In the 1932 film, White Zombie, Bela Lugosi plays one of his most evil characters.

Lugosi is “Murder” Legendre, a voodoo master who lives on the island of Haiti.  He owns a sugar cane mill, one that has an ever-growing amount of workers.  All of Legendre’s workers do their work without complaint.  Actually, they work without talking at all.  Even when one of them falls to his apparent death, the rest continue to work as if they didn’t even notice.  Legendre has made himself into a wealthy and feared figure because everyone knows that he has an army of zombies who serve him.  He’s not only evil but he’s also someone who enjoys being evil and causing as much trouble as possible.  And yet, because his magic is powerful, the island’s rich plantation owners often pay him for favors.

Among those who are willing to pay Murder for his services is Charles Beaumont (Robert W. Frazer), a plantation owner who is in love with Madeleine Short (Madge Bellamy) and jealous of her fiancé, Neil Parker (John Harron).  Charles wants Madeleine to love him so Murder gives Charles a potion to slip into Madeleine’s drink.  When Madeleine drinks the potion, she appears to die.  After her funeral, Charlies and Murder break into her crypt and retrieve Madeleine.  Madeleine is now in a state of limbo, not quite alive but also not quite dead.  She can still play the piano but she cannot speak and she stares straight ahead with a blank look in her eyes.  She is now one of Murder’s zombies.  Needless to say, Charles isn’t happy about this and neither is Neil.

Now, one thing I should make clear is that the zombies in White Zombie are more like the zombies of Haitian mythology than the zombies that one would expect to find in a George Romero film.  The zombies in White Zombie do not eat human flesh.  They’re not in a process of decay.  They are not immortal.  These zombies are not the walking dead.  Instead, they’re brainwashed victims who have been turned into slaves by Murder and his magic potions.  Murder uses them to punish his enemies and to work in his mill.  As I said at the start of this review, Murder Legendre is one of Bela Lugosi’s most evil characters.

White Zombie is usually considered to be the first feature length zombie film.  Though it was released 91 years ago and watching it requires a bit of adjustment on the part of modern viewers, White Zombie still creates and maintains a memorable atmosphere of ominous magic and growing menace.  The scenes in Murder’s sugar cane mill are especially strong, with Murder’s zombies silently marching from one task to another.  The acting is a bit inconsistent.  Watching the film, it’s easy to see that it was made at a time when Hollywood was still making the transition to sound.  But the important thing is that Bela Lugosi is absolutely fantastic as the menacing Murder Legendre, smirking as he casts his spell and, in one of the film’s most famous scenes, walking straight towards the camera with an evil gleam in his eyes as if he’s coming straight for the audience.  Flaws aside, White Zombie features one of Bela Lugosi’s best performances and is more than worth watching for that reason alone.