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…in which a German scientist attempting to create an army of the living dead to serve the Third Reich uses his own wife as an experimental subject—and discovers that, dead or alive, she still has him whipped…
This Monogram anti-epic is an improvement over its predecessor thanks to a focus on John Carradine doing mad science rather than on the antics of Mantan Moreland—but it’s Veda Ann Borg who unexpectedly steals the show.
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Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!
#1 by ronald on May 12, 2015 - 8:12 am
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Maybe it’s the same Jeff (per the IMDB, Mantan Moreland played characters named “Jeff” or “Jefferson” at least twelve times; it’s mildly entertaining to think that it was the same character all along) and he just talked himself into believing that the events of “King of the Zombies” didn’t happen. Dana Scully didn’t *invent* denial, y’know. 🙂
BTW, as a result of reading one of your earlier reviews, I now know about the existence of “Rectuma.” Thanks for nothin’. 😉
#2 by ronald on May 15, 2015 - 4:10 am
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ahem
“I will not be IGNORED…”
Unless I am. 😉
#3 by Jen S 1.0 on May 16, 2015 - 1:27 pm
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Umph, Carradine could really wear a mustache, couldn’t he? Purrrr….
#4 by supersonic man on May 18, 2015 - 3:06 pm
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This movie sounds kind of awesome.
#5 by supersonic man on May 18, 2015 - 5:10 pm
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I have a new theory. “Jeff” always shows up where there’s a need to stop some monstrous awfulness, and these incidents occur in apparently unrelated timelines, and he always appears to be bumbling at random but ends up doing exactly what needs doing to make sure that the world is saved… the earmarks are unmistakable: Jeff is actually the Seventeenth Doctor.
#6 by lyzard on May 25, 2015 - 7:01 pm
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Ugh.
Sorry, everyone – didn’t mean to ignore, I’ve been having a rancid couple of weeks.
I wonder if “Jeff” was a persona carried over from Moreland’s vaudeville days? Most of his character names sound detached from the films they’re in. I don’t think I’ve actually seen any of the Charlie Chan films in which he appeared—though I’m already quaking at the thought of his combination with Sidney Toler in yellowface. (Albeit willing to consider that, like the Mr Wong films, these films ultimately push back against the stereotype[s].)
Ronald—you *didn’t* know about Rectuma!? Shame on you! (“I’m so anal—“, right? I remember the remark but not what review it was in.)
Jen—oh, yes, indeed he could. 🙂
Supes—I enjoyed this one on the first watch, but it’s one of those where the more I thought about it while I was writing it up, the more I liked it. I find this is often the case with these slapdash Monogram and PRC productions, probably just because no-one involved ever really had the time to think things through—so you get films that are either accidentally interesting, like this one, or deeply, deeply weird (which again reminds me that I really do need to get to The Invisible Ghost…)
A series of Dr Who where the Doctor cannot ever get anyone to listen to him might be…interesting…
#7 by ronald on May 26, 2015 - 7:45 am
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I’ve never seen any Charlie Chan movies, either, but I receive the impression that Moreland’s character, Chan’s driver Birmingham Brown, even when frightened, willingly accompanied Chan into danger. So that’s something, anyway. Being scared makes it harder to be brave, so to speak, yet evidently he managed it.
#8 by ronald on May 26, 2015 - 11:52 am
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BTW, it was in “Zombi 2,” where you, in fact, mentioned it in the context of you being anal. 😉
#9 by lyzard on May 26, 2015 - 6:22 pm
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I imagine I’ll get around to the Chan films sooner or later…
Ah, Zombie! – “No Bruno Mattei for you, young lady, until you finish your Lucio Fulci.” 🙂
#10 by ronald on May 29, 2015 - 12:51 am
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Only tangentially on-topic, I suppose, but in “Zombies on Broadway,” when the two main characters (the destitute man’s Abbott and Costello) go to a museum late at night to learn about zombies, they’re let in by African-American janitor Worthington (who’s kind of the usual stereotype but not overwhelmingly so), and one of the two asks if he’s in charge (as the night manager OSLT). The idea of a white man in the 1940s (in a cheap horror knockoff) thinking it at all likely that a black man might be in a position of authority struck me as noticeable when I saw the film, over 20 years ago, and it’s remained with me ever since.
