Chemistry professor Dr. Alfred Morris (George Zucco) has discovered an ancient Mayan gas that turns people into zombies, though they can be restored, briefly, with the aid of a fresh heart. Ted (David Bruce) is Morris’s naive and obsessed student, who loves singer Isabel (Evelyn Ankers), though she no longer cares for him. Dr. Morris assumes Isabel loves him, and turns Ted into a zombie to get him out of the way, and then restores him, for a short time, by robbing new graves. But things become even more complicated as whenever Ted is restored, he insists on following Isabel around. Additionally, Isabel never loved Morris, but is in love with her pianist, Eric (Turhan Bey), causing Morris to send zombie Ted to kill him.
Universal finally made a zombie picture, though with less zombie killing then I would expect. Sadly it wasn’t an A-picture, or what counts as an A-Picture for 1940s Universal horror, but was the second billed feature to Son of Dracula. It could have used a bit more attention, and money. It could certainly have used a better director than James Hogan, who was the man in charge of one of the worst films ever made, Life Returns (1935). This is considered one of Hogan’s best, which says a lot about both this film and Hogan’s career.
Luckily, all the Universal regulars are in good form. Zucco is in full glory as Morris, Ankers panics well, and Bey is as suave as they come. Plus all the familiar faces playing reporters and cops are solid. David Bruce does well with a thankless role; Ted is an immature twerp, which is fine for a victim. His zombie makeup was applied by Jack Pierce. It’s not one of his masterpieces, but any Pierce makeup is good.
What’s hard to figure is what Morris’s plan was. Turing Ted into a zombie doesn’t get him out of the way unless he’s left as a corpse. Morris doesn’t have anyone to kill at the beginning so what good is a zombie? He’d have been better off slipping Ted a few sleeping pills. And why doesn’t he let Ted go when he becomes a liability? Grave robbing in city after city is bound to get you caught.
So it doesn’t quite work and doesn’t make much sense, but there’s enough to like here for a B-movie zombie pic.