We finally made it to the 40's! I recently watched a Boris Karloff movie called The Walking Dead because one of my trusty internet lists suggested this was a zombie movie. I disagree. It was a Frankenstein movie. Karloff played the original Frankenstein's monster in 1931 and it seems he played a number of similar roles afterwords where a man has been brought back to life to seek revenge on his killers. I'm pretty open to the idea of adjusting the zombie to keep things interesting, but I just can't wrap my head around the idea that bringing a guy back to life makes him a zombie. Especially if you're not going to use voodoo. More on Boris Karloff later because I think he and Bella Lugosi deserve some attention for their contributions to early zombie films.
In the 30's, after the hugely successful Frankenstein and Dracula were made, doors were opened to tons of other horror flix. It seemed like Warner Brothers were putting out horror flix every 5 minutes but then the 40's began and men were going to war and the audience became mainly women and children who aren't known for being horror film fanatics. Warner Brothers and other studios might have been a little burned out by that point as well, with over 100 horror films made in the 30's, I would have been bored as well. As a result, a lot of horror films made in the 40s were horror-comedies. The first of which was The Ghost Breakers, starring the entertainer of the troops Bob Hope.
I enjoyed this all around silly movie. Lawrence Lawrence Lawrence, Larry for short, (Bob Hope) and his sidekick/servant, Geoff (Richard Carleson), were pretty funny. Their jokes reminded me of jokes your dad would tell you at the dinner table. Ex...the two are peering into a tomb containing the long dead body of Mary's (Paulette Goddard) great great grandmother and this is the dialogue that follows...
Geoff: Boss, is that a mummy?
Larry: Yes, its Ms. Carter's great great grand mummy!
I'm a sucker for stupid jokes like that and this one cracked me up.
The story is pretty typical. Over-confident Mary inherits her family's plantation in Cuba and is warned by multiple people that she will die if she goes there. Ignoring the warnings, she sets sail for Cuba. I don't want to give anything away here because its a good movie to watch but basically the first half of the movie is dedicated to the hilarious way Larry mistakenly gets onto the same boat. The movie starts to set the stage for the spooky second half with all the warnings and talk of ghosts and death on the island, but the complete lack of music left a feeling of safety. The first half is full of atmospheric noises like glasses clanking, phones ringing, and chit chatting in the background, but no music. When they finally do reach Cuba, the background music starts and I took this as a signal to the audience that the characters were no longer safe. One other element this horror film did that I hadn't seen in other zombie movies, up to this point, was to cast big, heavy shadows on the walls which were especially creepy in the stage setting first half. In the 30's, after the hugely successful Frankenstein and Dracula were made, doors were opened to tons of other horror flix. It seemed like Warner Brothers were putting out horror flix every 5 minutes but then the 40's began and men were going to war and the audience became mainly women and children who aren't known for being horror film fanatics. Warner Brothers and other studios might have been a little burned out by that point as well, with over 100 horror films made in the 30's, I would have been bored as well. As a result, a lot of horror films made in the 40s were horror-comedies. The first of which was The Ghost Breakers, starring the entertainer of the troops Bob Hope.
I enjoyed this all around silly movie. Lawrence Lawrence Lawrence, Larry for short, (Bob Hope) and his sidekick/servant, Geoff (Richard Carleson), were pretty funny. Their jokes reminded me of jokes your dad would tell you at the dinner table. Ex...the two are peering into a tomb containing the long dead body of Mary's (Paulette Goddard) great great grandmother and this is the dialogue that follows...
Geoff: Boss, is that a mummy?
Larry: Yes, its Ms. Carter's great great grand mummy!
I'm a sucker for stupid jokes like that and this one cracked me up.
Larry is a self-described Ghost Breaker which means he finds skeletons in closets and uncovers old family mysteries. Convenient because Mary has a family mystery to solve. Sparks start to fly between the two after a few close encounters with someone trying to murder Mary. Larry and Geoff don't seem to be much help despite their profession and it was Mary's supernatural sense that solves the mystery. Geoff, who was pretty level headed in the first half, turns into mush as soon as he sees a ghost who just climbs out of a tomb in the foyer. Who buries a guy in a foyer?
Of the multiple dangers they encounter throughout the movie, a zombie is one of them. It is pretty creepy and I imagine it was even worse for the audience in the early 40's who weren't used to seeing so much makeup on a zombie. This was the first movie to add that element though they did keep the blank, wide, staring eyes as he moves slowly toward the camera. I was on edge during these scenes but it wasn't too bad, I made it through.
States for The Ghost Breakers
Style of zombie: Voodoo, although they're in Cuba
Threat to humans: only when commanded
Dead or alive: alive
How they become zombies: voodoo
Other: First zombie to be heavily made-up
How to kill them: any way a human can be killed
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