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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
Film:4
RiffTrax:6
DVD:6
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| Replaces
EC's 2003 review of the Creepy Classics DVD-R |
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| Yes,
it's an awful movie — but awfully funny in spots, too. (Not that
it's meant to be.) |
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Taking
a cue from The
Corpse Vanishes, Bela Lugosi plays Dr. Marlowe, a scientist
who kidnaps young women to help keep his dead wife 'alive'. Though
deceased for 22 years, Mrs. Marlowe is perfectly preserved and
prone to strolling about the house if not restrained. Her mind's
a blank; she apparently lacks the "will" to live. (Which I'd think
isn't all that uncommon in dead people.) Marlowe uses hypnosis
and a voodoo ritual to transfer some of the will and vitality
of the kidnapped women to his wife. The process never really works,
though, providing his spouse only fleeting moments of lucidity
while leaving the victims in a zombie-like trance. Nor is the
Doc's kidnapping scheme particularly well thought out. Pretty
young women, traveling alone, are marked for snatching by Marlowe's
henchman Nicholas (George Zucco), who works at a gas station along
a lonely stretch of country road. He phones ahead to Marlowe's
house after a suitable victim passes through. Two gimpy servants
of the doctor's, Grego (Pat McKee) and Toby (a wild-looking John
Carradine), put a fake detour sign in the roadway, pointing to
a dirt path opened up by moving a section of shrubbery attached
to a hinged gate. When the women take the phony detour Marlowe
activates a gizmo in the house that kills their car engines dead.
Toby and Grego grab the gals, remove the fake detour and dispose
of the vehicles. In the rituals that follow, Nicholas, acting
as voodoo priest, calls on the mystical powers of "Ramboona" to
fully animate Marlowe's living dead wife at the expense of the
captives. The zombified victims are stored in a row of cells in
the basement — unsolved cases in the police Missing Persons files. |
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Eventually,
of course, there's a screw-up. Stella (Louise Currie) falls for
the detour gag but she's not alone. With her is Ralph (Tod Andrews),
whom she picked up on the roadside after getting directions from
Nicholas. (Ralph ran out of gas because he's too stupid to periodically
check the fuel gauge.) As luck would have it Stella's the cousin
of Ralph's bride-to-be. So he's more than a little curious when,
after the engine suddenly dies and he leaves to seek help, he
returns to find Stella and her car have disappeared. Ralph gets
the local sheriff involved and in fairly short order — the movie's
barely over an hour long, after all — the doctor's kidnapping
racket is exposed. Perhaps if Marlowe had patented that handy
engine-disabling device and sold it to the government he could've
afforded to hire some decent help... |
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A
very low budget cheapie from 'Poverty Row' studio Monogram,
Voodoo Man fails utterly on just
about every level. The story is inane, the direction by William
Beaudine (Billy the Kid vs. Dracula)
totally pedestrian. The screenwriter apparently made no effort
whatsoever to research actual voodoo lore. The film's only special
effect consists of a few seconds of reversed photography involving
an 'animated' length of rope. Fortunately the flick is just silly
enough to be entertaining. Lugosi gives a comparatively restrained
performance (he isn't given any juicy, instantly quotable lines
to spout), so it's supporting players George Zucco and John Carradine
who steal the show and make it worth watching. Fans of their roles
in many of the classic monster films of the 1930s and '40s may
be surprised — not to mention amused — by their antics here. Carradine's
childlike moron Toby, nervously hopping to and fro, long greasy
hair flopping in his face, is a real hoot, especially when he
sits in on bongos during the rituals. (Too bad he isn't paired
with Tor Johnson's Lobo here rather than the unremarkable Grego.
What a dimwitted duo they'd make!) Zucco, as Nicholas, had me
howling with laughter. In films I've previously seen him in (such
as The
Mummy's Hand and The
Flying Serpent), he's always an urbane yet sinister figure,
not exactly your typical gas station attendant... especially one
who doubles as a voodoo priest. During the movie's ritual scenes
he comes off as a complete goofball, mugging shamelessly in a
feathered headdress as he gibbers utter nonsense in supplication
to Ramboona. The witchdoctor on that Gilligan's Island
episode was more dignified than this! |
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| Voodoo
Man,
previously attainable only via bootlegs of bad to downright shitty
quality, has
never looked as good on home video as it does in this new RiffTrax
edition, which marks the film's first legitimate DVD release. |
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RiffTrax
(for the uninitiated) is the comedic enterprise of Mike Nelson,
Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, all alumni of the cable TV cult
fave Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988-1999). In the style
of that show — sans robot puppets and silhouettes in the corner
of the screen — the RiffTrax crew provides a running comedy commentary
not only lambasting the film, its characters and situations, but
tossing in a cornucopia of pop culture references as well. If
you were never enamored of MST3K-type humor to begin with then
their track for Voodoo Man isn't
going to work for you. But if you were, it will. (Somewhat dry
at first, it starts getting really funny about the time Lugosi
first appears, and takes off from there.) |
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The important thing about this DVD is that
the original version of the movie is also included, i.e., the
comedy track is purely optional. (Thus the two separate ratings
above. As a longtime MST3K fan I find Voodoo
Man a much more enjoyable experience with the added
jokes and wisecracks.) As previously mentioned, this is the best-quality
version of the film ever to hit home video. The source print is
pretty beat up in places, riddled with scratches and constant
speckling, but detail is surprisingly high and it's not so dark
or blown out that you can't see what's going on. Sound is good,
too, on both the regular and RiffTrax audio options. There aren't
any extras to speak of, but a groovy song performed by Kevin "Tom
Servo" Murphy, using audio samples from the movie, plays
over the menu screen. 1/28/10 |
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