The Revolt of the Zombies

So the story starts during World War One on the western front. A French Officer, Armand, tries to inform his commanding officer about the powers of a chaplain from the a French-Cambodian regiment. He can apparently create super-soldiers, robots or zombies by mind control. The commander isn't convinced. However, the Cambodian goes ahead and sends some zombies in against the Austrians to much success. However, this scares the Allied commanders as they see such Cambodian power to be a "threat to the white race" (That's right this film was made way back when racism was cool and the Nazis hadn't given it a bad name yet. (Please note I don't think racism is cool)). Our Camodian hypnotist friend is ordered to be imprisoned for life but is killed by a French Colonel played by Roy D'Arcy.

This is a pretty bad film. It's incredibly racist. Keeping the Cambodians down and the white man in charge. Also white people squinting don't look like Cambodians. It's also pretty stupid as if the Cambodians really did have these super-soldier zombies how did they get conquered in the first place? The zombies were essentially people who didn't blink none of the partially decayed people we get these days and no where near as scary really. The battle scene with the zombies marching slowly towards the Austrians wasn't bad. The battle sound effects were pretty realistic despite being on a loop and one continuous explosion that sounded like a man hitting a table with a shoe. The zombies turn out to be a lot more dangerous and scary when they stop being zombies (How cool does the letter Z look in Times New Roman?). Claire falls in and out of love incredibly quickly. She has barely just met Armand and in the next scene they're engaged. The sets weren't great but not awful. They were just painted backgrounds (The Wizard of Oz pulled it off). In one scene you can actually see where the two boards meet. (Included a picture of this) But hey it's the 30s, what do you expect? Them to go to Kong island? Or was it called Skull island? The acting was pretty bad I instantly wanted to punch Armand (Dean Jagger) during his scene of laughing and crying at the same time. Terrible, terrible acting. You always find ridiculous things to laugh at in these old films and in one scene a man falls off a scaffold and Armand runs over to him and starts rubbing his hand frantically and shouts for Clifford to get over quickly. "To do what?" I thought "Rub his other hand? The man's just fallen some 30 feet." Clifford ran over to rub his head actually.

Tormented is the film that makes buying this DVD worthwhile. It tells the story of Tom a jazz pianist (and lighthouse keeper?) who lives on a small island off America. It hosts a small happy population and Tom is engaged. However, one night an old girlfriend of Tom's, Vi, turns up. She still loves him and doesn't want him to get married. When he doesn't show any interest she blackmails him with letters of his she has kept. They argue at the top of a lighthouse when suddenly the rail breaks and Vi falls over. Tom has a chance to save her as she hangs on but decides to let her fall.

This film is very good. Made in 1960 it is by the same guy who made a whole host of crappy horror films Bert I. Gordon. This film is particularly well directed. The wedding scene at the end was superb. The wonky camera angles on the frightened faces. As the ghost passes flowers die and candles go out. The special effects are passable today and very well done for 1960. Gordon was known for making monster films which involved improvising a lot of special effects. We have a walking hand like It/Thing (whatever) from the Adams Family, a talking head and a translucent ghost. All really well done. The acting was pretty good. Richard Carlson was good as Tom and the lady who played the blind woman Mrs. Ellis was pretty good. Mrs. Ellis was an old maid for the family who has loved on the island a long time and has had experience with ghosts before. The little girl who played Sandy wasn't a bad actress but she was really, really annoying. My favourite character would have had to have been the sailor guy who blackmails Tom and constantly calls him Dad.

Over all the DVD is rated PG.

'''The Punch".