
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So Bella Legosi was the film's biggest attraction, having become an international horror star following his performances Count Dracula in 1931, and while Murder Lysander doesn't have Dracula's aristocratic charm, Legosi does still bring that same commanding presence to every single role he does.
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His heavy-lidded stare, his deliberate movements, and the habit of making even an ordinary conversation sound like a threat gives the character an almost supernatural authority.
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He's also sporting one of the more impressive eyebrows in horror history, although I suspect some of the people working for him were, you know, wise enough not to comment on.
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So the screenplay was written by Garnet Weston, and the film drew on the growing American fascination with accounts of Haitian zombies.
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One particularly influential work was William Seabrook's The Magic Island, which was published in 1929, which introduced many American readers to sensationalized descriptions of Haitian voodoo and stories of people supposedly transformed into mindless labor.
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Now, here I feel it's very important to distinguish those Hollywood interpretations from the actual religious traditions involved.
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Haitian voodoo is a complex religion with deep African and Caribbean roots, and the idea of zombies in Haitian folklore does carry historical connections to enslavement and the loss of personal freedom.
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American filmmakers took those elements, filtered them through exotic adventure stories and, you know, supernatural sensationalism, and in result created something distinctly different from the traditions that inspired them.
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So with that out of the way, I just want to say that that background is worth keeping in mind as we turn to the story itself, which begins with a young couple arriving in Haiti and discovering their wedding plans are about to encounter some very unusual complications.
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So our story begins when Neil Parker and his fiancee Madeline Short traveling by carriage toward the estate of Charles Baumont, a wealthy plantation owner who is offered to host their wedding.
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Neil is played by John Heron, while Madge Bellamy takes the role of Matthew.
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Now, along the way, they encounter a funeral
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procession taking place directly in the road.
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Their driver explains that the locals bury their dead in the roadway to prevent their bodies from being stolen, which isn't exactly the sort of information I personally want to hear while traveling through, you know, unfamiliar countryside, especially after dark.
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But shortly after, they encounter a sinister-looking man standing beside the road, watching them with an intensity that would make most people reconsider their entire travel arrangements.
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And this is Murder Lysander, played by Bella Lagosi.
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And Dude manages to steal Madeline's scarf as the carriage passes.
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And it's a small moment, but it establishes something very important about this guy.
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He doesn't need to chase his victims or make any kind of big grand declarations.
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Dude simply has to wait for an opportunity and he just takes what he wants.
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Well, when Neil and Madeline arrive at Beaumont's estate, we discover that their generous host has, well, let's just say motives of his own.
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Because you see, Beaumont is hopelessly infatuated with Madeline, and has invited the couple to his plantation in hope of persuading her to, in fact, abandon Neil and marry him instead.
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Apparently he believes that, you know, providing the wedding venue gives some sort of advantage in the romantic negotiations.
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Although Madeline has shown absolutely no interest in changing her plans.
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Well, Beaumont's servant Silver warns that pursuing Madeline will only bring trouble, but Beaumont isn't interested in advice.
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Dude has already decided that he must have her, and when the ordinary persuasion fails, he turns to good old murder Lysander for help.
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Lysander operates a sugar mill, staffed entirely by zombies.
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Specifically, people who move through their work with blank expressions and no apparent concern for their own safety.
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The mill is one of the film's probably most memorable locations, with its enormous grinding machinery, and workers who continually perform their duties regardless of the danger around them.
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In fact, at one point a zombie falls into the machinery, and the others simply continue working, completely indifferent to what has happened.
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Now, I just gotta say, there's something particularly disturbing about the indifference of the workers.
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I mean, literally nobody reacts, nobody attempts to help, and the machinery itself never stops.
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Whatever lives these people once had have been stripped away, leaving nothing but bodies performing the same repetitive tasks until they're no longer capable of doing so.
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Lysander has created a workforce that cannot complain, cannot leave, and apparently cannot even recognize when one of its members has disappeared into the equipment.
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From an employer's perspective, I suppose that's, you know, one way to avoid dealing with a labor dispute.
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Well, Beaumont meets with Lysander and explains his desire for math.
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Lysander offers a solution involving a potion that will place her in a death-like trance, which will allow Beaumont to take possession of her after she's buried.
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And let's just be up front.
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This plan is monstrous, okay?
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But Beaumont is so consumed by his obsession that he convinces himself it will somehow lead to happiness.
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Lysander, meanwhile, seems perfectly willing to help, although anyone familiar with Bellalagosi's work should recognize that accepting a mysterious potion from this particular gentleman is unlikely to end well, to put it nicely.
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So the wedding proceeds, but Beaumont manages to administer the potion to Madeline, and soon she collapses.
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Neil is, of course, devastated when she's pronounced dead, and the wedding celebration becomes a basically a funeral, like right on the spot.
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And the abrupt transformation from happiness to grief, I have to say, is one of the film's cruelest developments.
