Total Sci-Fi’s Guide to the Incredibly Strange and Obscure in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Movies

The Facts

Written by Edmond Kelso, Van Norcross
Directed by Steve Sekely
Produced by Lindsley Parsons
Music: Edward Kay
Cast: John Carradine, Gale Storm, Robert Lowery
Running time: 61 minutes
Also Known As: The Corpse Vanished (UK)

The Plot

Scott Warrington visits strange Dr. Max von Altermann to investigate the death of his sister — who was married to the mad scientist — only to uncover a Nazi zombie plot!

The Lowdown

Revenge of the Zombies was the world’s first Nazi zombie movie, fact fans! It emerged from the so-called ‘poverty row’ studio Monogram. Poverty Row was the name given to low budget B-movie studios that often made mystery or horror films featuring Hollywood stars, writers and directors who’d fallen on hard times, mainly during the 1940s and 1950s. Many of the Poverty Row studios were based around Gower Street in Los Angeles, with Monogram and Republic being the two best-known studios.


The idea is a great one, especially for a wartime audience. John Carradine is a classic mad scientist experimenting with zombies — but he has a reason! He’s a Nazi who is out to create an unkillable army so his Fascist overlords can win the war. See, it all makes sense. Unfortunately, the promise of massed armies of zombies never comes to fruition. Due to the film’s low budget, the zombie army consists of a handful of old men with their shirts off, shuffling about and generally getting in the way.

Thankfully, Mantan Moreland is on hand to supply some great comedy moments (as are several other members of the household staff), while Carradine himself is always good value, especially in the mad scientist stakes. Gale Storm (great name!) is good eye candy as Carradine’s secretary who seems oblivious to what’s going on with her boss. The film is also just over an hour, meaning that it doesn’t outstay its welcome.

There is a nice double twist in the nameless character played by Bob Steele. He’s a Nazi henchman of Carradine’s Dr. von Altermann who poses as the local sheriff to fool the doctor’s unwanted houseguests that all is well. A further twist comes near the climax when he’s revealed to be a double-double agent and is actually an undercover US operative out to defeat von Altermann! Keep up!

Naturally, as in all Frankenstein-style stories, von Altermann’s ancient looking zombies turn on him, swarming over him in a moment of grim comeuppance. Attempting to escape, von Altermann rushes into the quicksand swamp we saw earlier in the flick and sinks — along with his undead wife — into oblivion.

Cult Cast

John Carradine has appeared in the Cult Movie Vault previously. Although a serious Shakespearean actor who did appear in some prestigious pictures (The Grapes of Wrath, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Stagecoach) he is still best known for his many low-budget B-movies. He was one of several actors who tested for the role of Frankenstein’s monster for the 1931 film. He was known in LA in the 1940s as the ‘Bard of the Boulevard’ due to his habit of wandering the streets performing Shakespeare!

Mantan Moreland was a prolific comic actor who escaped being the clichéd ethnic comic relief by being genuinely funny. As well as appearing in mainstream Hollywood films, Moreland headlined his own all-black series, including Mantan Messes Up and Mantan Runs For Mayor (both 1946). He was a regular in Monogram’s Charlie Chan series and in later life appeared on TV’s The Cosby Show. In the mid-1950s he was considered as a possible new member of The Three Stooges to replace the late Shemp Howard.

Director’s Cut

Steve Sekely directed more than 55 feature films working in Paris, Budapest (where he was born Istvan Szekely) and Berlin. He came to the US in 1938, escaping war-threatened Europe. Revenge of the Zombies was one of his first US-directed movies, while one of his last was the 1962 version of The Day of the Triffids. He died in 1979, aged 80.


WTF? Moment

Halfway through this little shocker it is dramatically revealed that strange Dr. von Altermann is in fact a Nazi who is working on creating an indestructible zombie army! Following that is the moment when Veda Ann Borg, as his zombiefied wife, asserts her own personality beyond his control with the simple word ‘No’. It’s a blow for feminism, even if she is still dead…

Behind-the-Scenes

Shot during the Second World War, the ‘actors’ recruited to feature as the careworn zombie army in Revenge of the Zombies all appear to be lesser physical specimens who have been excused from combat duty — rather ironic given Carradine’s character’s aim of building a zombie army for his Aryan masters!

Bela Lugosi (who featured in 1942’s The Corpse Vanishes, almost the same as the UK alternative title for this film) was originally slated to play the Nazi doctor, but was busy playing Dracula once again on stage. Although director Steve Sekely opens his film with a lovely, almost White Zombie-like atmospheric sequence, the film rapidly becomes routine with the ambitious director defeated by his low budget and lack of decent resources.

Talent Talk

“As for making movies, who can act at eight o’clock in the morning? Let’s face it! Directors never direct me. They just turn me loose. I am a ham! And the ham in an actor is what makes him interesting. I’ve made some of the greatest films ever made — and a lot of crap, too.” — The wit and wisdom of John Carradine


Availability

Available in the UK on a long-out-of-print VHS release only, Revenge of the Zombies can also be found paired with other zombie movies on public domain DVD releases of dubious quality.

Online Resources

The full Revenge of the Zombies movie on YouTube
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K81is9Y74Bc&feature=related]

Blog write-up of Revenge of the Zombies
[ http://blogs.ink19.com/strokeofmidnight/2008/09/10/nazi-zombies]

Remake

Maybe this could be updated to have a mad scientist attempting to create a zombie army for Al-Qaeda— or would that be too politically incorrect?

The Bottom Line

Revenge of the Zombies is fast moving and never dull, while John Carradine delivers an unusually restrained performance as the Nazi Doctor.

By Brian J. Robb