Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

I wasn't quite sure what to make of this movie by the title and actor list. Don't let the title fool you into thinking this is a movie along the lines of Night of the Living Dead, it isn't. This is really a light-hearted, comedy-mystery-thriller, along the lines of The Ghost Breakers, or as mentioned by another reviewer Spooks Run Wild, which happens to also have been produced by the same studio, Monogram.

King of the Zombies is a true "B" movie with a great supporting cast. Mantan Moreland is responsible for the comedy element throughout the movie and does a great job. This was my first introduction to him and I am looking forward to seeing more of his movies.

As the movie runs just over an hour, it moves at a comfortable pace. A group of three men, in search of a missing plane flown by an important military officer, crash land on an island. The island appears to be deserted except for a mansion inhabited by a mad doctor and an odd group of servants, including Zombies. The doctor has no knowledge of the missing plane, or so he says, but is willing to put the men up until they can be rescued. They become suspicious of the doctor and their snooping reveals many secrets. Though the ending is relatively uneventful, it really is the path of the story that makes this movie so enjoyable.

As with many of the Monogram pictures, there is a bit of propaganda sprinkled throughout. For example, the enemy ends up being the Germans. It is also interesting to consider the way that other races were once viewed and treated. The movie allows us a window to our past.

Made just as the US entered the second world war, this goofy zombie horror comedy is breezy fun throughout its 67 minute running time. Some US agents and their servant crash their plane on a creepy, remote island. They find a shadow mansion populated by a staid German doctor, his staff, and his wife, who is said to be afflicted with an illness leaving her in a trance-like state. First the servants give hints that voodoo practices have resulted in many zombies on the island, and it isn't long before Mantan Moreland, the aide to the agents, finds himself amusingly unable to convince his employers that dark mischief abounds, possibly rooted in the workings of the mysterious German. Mantan Moreland steals the proceedings as the constant scaredy cat, though his role is far from PC and is rooted in servant stereotypes. He is partly redeemed by being the only character to show some common sense, let alone some acting charisma; most of the other performances are fairly stiff, and I'm not counting the zombies! Lots of fun to be had in details such a the zombies having to be on a special low-salt diet, Moreland's crisis of whether he himself is a zombie or merely hypnotized, and... are those voodoo drums or Gene Krupa?

Typical dialogue:

"I've seen em with my own eyes!"
"He seems to be troubled with hallucinations"
"No sir, zombies. That's what I'm troubled with."

Or

"You're not a zombie. Zombies can't talk"
"Can I help it because I'm loquacious?"

The film drags some towards the end when there is less comic relief and more focus on to tying up plot threads, but compared to many of the supernatural films of its day (and much later), this is still watchable as it knows when not to take itself too seriously.