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Because, I mean, particularly because of Neil, dude has no idea that the person responsible for his loss is standing nearby pretending to share his sorrow.
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Oh my god, it it ate me up.
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After Madeline is placed in her tomb, Beaumont and Lysander arrive to retrieve her body.
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Potions already worked exactly as promised.
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And Madeline rises from her coffin, although she was no longer the woman Beaumont believed he loved.
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Now her movements are mechanical, her expression is vacant, and she shows no recognition of the man who has arranged for her transformation.
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Good job, dude.
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So Beaumont has succeeded in possessing Madeline, but in doing so he's destroyed the very qualities that attracted him to her.
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Old Boy wanted affection and companionship, yet the woman standing before him is completely incapable of offering either.
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So what he's obtained isn't a relationship, it's in fact just a human being who can no longer refuse him, and the distinction becomes increasingly
difficult for Beaumont to ignore.
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Well, Lysander takes Madeline to his castle, where Beaumont soon discovers that the arrangement is not exactly working out quite as he had imagined, because Madeline sits motionless, staring into space, and shows no interest in him, or for that matter, anything else.
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Beaumont becomes increasingly distressed by her condition, and then begs Lysander to restore her to normal, but guess what?
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Yeah, the zombie master has no intention of surrendering his control.
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And this is where Beaumont learns an important lesson about doing business with a man named Mert.
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Lysander has his own plans for Madeline, and Beaumont was never anything more than a convenient means of obtaining her.
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And of course, having served his purpose, he is given a dose of the same potion and gradually begins losing control over his own body.
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I kind of feel like he's earned that one.
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Maybe that's just me.
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So, meanwhile, all that that's happening, Neil has been struggling with Madeline's apparent death, as you can imagine.
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His grief becomes so overwhelming that he begins drinking heavily, and his behavior attracts the attention of Dr.
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Bruner, a missionary played by Joseph Cawthorne, and Bruner suspects that Madeline may actually not be dead, and begins explaining that the local stories surrounding zombies, including the possibility that someone has, you know, used drugs and supernatural influence to place her under another person's control.
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Now, Neil initially struggles to accept that explanation, which, I mean, let's be honest, is pretty understandable given the alternative involving, you know, believing his dead fiance has been kidnapped by a man who runs a sugar mill with an undead workforce.
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But when he begins experiencing visions of Madeline, he's then convinced that she is still alive somewhere, and Bruner agrees to help him find her.
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Their investigation eventually leads toward Lysander's castle, where the villain has assembled a collection of zombies who were once powerful or simply influential men, and among them are former officials, military figures, and enemies who Lysander has reduced to obedient servant.
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Uh uh, maybe it's just me, but it's kind of a chilling display of his power.
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Because these aren't, you know, anonymous laborers.
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These were people who once held authority over others, and now they can't even decide where to stand without his permission.
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And Lysander takes obvious satisfaction in describing his
collection.
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And here I oh man, Legosi delivers, okay?
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These moments are done with a mixture of pride and contempt.
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Like, to him, the zombies aren't people anymore, they're straight-up trophies.
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And it's proof that he can either take control of someone who opposes him, and then possess them like it's something he wanted.
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Their identities have been reduced to stories he can tell visitors, while their bodies remain available to carry out his commands.
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Like, man, that's messed up.
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So anyway, Beaumont, by this point, has begun suffering the full effects of the potion.
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And he realizes that he's being transformed into another zombie and pleads for help.
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But Lysander has little sympathy for him, or for that matter, probably anybody else.
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And I just gotta say, there is a grim irony in watching Beaumont experience the exact same helplessness he inflicted on Madeline.
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The man who believed he could purchase control over another human being, is discovering that he was never in control of the arrangement to begin with.
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It's it's kind of beautiful, but still nonetheless kind of disturbing.
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Well, Neil eventually reaches the castle and finds Madeline.
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But their union, as you can imagine, is anything but happy.
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Because she does not recognize him, she doesn't respond to his voice, and pretty much seems completely detached from the world around her altogether.
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So Neil tries desperately to reach the woman he loves, while Lysander watches from a distance and uses his hypnotic powers to control her movements.
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Well, this confrontation builds toward the castle's cliffs, where Lysander commands Madeline to throw herself into the sea.
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Neil manages to stop her, but the danger is far from over, because Lysander's other zombies are now advancing toward him.
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And they're slow, they've got deliberate movements making them absolutely frightening in a different way from the monsters that you know would come later in other films.
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Then they aren't driven by hunger or rage, and they have no personal reason to harm Neil.
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They're simply obeying an order, which makes their violence feel almost mechanical.
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In the nick of time, Dr.
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Bruner arrives to help, and the confrontation turns against Lysander as his hold over the situation begins to unravel.
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You see, his zombies continue their advance toward the cliff, and without effective direction from their master, they plunge right over the edge into the sea.
