Captain America: Episodes 10 and 11

 Episode 10: The Avenging Corpse

"These scientists don't seem to realise they're walking eight into the Scarab's trap!"

Two thirds of the way through. I can do this.

So this episode, after we resolve the cliffhanger with the traditional blatant reediting cheat, suddenly changes track as the brother of the late professor from a couple of years ago has conveniently invented a resurrectin machin which the Scarab will obviously wan to steal, and is even giving a talk about it at the Mayan Explorers' Club just so the plot convenience can be total. No wonder Grant blatantly lampshades this in the quoted line.

The Scarab essentially steals the machine and kidnaps its inventor right after a demonstration, in which the scientist revives a dog whom, presumably, he has thoughtfully killed for the occasion.  And then we move to a chase and cliffhanger. You know the drill.

 

Episode 11: The Dead Man Revives

"I didn't contruct this machine to bring a dead murderer back to life!"

The Scarab's henchman Matson is killed, but the Scarab can now resurrect him- and we spend the entire bloody episode in suspense for this to happen. That is, literally, the episode, plus a standard bit of peril.

How many more episodes do I need to sit through? Four? Sigh...

 

White Zombie (1932)

"I'm too old to go all the way with you!"

Oh dear. I was all set to watch Brighton Rock with Richard Attenborough but, due to a disappointing lack of subtitles on behalf of Amazon Prime, I thought I'd watch this instead. Not my best decision; it's a plodding, dull, poorly shot melodrama that may only last 70 minutes but feels much, much longer. Not very good, to put it mildly, and you can sort of see the slide in Bela Lugosi's career starting here, in a performance that is just repeating Dracula.

Still, bad film though this is, it remains an interesting cultural artifact and not only because it was the name of Rob Zombie's band for a few years before he found himself having far more success with his solo career and sacked the band. It's set, like the later I Walked with a Zombie, in Haiti and sees the zombie entirely through the prism of Haitian voodoo legend. Even the title of the film suggests it was widely seen as a Haitian or, at most, West African thing. The zombie at this point owes very little to the post-Night of the Living Dead concept; here it is implied to be the result of a drug that mimics death, allowing the voodoo baddie to "resurrect" the body as his docile servant. No biting or brain munching here. Indeed, zombies are said to be worked for long hours in plantations and sugar factories, and it's impossible not to see this, in the Caribbean of all places, in the context of slavery. This isn't the apocalypse; it's abuse of workers' rights.

None of that makes this film worth seeing, though. You have been warned!