Truly Dreadful Film

Simply Perfect

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Edward L. Cahn directed this horror thriller that stars Gregg Palmer and Allison Hayes, who lead a group of treasure-hunters to an isolated African coast where there lies a sunken ship which is reputed to hold a huge cache of diamonds. Other expeditions have met with death, but that doesn't deter this current group, who learn that the sunken ship is guarded by its undead crew, zombies who will stop at nothing to preserve the diamonds. Can this voodoo curse be stopped? Fondly remembered schlock is quite silly, if not downright absurd, with an illogical and shallow plot, yet it is so bad that it's still strangely watchable, and certainly an example of old-fashioned filmmaking.

The year is 1894 and somewhere off the coast of Africa a crew from the ship "Susan B" raids an ancient temple and seizes a cask full of diamonds. A violent quarrel then erupts within the crew leaving around 10 of them—to include the captain—dead. However, when the crew tries to leave, the dead crew members return and kill them. The "Susan B" is sunk and the diamonds are left in her cargo hold. Many years later an American ship arrives and her captain, "George Harrison" is intent upon getting his hands on the diamonds. With him is his wife, "Mona" (Allison Hayes) and a skilled diver named "Jeff Clark" (Gregg Palmer). What they don't fully realize is that this treasure is guarded by zombies who have been resurrected by a type of voodoo. Neither do they realize just how incredibly strong the zombies are until one of them captures a pretty blonde named "Jan Peters" (Autumn Russell) and Jeff almost dies in the attempt to free her. Still, greed is a powerful force and it gets the best of them as this group continues to try to get this treasure even though 4 or 5 other European groups have died in the attempt over the past 50 years or so. Now, people who aren't accustomed to "old-style zombies" may not like or appreciate this film too much. After all, it's in black and white and the zombies are nothing like what we currently see in the movies today. They don't bite and infect anyone with a virus. And there are no graphic scenes. Additionally, the acting wasn't that great either. But this was what horror films looked like back in the 50's and while it isn't necessarily "scary" by today's standards, it does have some suspense and creepiness all the same. Again though, this film may not appeal to everyone. But I enjoyed it and I rate it as slightly above average all the same.

This is most definitely a B-Grade horror movie in almost every way. For that reason, it's a little bit of a surprise that the basic story isn't all that bad - ridiculous, but not bad. A group of American divers arrive off the coast of Africa to search for a ship that sunk many years before carrying a treasure of valuable diamonds. Once there, they discover that the wreck and diamonds are being protected by the original crew of the sunken ship - who are now among the undead! There was no real explanation offered as to why the diamonds are so important to the undead. It's not like they're going to be walking into the local shopping mall and going on a spree! But they are important - I guess it's a kind of "if we can't enjoy them, no one can" kind of attitude. These are typical, old fashioned zombies. They're just undead. They're not flesh eaters, walking around devouring people. That image of zombies, as far as I know, came from "Night of the Living Dead" in 1968. These guys are just dead - or, rather, undead. Or ... Well, you get the point. They're tormented souls who have no escape from their tormented life - not even in death. Five previous expeditions from around the world have come here to find the diamonds, and all of the members of all of the expeditions have been done away with by these undead guardians of the diamonds and been immediately buried so as to prevent them from also walking the earth. Can this new bunch survive? And find the diamonds? I suppose the story's OK for a B-Grade movie. The movie, however, fails on the authenticity meter, at least to me. First, this is supposed to be set in deepest, darkest Africa. It's established that the nearest police and even the nearest doctor are hours away. There's nothing here; no place to go for help - except for the extremely large and comfortable mansion like home that Grandma Peters (Marjorie Eaton) lives in, that comes complete with servants and chauffeur and a pretty fancy car. Yeah. The roads are a little bumpy. But that's about the only inconvenience to living in this extremely remote corner of the world (I mean, aside from the undead who wander around incessantly, which would be a bit inconvenient at times I suppose.)I also chuckled at both Mona (Allison Hayes) - the wife of the expedition's leader - and Jan (Autumn Russell) - who's the granddaughter who makes Grandma Peters a grandma. Why do I chuckle? Well, again, in this remote corner of deepest, darkest Africa, these attractive women (as an aside, Jan's more attractive than Mona, by the way) seem to spend most of their time wearing fancy dresses or evening gowns and running around in high heels. In deepest, darkest Africa (even outside the inexplicably comfortable mansion) where such things strike me as something of an inconvenience.One other thing. Since fire really bothers these undead, why not pour gallons of gasoline into the mausoleum (which also inexplicably exists in deepest, darkest Africa where nobody but Grandma Peters seems to live) where they spend their free time (which the undead must have a lot of) basically just lying in their coffins and set the whole thing on fire, rather than just using fire to make them back off? Seems to me that might have solved the whole problem. Of course, it would have ended the movie too quickly if anyone had been sharp enough to have that thought.As it is, this is only a little over an hour in length, and while there are a few silly elements (such as described above) the basic story's not bad. It's quite watchable, even if it isn't a masterpiece. (4/10)

