Zombies of Mora Tau (1957)

Director:

Edward L. Cahn

Writers (WGA):

George H. Plympton (story)
Bernard Gordon (screenplay) (originally as Raymond T. Marcus)

Release Date:

March 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

ZOMBIES OF THE AFRICAN VOODOO COAST! (original poster - all caps)

Plot:

Zombie-like, dead crewmen of a sunken ship have always prevented salvagers from claiming the wreck's legendary box of diamonds, but will a new group of treasure hunters succeed?

Plot Keywords:

Treasure | Diamond | Legend | Sailor | Africa

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Gregg Palmer	...	Jeff Clark
Allison Hayes	...	Mona Harrison
Autumn Russell	...	Jan Peters
Joel Ashley	...	George Harrison
Morris Ankrum	...	Dr. Jonathan Eggert
Marjorie Eaton	...	Grandmother Peters
Gene Roth	...	Sam, the chauffeur
Leonard P. Geer	...	Johnny - a Crewman (as Leonard Geer)
Karl 'Killer' Davis	...	First Zombie - in Roadway (as Karl Davis)
William Baskin	...	Zombie
Ray Corrigan	...	Sailor
Mel Curtis	...	Johnson - Crewman in Launch
Frank Hagney	...	Capt. Jeremy Peters - a Zombie

Also Known As:

The Dead That Walk (UK)

Runtime:

70 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden - 301 N. Baldwin Avenue, Arcadia, California, USA

Company:

Clover Productions

Trivia:

Columbia Pictures released this film on a double bill with The Man Who Turned to Stone (1957) with the tag line: "Warning - This is the Most Shocking Horror Bill Ever Shown!"

Goofs:

Continuity: The first freighter seen on screen has two masts. But when we look back again, it now only has one mast.

Quotes:

Sam, the chauffeur: [after hitting a particularly deep pothole] Sorry, Miss Jan.
Jan Peters: Sam, I think by now you'd know every hole in this road.
Sam, the chauffeur: I know all the holes, Miss Jan, but on this road there's no place to go but in them.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Middleman: The Ectoplasmic Panhellenic Investigation (#1.8)" (2008)

Zombies of Mora Tau (1957) **

One of the sillier 1950s fright night flicks, and directed with little imagination. An unlikable search party arrives at a small African plantation with hopes of retrieving a cargo of diamonds from the bowels of a ship that was sunk some 60 years earlier. The only problem is that the treasure's being guarded by a small band of sleepwalking-style zombies (the original sailors who went down with the ship when it sank) and they've done a fine job so far of killing every other search party that has intervened over the decades. The elderly wife of the zombified captain is still alive and wants the diamonds too, but only to destroy them so she may give rest to her husband's wandering soul.

That description is much more interesting than the way the movie actually pans out, but at least we've got the stunning Allison Hayes to gawk at as she plays the bitchy babe with the killer figure. There are some very weird underwater simulations when the divers are attacked by the dutiful zombies, who somehow are able to walk straight across the ocean floor without floating to the surface.