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best movie i've ever seen.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

A Hollywood primordial exploration of the now time-honored zombie trope, running around a svelte 69-minute and with the filmmaker who previously brings us CAT PEOPLE (1942), I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE holds its own in its compact narrative that takes place in the Caribbean island of Saint Sebastian, where the wife of a sugar plantation owner has slumped into a zombie-like state, viz. a living dead under the spell of voodoo magic. Audience are whisked onto the tropical land with our heroine, a Canadian nurse Betsy Connell (Dee), who snatches the well-paid job to minister to the aforementioned wife Jessica Holland (Gordon), whose first apparitional appearance is a mild hair-raiser, and instinctively swoons for her hubby, Paul Holland (Conway), a suave gent ailed by a pessimistic streak, the first thing he tells her is that "everything is putrescent". As she dedicatedly takes it on herself to bring Jessica back to the living world, a manifestation of her lofty affection to the man she loves, and is out of step with a more plausible self-serving/possessive maneuver that more likely pops up in the context of romantic pursuit, her last resort to work the miracle hinges on the local voodooism, and the most atmospherically stirring sequence is where she chaperones a sleep-walking Jessica across a nocturnal cane field interspersed with memento mori, to attend an occult ceremony and is appalled by the sight of a dead-fish-eyed guardian Carrefour (Jones), an archetypal zombie embodiment that might give viewers at then nightmares.Directer Jacques Tourneur, cunningly straddles the explanation between scientific diagnosis and ethnic necromancy, also configures a bare-bones JANE EYRE plot to leaven the narrative, although Frances Dee flourishes as a gamely virtuous can-doer, and theater dab-hand Edith Barrett upstages the rest with a layered rendition as Mrs. Rand, Paul's mother, whose evasive culprit identity actually counterpoints her palpable bonhomie, the film per se is too much an obsolete novelty to be seriously reckoned as a masterwork, not even with the help of Sir Lancelot's calypso invention, especially when he is unceremoniously introduced as a Janus-faced fabulist (apologizing first, scandal-disclosing later).

Despite the loud, ghoulish title, 'I Walked with a Zombie' is a very mild mannered film that contains as many elements of drama and dreams as it does actual horror. The horror it does contain is often rather quaint and quiet is effective because of its quaintness and quietness. It dodges almost all of the stereotypes of your typical classical horror film (the female protagonist does let out a blood curdling shriek very early on in the film, but it is a) extremely justified and b) extremely brief, and never does the film return to having such high volume), making it a probably disappointment to some who could be going into this beautiful oddity with expectations totally contrary to those that would let them enjoy such a film as this. The film is, stylistically, something very special and, in parts, successfully surreal. Many of the more eerie scenes set late at night feel ripped out of one's unconscious subconscious, the visuals are often reflective of a silent film, and the musical score is often either made up of tribal drumbeats or really haunting and gorgeously dreamy music, hardly that which you would typically expect out of such a film. The film, particularly in its last few minutes or so, is also extremely and unexpectedly poetic and has moments mirroring the typical mood of an (unpretentious, may I add and assure) arthouse or even somewhat avant garde film. It is something else entirely...it is something exquisite, sad, soaked in dread, decay, and a dash of the needed humanity. It is something...something of a masterpiece.

Frances Dee (Betsy) is appointed as a nurse to care for Christine Gordon (Jessica) on a Caribbean island. Gordon has a mysterious condition. Can it be attributed to voodoo or more natural causes? Whatever the condition, it is weird! The rest of the cast include her plantation-owner husband Tom Conway (Paul), his half-brother James Ellison (Wesley), their mother Edith Barrett, and a community of voodoo worshippers. They all have their own theories as to what has happened to Jessica. So, can nurse Frances get to the truth? This film is way better than its title suggests. It's atmospheric, spooky, nicely shot and very unexpected as well as original in its setting. There are quite a few memorable set pieces in this fairly short film. In fact, it's all pretty memorable and keeps you watching. If you try to anticipate what is coming next, I guarantee you will get it wrong. I got things wrong every time I thought I knew what was going to happen. It's a very good film in that respect. So, just watch the story unfurl.The actors are fine – I wasn't too enamoured with James Ellison given that he had the top credit. I don't think he deserved it. I'd have put him around 4th on the cast list. There are also several story threads left open and not fully explained but it doesn't matter, it adds to the mystery. I recommend this one - a different kind of zombie in this film. It's scary and sad.

"Betsy Connell" (Frances Dee) is a nurse living in Canada who accepts a job taking care of the wife of a sugar plantation owner named "Paul Holland" (Tom Conway). The fact that it takes her to the tropical island of Saint Sebastion in the Caribbean is an added incentive. On the way there she meets Paul and he acts quite cold and distant to her. Subsequent meetings only reinforce this impression. However, his brother "Wesley Rand" (James Ellison) seems much more friendly. But her impression of him changes when she realizes that he has a drinking problem. She also learns that Paul Holland's wife is a sleepwalker. At least, that's what it looks like. Now, rather than reveal any more of the film and risk ruining it for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that for a movie made during World War 2 this particular zombie film wasn't too bad. Naturally, like most movies of this type made prior to 1968 the catalyst for creating a zombie centers on voodoo rather than a virus or chemical agent. Additionally, the zombies of today are nothing like those back then. In any case, I enjoyed this movie for the most part with my biggest criticism being that it lacked the necessary time (only 69 minutes) to establish any real depth. Accordingly, I rate this movie as slightly above average.