Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Zombies of Mora Tau Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 10, 2021

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as a part of Cold War Creatures: Four Films from Sam Katzman.

Sam Katzman's name may frankly not be held in the same general esteem as some other famous Golden Era producers like David O. Selznick or Adolph Zukor, but for sheer number of films produced and perhaps especially in cost to profit ratio, Katzman might eclipse more ostensible luminaries than you might expect. While Zukor, as the head of Paramount Pictures, got literally hundreds of "presents" credits, his actual producing credits (according to the IMDb) number fewer than a hundred, and Selznick logs in with even fewer than that. Of course both Selznick and Zukor tended to enjoy much more fulsome budgets and more glittering marquee stars than Katzman, a hardscrabble guy who started working in the film industry when he was barely a teenager, and who then climbed the ranks to work at a number of studios, including "poverty row" centers like Monogram, but also 20th Century Fox, Metro Goldwyn Mayer and Columbia, ending up with (again according to the IMDb) 239 credits as producer. The four Katzman produced efforts Arrow Video has aggregated in this appealing collection may arguably not be from Hollywood's "real" Golden Era, with, as the title of the collection may hint at, these films all emanating a mid- fifties ambience that sought to attract younger viewers in particular away from the hypnotizing influence of that confounded television invention, often courtesy of plots that included science fiction and/or horror.

Far be it from me to suggest that geniuses on the order of Rod Serling and/or Robert Kirkman may have been influenced (perhaps subliminally) by a frankly probably generally little remembered Sam Katzman film from 1957, but just take a look at the text crawl that opens the film which I've included as screenshot 9 accompanying this review. Suffice it to say that it's the rare opening text in a film that manages to presage and actually outright identify not one but two future iconic television series. In terms of the film itself, The Zombies of Mora Tau may admittedly not completely scale the heights of either The Twilight Zone or The Walking Dead, but it, like some of its siblings in the Katzman collection from Arrow, has a palpable mood, along with some fun performances that may be winking at the audience just ever so slightly.

In a way, you could almost make a case that Zombies of Mora Tau also presages Pirates of the Caribbean franchise since the zombies in this case are in fact a bunch of supposedly deceased sailors who are tasked with protecting a cursed sunken ship which of course is home to some priceless booty. That prospect of cashing in on sunken treasure has understandably attracted the interest of a diver with the perhaps now slightly comical name of George Harrison (Joel Ashley), who is accompanied by his shapely and perhaps scheming wife Mona (Allison Hayes). A number of supporting characters enter the fray, with a kind of "gypsy woman" named Peters (Marjorie Eaton), who would have been completely at home dispensing hidden wisdom to Larry Talbot in The Wolf Man: Complete Legacy Collection, a real standout.

Zombies of Mora Tau Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Zombies of Mora Tau is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Arrow actually provides two insert booklets with this release, but there's very little information granted about the transfer, other than that "restored masters were produced by Sony Pictures". Of course Sony has long been one of the more reliable curators of even its less well known catalog, and while there's nothing major to complain about here, Zombies of Mora Tau may arguably not have quite the luster of some of its siblings in the Katzman set, if only by degrees. Part of this perception may be due at least in part to the rather large swaths of this film that play out in murky darkness, where fine detail levels in particular can ebb pretty noticeably (see screenshot 6). That said, this is another very nicely organic looking presentation that boasts a generally well resolved grain field and some very appealing fine detail levels on everything from some of the female character's hair to elements like fabrics and props. This is another presentation in this set where there can be intermittent slight downturns in overall clarity for a moment or two in selected scenes when compared to the bulk of the presentation (see screenshot 7). My score is 3.75.

Zombies of Mora Tau Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Zombies of Mora Tau offers a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix that provides good support for the film's often goofy dialogue and some of the sound effects, which are relatively numerous given this film's obviously very low budget. Once again the score seems to have been cobbled together from stock libraries, but sounds fine and surprisingly consistent. I noticed no issues with regard to any major age related wear and tear. Optional English subtitles are available.

Zombies of Mora Tau Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Introduction by Kim Newman (HD; 7:35) can be accessed under the Play Menu. The disc is authored to move on automatically to the feature after the introduction (there's an option to simply play the feature without the introduction as well).


• Commentary by Kat Ellinger


• Atomic Terror: Genre in Transformation (HD; 19:48) is a nicely done visual essay with Josh Hurtado looking at how Katzman's "monster movies" often offered combo platters of myth and science.


• Theatrical Trailer (HD; 1:55)


• Image Gallery (HD)

Zombies of Mora Tau Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Zombies of Mora Tau is a good, old fashioned programmer, and if the likes of Allison Hayes gives the film some inherent seductive allure, it's actually the wizened old woman portrayed by Marjorie Eaton which gives the film a lot of its most distinctive flavor. Video is arguably just a little less satisfying overall than some of the other presentations in Arrow's Katzman set, but audio is fine, and as usual with Arrow releases, the supplementary package is very enjoyable, for those who are considering making a purchase.