I Walked with a Zombie (1943)

Actors: James Bell (actor), Tom Conway (actor), Curt Siodmak (writer), Jacques Tourneur (director), Mark Robson (editor), Frances Dee (actress), Roy Webb (composer), Theresa Harris (actress), James Ellison (actor), Clinton Rosemond (actor), Darby Jones (actor), Martin Wilkins (actor), Charlotte Brontë (writer), Jeni Le Gon (actress), Lou L. Ostrow (miscellaneous crew),

Plot: A young Canadian nurse (Betsy) comes to the West Indies to care for Jessica, the wife of a plantation manager (Paul Holland). Jessica seems to be suffering from a kind of mental paralysis as a result of fever. When she falls in love with Paul, Betsy determines to cure Jessica even if she needs to use a voodoo ceremony, to give Paul what she thinks he wants.

Keywords: alcoholism, b-movie, based-on-novel, black-magic, boat, brother-brother-relationship, calypso, canadian, caribbean, claim-in-title
Genres: Horror,
Taglines: See this strange, strange story of a woman whose lure set brother against brother; whose love caused hate - and whose beauty bowed to the will of an evil spell in whose power we must refuse to believe - EVEN IF IT'S TRUE! the blackest magic of voodoo keeps this beautiful woman alive...yet DEAD! Blonde Beauty - Doomed to be one of the walking dead! SEE This strange and startling story of a woman to whom it all happened! She's alive... yet dead! She's dead... yet alive! Who said the dead don't walk? See it happen--right before your startled eyes...in the screen sensation that rips the mask from the darkest secrets of forbidden voodoo!

Quotes:

Paul Holland: It's easy enough to read the thoughts of a newcomer. Everything seems beautiful because you don't understand. Those flying fish, they're not leaping for joy, they're jumping in terror. Bigger fish want to eat them. That luminous water, it takes its gleam from millions of tiny dead bodies. The glitter of putrescence. There is no beauty here, only death and decay.::Betsy Connell: You can't really believe that.::Paul Holland: Everything good dies here. Even the stars.

Mrs. Rand: Don't worry about a sugar planter. Give him a horse and he'll ride to his own funeral.

Betsy Connell: [Betsy Connell and Mr. Holland are walking through the garden together] Why was the maid crying?::Paul Holland: I'm not sure I can make you understand. [He stops and points at an odd-looking sculpture in the garden]::Paul Holland: Do you know what this is?::Betsy Connell: A figure of Saint Sebastian.::Paul Holland: Yes. But it was once the figurehead of a slave ship. That's where our people came from. From the misery and pain of slavery. For generations they found life a burden. That's why they still weep when a child is born and make merry at a burial... I've told you, Miss Connell: this is a sad place.

Betsy Connell: Frankly, it was something of a shock to see my patient that way for the first time. Nobody had told me Mrs. Holland was a... mental case.::Paul Holland: A "mental case"?::Betsy Connell: I'm sorry...::Paul Holland: Why should you be? My wife IS a mental case. Please remember that, Miss Connell. Particularly when some of the foolish people on the island start regaling you with the local legends. You'll find superstition a contagious thing. Some people let it get the better of them. I don't think you will.::Betsy Connell: No.::Paul Holland: Come along. I'll introduce you to Dr. Maxwell and your patient.

Betsy Connell: [first lines, narration] I walked with a zombie... sounds strange to say.

Dr. Maxwell: She makes a beautiful zombie doesn't she?

Paul Holland: I want you back in Canada.

Betsy Connell: [Noticing Alma having difficulty trying to lead a stubborn horse] Alma, try it this way... Turn your back on him. You see, that's the way it is with a horse: you can't lead him and look at him at the same time.::Alma - Maid: [Chuckles] Sounds sorta' man-like, don't it?

Ti-Joseph: Oh Lord God most holy, deliver them from the bitter pains of eternal death. The woman was a wicked woman, and she was dead in her own life. Yea lord, dead in the selfishness of her spirit. And the man followed her. Her steps led him down to evil, her feet took hold on death. Forgive him oh Lord, who knowest the secret of all hearts. Yea Lord, pity them who are dead, and give peace and happiness to the living.