#11 by lyzard on May 31, 2015 - 3:27 am
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Yes, it’s kind of sad that moments like that are so memorable, isn’t it?
I seem to be going on about this stupid film a lot lately, but if you haven’t seen it I recommend The Invisible Ghost to you for the interesting way Clarence Muse’s character is handled.
#12 by ronald on June 1, 2015 - 9:37 am
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Your fellow B-Master Ken* has reviewed “Invisible Ghost” so I’m familiar with it.
Re my earlier “Broadway” reference, since the film’s overall venue (while the characters are in the USA, that is) is the “low-class” (literally “sub-Urban,” I suppose, as opposed to “suburban”) world of a minor gangster trying to gain “respectability” as a nightclub owner (the very “respectability” that so eluded poverty row productions), that might be a contributing factor. During that era, at least, caucasians in “low-class” environments were much more likely to interact with African-Americans than were those in “upper-class” environments, so (1) it’s more difficult (although, regrettably, by no means impossible) to cling to prejudices against a group when you interact with members of that group day after day and (2) sheer practicality can every now and then manage to override prejudice. Reasonably intelligent people can perceive when a “let’s everybody just put up with each other” perspective is more profitable than the alternative; again, not all reasonably intelligent people actually take that approach, but…
===
*I kept being tempted to make an aside comment about Ken personally, but that would be inappropriate and useless, so I finally decided to just admit to the temptation in hope that that’ll be enough to get it out of my system. 😉
#13 by ronald on June 1, 2015 - 9:42 am
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addendum:
If we presume that Jeff is smarter than he appears (all together now: “He’d almost HAVE to be…”), maybe he’s only pretending to not believe in zombies to disguise the advantage that he, someone with pre-existing experience with zombies (from the previous film), has over the white guys. How many “servants” have laughed up their sleeves over knowing much more about what’s going on than their employers do? Well, quite a few, that’s how many…
#14 by RogerBW on June 1, 2015 - 4:37 pm
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Hmm. Experiment on one’s own wife, or kidnap women of low repute to experiment on them? Ah, the problems that don’t get as far as the Ethics Committee…
One might wonder why all this experimentation had to be done in the US, mind, rather than say in Germany where the entire state security apparatus could be on the doctor’s side.
Perhaps’ Lazarus’ call is audible to the others because they are already dead. OK, perhaps not.
#15 by ronald on June 2, 2015 - 9:08 am
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>>>One might wonder why all this experimentation had to be done in the US
Never raise the dead where you eat.
#16 by RogerBW on June 2, 2015 - 11:16 am
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I’m now trying to choose between
“So that’s what I’ve been doing wrong all this time!”
and
“Poland.”
#17 by Luke Blanchard on June 5, 2015 - 2:37 pm
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One can rationalise von Altermann’s being based in the US by the hypothesis that he had outstanding charges against him in Germany. When he started spying for Germany he was told if he did a good job his legal problems could go away after the war, and his breakthrough gave him an opportunity to return home immediately as a hero. As for what the problem was, we may suppose that, in his zeal to cross new scientific frontiers, he went a little far in some manner. Perhaps Lila was his second wife.
#18 by ronald on June 6, 2015 - 1:26 pm
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Maybe von Altmann FLED Germany earlier — lots of people were doing that — and the super-soldiers were supposed to be a “peace offering” that would allow him to return. Or maybe he was born and raised in Louisiana and he thought giving the super-soldiers to the Nazis would get him in on the ground floor of conquering the world, whereas giving them to the USA would have brought him no closer to conquering the world than before.
#19 by lyzard on June 5, 2015 - 6:25 pm
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The suggestion of both King Of The Zombies and Revenge Of The Zombies is that their scientists are where they are, the Caribbean and Louisiana, for Da Voodoo; but of course in both cases this is just a smokescreen, since in neither film is Da Voodoo actually responsible for anything. In King Dr Sangre declares it “too slow” and puts Da Voodoo aside in favour of Druid mind-transference techniques, and in Revenge it’s all about the SCIENCE!!
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