Some amateur reviewers will excuse anything in a movie and give 5 stars minimum simply for the crew having been able to load film-stock into a camera without exposing it to sunlight. After sitting through all 69 minutes of Mora Tau (that I will never have back) I began to really wish that this bad movie had somehow become a 'lost film' instead of films I'd actually like to see -- such as "London After Midnight" starring Lon Chaney or the original 9 hour version of von Stroheim's silent film classic "Greed".As a devoted fan of zombie films who has seen more than 70 films in the genre from the brilliant to the downright awful, even I must admit that most voodoo zombie movies aren't very good -- aside from Halperin's White Zombie and Gilling's Plague of the Zombies (for Hammer Studios) and to a lesser extent, the entertaining if somewhat offensive 1941 Mantan Moreland minstrel show that is King of the Zombies. Even by that guideline for diminished expectations, Mora Tau is probably one of the worst of the voodoo zombie genre and might make me think better of Halperin's 1936 followup disaster Revolt of the Zombies. Zombies of Mora Tau is so insultingly stupid and lame that it almost made me long for the 'good ole days' of the 1940s when Abbott and Costello were busy ruining the Universal Monsters franchise (though A&C enthusiasts still refuse to admit how unfunny those films were). If you want a good underwater horror film from that era watch any of the three 'Creature from the Black Lagoon' films instead or maybe even (horror of bad TV horrors) the Godzilla Power Hour cartoon with Godzookie. If you want underwater zombies, try Wiederhorn's 'Shockwaves' instead. This film is a reminder that not all old black and white films are 'classics' and I can think of any of a number of cheesy 50s horror films that are 10 times more entertaining. The atomic age sci-fi silliness of Invisible Invaders is another better recommendation than Zombies of Mora Tau. Maybe the 3 stars out of 10 that I gave Mora Tau was too generous. I'm now glad there wasn't a DVD of this for me to buy and that TCM showed it to me for free.PLOT: The basic plot sounds like something the "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl" might have pilfered some basic ideas from: There is a sunken treasure of $1 million of uncut diamonds that has attracted treasure hunters for decades and lead to the demise of many a diver. It seems that the original thieves of the treasure all met an untimely demise and 10 zombies now guard said treasure (though why they live in 10 lined up coffins in a cave like Snow Whites dwarfs is anyone's guess) and will not rest until said treasure is 'destroyed' as the old lady says. The sailors dream of riches and ignore her warnings and try to get the treasure anyway...These are also among the least scary voodoo zombies I've seen in a movie. If all the reels of this film were at the bottom of the sea, I think I'd voodoo up some zombies to guard them and ensure that they were never retrieved so that movie audiences would be spared the horror of seeing this film.**SPOILERS**I have several issues with this film and its lazy writing:*The dive crew/sailors are too dumb to realize that the woman is not 'ill' but now has become one of the zombies and is exhibiting all the same traits. These characters are obviously much dumber than your average horror movie morons.*Sure the old lady claims the zombies are indestructible, but that doesn't stop the sailors from using knives and other weapons on them ineffectively. None of the sailors/divers ever thinks to try lighting a zombie aflame after they display an obvious fear of fire? You've gotta be kidding me. Maybe it wouldn't destroy them, but you'd think someone would at least try it.*Don't establish rules for the zombies and then proceed to break those rules later in the film when it seems convenient to do so.*So the diamonds must be 'destroyed' for the zombies to rest, right? So why does dumping the diamonds into a couple feet of water not 10 feet from the shore of old lady's property count as 'destroying them' and end the curse? It's as if the writers forgot that someone could just bend down and pick retrieve the diamonds 5 minutes after the 'zombies' dematerialize out of their clothes.