POVERTY ROW CLASSICS DOUBLE FEATURE:
KING OF THE ZOMBIES (1941)
& MISS V FROM MOSCOW (1942)
VCI Entertainment offer-up a z-grade double-feature from the scrappy Poverty Row flicks, one is an early zom-com starring the comic relief stylings of Mantan Moreland, the other an obscure WWII Soviet spy-melodrama which is making it's Blu-ray debut with this release.
KING OF THE ZOMBIES (1941)
Label: VCI Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 67 Minutes 5 Seconds
Audio: English PCM 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Jean Yarbrough
Cast: Dick Purcell, Henry Victor, Patricia Stacey, Joan Woodbury, Mantan Moreland
First up is an early zombie horror-comedy, wherein WW2 is under way, plane pilot, James "Mac" McCarthy (Dick Purcell, The Bank Dick), along with his passengers, Bill Summers (John Archer, Destination Moon) and his valet Jefferson Jackson (Mantan Moreland, Cabin in the Sky), find themselves lost and low on fuel while flying from Cuba and Puerto Rico. They crash land on island where they picked up a radio signal, and encounter the strange Dr. Miklos Sangre (Henry Victor, Freaks) and his wife Alyce (Patricia Stacey), and discover the doctor has created a small army of mindless zombies, and that he is working with the German to create an unstoppable army. The story itself is a bit of snoozer to be honest, the zombies are blank faced drones and not-scary at all, just a bit creepy, but the saving grace of this zom-com is Mantan Moreland (Spider Baby) as the comic relief, his bug-eyed reactions and one-liners are the sole reason this undead flick has any life to it at all. I best remember Moreland as playing Birmingham Brown in the Charlie Chan mystery flicks that would re-run on WGN-TV New York as a kid, he was my favorite part of those flicks and he's easily the best thing about this one.
MISS V FROM MOSCOW (1941)
Label: VCI Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 66 Minutes 16 Seconds
Audio: English PCM 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Albert Herman
Cast: Lola Lane, Howard Banks, Noel Madison, Paul Weigel
I was less enamored with the B-side to this double-feature, the spy-thriller Miss V from Moscow (1941), also set during WWII we follow the beautiful Soviet spy Vera Marova (Lola Lane, They Made Me A Killer) who is assigned to impersonates her doppelganger, a dead German spy Greta Hiller and to send secret radio messages to Moscow, warning American convoys of potential attacks from German submarines. Perhaps the most intriguing thing about this one was how it's pro-Soviet, with he gorgeous Russian spy teaming-up with American Steve Worth (Howard Banks, Murder in the Blue Room) and a Frenchman operative to get the job done. I found this spy thriller more of a melodrama, chock full of the typical wartime propaganda for this era, but not all that entertaining to be honest.
Audio/Video: Both films arrive on region-free Blu-ray from VCI Entertainment, presented in 1080p HD in the original 1.33:1 fullscreen aspect ratio. There are no notes I found about the source of the scans, of the pair King of the Zombies looks the best, the source looks terrific, hardly any flaws to note, with solid grayscale and contrast, and strong black. There are some nice textures visible in the close-ups as well. Miss V from Moscow looks quite underwhelming by comparison, the source elements are in worse shape with plenty of speckling and vertical lines, looking soft and smeary, but is very watchable, just not ideal. Audio on both comes by way of lossy English Dolby Digital 2.0 dual-mono, both are relatively clean if authentically thin sounding with King of the Zombies sounding the best, optional yellow subtitles are provided for both flicks.
Extras include a terrific new Audio Commentary by Tom Weaver and Gary D. Rhodes for King of the Zombies, that offers a lot for a flick that not much is known about with his usual well-researched and humor infused takes. He talks quite a bit about how much of the information he espouses was also mentioned in his commentary for Revenge of the Zombies, which is basically a remake of this flick, and he even take some time to disparage other commentators and how they fill time on these tracks, not mentioning anyone by name, but dropping some easy to follow clues if you are curious! We also get a solid 11-min Video Essay: Poverty Row Studios: A Brief History of B,C and Z Films, plus the 10-min
The News Parade of the Year 1941 that offers newsreel highlights of this tumultuous year. The 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD arrives in clear, dual-hubbed Viva Elite keepcase with a 2-sided, non-reversible sleeve of artwork, the reverse side not featuring a collage of vintage movie posters for both films. The accompanying DVD features the same features and extras presented in SD.
Special Features:
- Video Essay: Poverty Row Studios: A Brief History of B,C and Z Films (11:21)
- The News Parade of the Year 1941 (9:34)
- King of the Zombies - Audio Commentary by Tom Weaver and Gary D. Rhodes
Buy it!
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