Ouanga (aka Drums Of The Jungle, aka The Love Wanga, 1935)
I've copied this here because it is apparently a British 'quota quickie' commissioned by Paramount in order to be able to distribute more of their Hollywood films in the UK. Maybe Darrell would like to add it the timeline? The plot is simple. “In Haiti, a black female plantation owner enacts a voodoo curse, and revives zombies for revenge on a white male neighbor, who has chosen a white woman over her for marriage.” The underlying issues which are touched upon are more involved and include racial stereotypes, class prejudice, perceptions of social status, male chauvinism, colonialism… The film was made on location in Jamaica and the technical limitations of exterior shooting at the time are clearly evident. However, director George Terwilliger does display a modicum of style on occasion, particulary in the low angle shots of voodoo drummers and in the nocturnal scene showing the raising of the two zombies. The combination of the adverse production conditions, a cast whose performances range from barely adequate to theatrically exaggerated, the exoticism of the locale and the depiction of now long vanished conventions of social intercourse confers a strangely uneven, disjointed and dreamlike, almost haunting quality which makes viewing a more enjoyable experience than might have been expected.