Two upright and exceptionally boring white guys (Dick Purcell, John Archer) and their cowardly black servant (Mantan Moreland), searching for a missing admiral, crash on a Caribbean island and become guests of a spooky doctor (Henry Victor) with a German accent. He offers them his hospitality while they wait the two weeks until the next boat arrives, hospitality in his weird house. It is filled with strange goings on: The doctorâs wife is in a trance, Voodoo zombies wander the grounds, a witch woman makes potions in the kitchen, and evil spirits come out at night. Naturally the boring white guys donât notice any of it, but the black servant does, so he can do his âfunnyâ scared black servant routine.
It was the 1940s, so I canât blame Hollywood for messing up their films for propaganda purposes. That doesnât make the film better, just understandable. With the war going full tilt in Europe, itâs clear from the beginning that this horror comedy isnât going to have any true supernatural elements. Itâs going to be Nazis.
Iâm less sympathetic to the racism, visible in far too many of the periodâs comedies but more egregious here than normal as it is front and center. Generally the racism inherent in the subservient and cowardly black man at least takes a few minutes off for the plot to progress, but this time itâs non-stop. As far the story goes, one of the boring white guys is the main character, but in terms of lines and screen time, the lead is Jeff, the servant. That means a lot of time with his âOh golly, that there is a z-z-zombieâ bit that is uncomfortable at best and certainly not funny. I suppose one can take consolation in the fact that every character is some kind of stereotype, be it the mysterious Nazi that was obviously supposed to be played by Bela Lugosi, the damsel in distress, or the generic white he-man.
Since itâs clear from the beginning whatâs going on, thereâs no mystery to figure out and nothing for our heroes and coward to do but not notice things and talk about how scary it all is. It doesnât make much sense either. Why are the black island natives working for the Nazi? Why donât bullets kill you when you are hypnotized? Why doesnât the Nazi just shoot the Americans? Why is everyone so clueless?
Some reviewers have tried to retcon this into some kind of anti-racist, black movie. Donât buy it. Giving the black character more lines does not make it OK that all the lines given to him are embarrassing. That outlook might work if Jeff solved any problems or achieved anything. But he doesnât. He just does the scared routine and it gets old fast.