With proof of the existence of a secret, Cambodian, zombie-creating ritual, soft spoken Armand Louque (Dean Jagger) and his bold friend Clifford Grayson (Robert Noland) travel with a team to the ancient city of Angkor. After Armand loses his fiancée (Dorothy Stone) to Clifford, he uses the secret rite to turn anyone in his way into a zombie.
The second zombie film, following 1932âs White Zombie (or the third, if you count The Walking Dead, also in 1936), Revolt of the Zombies is Up Stairs, Down Stairs, with zombies. The upper crust Brits sit around politely chatting while they are served by Cambodians (some as zombies, some not). After a brief attack by zombie soldiers, the film becomes a romance, which isnât a bad thing if I was watching a romance. For a romance I’d have hired someone other than Dean Jagger, as being romantic is not in his repertoire. Then again, at this point in his career, any kind of acting is not in his repertoire. The rest of the cast isn’t substantially. Eventually, the romance plot fades a bit and the horror-plot takes overâŠand not much changes. Only in a Monty Python skit about British officers at war have I seen more civilized, stiff-upper-lip folks. Their reaction to Armand becoming a megalomaniac zombie master? âWell, old man, this controlling peopleâs minds just isnât very cricket of you.â Heâs enslaving and murdering people and no one is all that emotional about it. When he betrays his friend and forces his ex to be his bride, she canât even bring herself to be cross with him. I want whatever these folks are smoking.
It marches along, slowly, and far too calmly, feeling like a film made in 1930. Then it just winds down. The ending is amusing, and suggests that this could have been a more exciting film.
Made long before the brain-eating, decaying corpses of Romero, anyone expecting blood and body parts is going to be disappointed. These are old time mesmerized zombies.