American Cinematographer - February 1988 - 36

White Zombie

-

Today's Unlikely Classic
by Michael Price and George Turner

The

word zombie

was

introduced to the American

reading public in 1929 in "The Magic Island," a credu¬
lous but fascinating book about Haitian Voodoo by
William B. Seabrook. Playwright Kenneth Webb
brought zombies to the drama in his play, "Zombie,"
which opened in New York City in February of 1932. In
March of that year Webb brought suit against movie
producers Edward R. and Victor Hugo Halperin, who
had announced their intent to make
White Zombie from

an

a

movie called

original script by Garnett

Weston.

Webb, who had been negotiating movie rights
play, felt (understandably) that his territory was
being infringed upon. The defendants demurred, say¬
ing the play, having closed after 21 performances, could
not have been affected adversely by their plans for a
to his

film

along admittedly similar lines and that the word
was in the public domain.

zombie

The

Halperin brothers won the case and com¬
pleted their movie for summer release, thereby intro¬
34

American

Cinematographer

ducing the zombie to motion pictures. Their film had a
boxoffice star, Bela Lugosi, fresh from his successes at
Universal in Dracula and Murders in the Rue Morgue,
and the

prestige of a United Artists release - quite an
an outside
producer in those days. United
Artists was a company of enormous prestige which
was owned
by and released the product of a select
group of top independent producers, such as Samuel
Goldwyn, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford,
Joseph M. Schenck, Howard Hughes, Charles Chap¬
lin, Lewis Milestone and Henry King.
Although the Halperins had been associated
with major studios during the silent era, they were on
their own in the tough world of the talkies and in the
depths of the Great Depression, occupying an office at
RKO-Pathe Studio in Culver City. They now found it
necessary to operate within the financially strictured
parameters of "Poverty Row." No one in the industry
would have mentioned the Halperins in the same
breath with Goldwyn or Chaplin.
honor for

February 1988



American Cinematographer - February 1988

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - February 1988

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