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The servants who had once demonstrated the extent of Lysander's power have now become completely useless to him at the very moment that he needs them most.
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So you see, Lysander's troubles don't end there.
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In fact, Beaumont, struggling against the effects of the potion, and, you know, of course, the man who betrayed him, turns on his former accomplice.
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Their confrontation ends with both men falling from the cliff to their deaths, and bringing Lysander's reign of control to a fantastic end.
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So with the influence broken, Magdalene gradually awakens from her trance and recognizes Neil.
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The couple embraces, and you know, the film concludes with the restoration of the life that Beaumont and Lysander had attempted to steal from.
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I mean, let's be honest, it's a relatively straightforward ending.
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But even still, I feel like it's an appropriate.
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Neil has spent the entire story trying to recover the woman he loves, while Beaumont and Lysander have been concerned only with what they could make her do.
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The difference between those desires is what gives the ending, I feel, the most emotional weight.
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Okay, so now that we've gone through the story, I think it's worth considering just how unusual this movie must have been to audiences in 1932.
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Horror cinema was still developing many of the conventions we now take for granted.
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And the film offered something completely different from, you know, vampires and monsters and mad scientists that had already captured the public's imagination.
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What makes White Zombie effective, I feel, isn't the threat of being attacked by a monster, but the possibility of becoming one of Lysander's servants and having no way to resist whatever he decides to do with it.
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Film takes something as ordinary as human labor and transforms it into an absolute nightmare, where bodies continue to function long after the person inside has effectively disappeared.
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And then of course this brings us back to the sugar mill, which I think remains one of the film's strongest sequences, okay?
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The setting itself is imposing.
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You got this enormous machinery dominating the entire frame.
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And it's the behavior, the workers, that I think that makes the scene so uncomfortable.
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Like their silent and their indifference suggests a world in which human
beings have become interchangeable parts of just an industrial process.
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The imagery connects the supernatural premise to something much more recognizable.
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The exploitation of people whose labor is valued more than their lives.
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Now, the movie also benefits enormously from Bella Legosi's performance.
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And the character allows him to be more openly cruel and manipulative than the Count.
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And Legosi doesn't need to shout or become physically threatening to dominate a scene.
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A slight movement of his hands, a deliberate pause, or even just a carefully directed stare is often enough to communicate that something terrible is about to happen.
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And the filmmakers make particularly effective use of his close-ups with his eyes.
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Legosi's gaze seems to dominate the screen, and the way they edit it gives the impression that he can impose his will on other people simply by looking at them.
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And it's a straightforward visual technique, but it's one that works remarkably well in a film made without the elaborate special effects that you know later horror productions would have available to him.
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The production design deserves credit as well, because they do an amazing job.
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Now, despite it did have limited resources, White Zombie creates a very convincing gothic environment through shadows, imposing architecture, and very carefully composed shots.
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Lysander's Castle looks like something out of a European horror film, but somehow transplanted into the Caribbean, which may not make much geographical sense, but it certainly gives the movie a very distinctive visual identity.
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And there's this dreamlike quality to a lot of the film, uh, particularly in the sequences involving Madeline.
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She moves through these enormous rooms and these shadowy corridors, like someone who has become disconnected from the world around her.
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And the setting makes her seem isolated, even when other characters are present, and the effect is even more unsettling than probably any amount of screaming or frantic action would have been.
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And I think a part of what makes exploring these early films so rewarding is that we get to see familiar monsters before their identities became fixed.
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You know, like when filmmakers were still experimenting with what they could represent and how audiences might respond to them.
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So, you know, the zombie of 1932 is a very different creature from the one that would eventually become a fixture of pop culture, but there's also something compelling about seeing, you know, where that cinematic journey began.
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So, I don't know, for all its imperfections and it has many, I feel White Zombie remains an important and even atmospheric entry in early horror cinema.
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And, you know, Bellagosi gives us a villain who deserves to be remembered alongside his more famous creations.
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And, you know, it's also kind of another reminder that, you know, the most frightening monsters aren't always the one trying to eat you, because sometimes they're the ones who simply just want you to stop being yourself.
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Alright, enough about the movie.
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This brings us to the end of the visit with White Zombie.
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So next time we are going to continue our journey through the early years of zombie cinema with 1941's King of the Zombies, a film that takes some of the familiar ingredients we've encountered tonight, and in fact puts them to, well, rather different use.
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So I hope you've enjoyed our look at the early chapter in Zombie Cinema.
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And as always, thank you for spending time with me here at the obelisk.
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So I'm Obi Knox, reminding you that if someone offers you a mysterious potion guaranteed to make the person you love completely devoted to you, maybe the appropriate response is to, you know, decline politely and reconsider your approach to relationships entirely.
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And of course, if the gentleman making the offer happens to be Bill Legosi, I'd suggest leaving before he starts explaining, you know, the terms of payment.
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Good night.
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And roll credits.
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Um