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This is the extremely rare Spanish language version
(Produced by Miguel Tudela for MARTE & Jaun Couret for DIASA) [TVE]
of a film better known as Eurocine's OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES (The
"French" alternate with majority production funds from Daniel
Lesoeur, Eurocine-Paris). LA TUMBA... is the superior version for
several reasons. Both films share the same basic plot: student Robert
Blabert and his friends leave their University studies in London for a
journey to North Africa where they will investigate the murder of
Robert's father, a former World War Two officer who knew the secret
location of a treasure guarded by bloodsucking Nazi zombies.
Both versions are scored by Daniel White, feature Manuel Gelin as
Blabert, along with the same cast of young desert searchers and inserted
footage from Alfredo Rizzo's I GIARDINI DEL DIAVOLO, a third rate
Italian World War Two adventure crudely cut into the assembly to
represent Blabert's combat flashbacks. French and Spanish versions
feature Antonio Mayans and Doris Regina in the key roles of The Shiek
and Aicha, who hold knowledge of young Robert's secret background.
Frequent 1980s Franco cinematographer/actor, Juan Soler Cozar (credited
as DP on this Spanish version) is also seen playing the role of a
documentary filmmaker in OASIS (along with regular Franco technician
Angel Ordiales as his soundman). They are doomed in both versions to die
alongside Professor Denicken (Albino Graziani) at the haunted Oasis.
Prominent Eurocult character actor Eduardo Fajardo (DJANGO) plays the
role of the ex Afrika-Korps commando, Kurt, in the Spanish version,
replacing Henri Lambert in the Eurocine cut. Franco muse Lina Romay
appears alongside Fajardo in the Spanish version, replacing Myriam
Landson from OASIS. Fajardo and Romay are far more interesting actors
than Lambert and Landson and these opening scenes, shot by Cozar
employing Dutch camera angles for the zombies attacks at the Oasis, are
much more compelling than the parallel footage in Eurocine's cut, lensed
by sometime Rollin DP, Max Monteillet. Look for Daniel Katz (the villain
in MIL SEXOS TIENE LA NOCHE) as one of Fajardo's henchmen in LAS TUMBA....
The most significant difference in terms of atmospherics is the Pablo
Villa (Daniel White) score heard in the Spanish version. It features
moaning, surging, delirous voodoo rhythms and vocals (cf White's MACUMBA
SEXUAL score) which set the action on fire and adds considerable drama
everytime it kicks in. The Eurocine soundtrack, also by White, features
more conventional, and rather boring Middle Eastern bazaar style music.
The special make up effects in both versions are the same, patheticially
unacceptable: guys with worms taped on their faces, ragged clothing and
bugged out eyes; one zombie is hilariously represented by a skull on a
stick. It doesn't get any worse than this, unless you've seen Eurocine's
ZOMBIE LAKE, another inferior Nazi zombie epic.
The aspect ratio on the Spanish TVE version consulted for this review
varies between fullframe, 1.66:1 and around 1.85:1 (for all scenes with
Fajardo and Romay). Franco now claims to be the sole director of both
Spanish and Eurocine versions, but the latter is visually very dull and
the alternate footage seems more like the work of a Eurocine house-hack
like Marius Lesoeur, who has in the past signed as both A.L. Mariaux
(credited as scriptwriter on OASIS...) and the director of credit on the
Eurocine cut, A.M. Frank. It's possible that Eurocine exclusively did
the post production on OASIS..., for export, leaving Franco to produce
his own Spanish version, LAS TUMBA DE LOS MUERTOS VIVIENTES. Both
versions fall between ten to fifteen minutes shorter than the 95m
runtime noted in OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO.
-- Reviewed by Robert Monell
Widescreen DVD for $9.99 and viewer reviews
available on Amazon.com
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Oasis
of the Zombies
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