Creature double feature (Night 2): THE UNDEAD, VOODOO WOMAN

(1957) Dir. Edward L. Cahn

**1/2 / Amazon Image - A

If you want to see the genius of Corman, just consider the output of Edward L. Cahn, a journeyman director given by AIP more or less the same mix of low money and total freedom by producers Arkoff and Nicholson, but the result invariably hampered by overall witless pacing and a general William Beaudine of the 50s style professional ambivalence. Also, while Corman used his punchy young crew of regulars-- can-do beatniks who brought a hipster disaffect to the material-- Cahn goes for lumpen middle-aged white men trying to hide their drinking problems long enough to make it with a starlet half their age before she turns into a Paul Blaisdell monster and shreds them limb from limb, and rightly so! Here the drunk is Tom Conway, looking. well not good (he'd be dead in another decade, from cirrhosis) but hitting his marks, standing still, bedecked in a crazy feather hat while the natives shimmy and shake menacingly around him. Most unforgivably, he's very mean to his trophy wife (Susan Gerard), keeping her a prisoner in their hut, with armed guard (with spear) ever-lurking outside the window, while he conducts hybrid voodoo and medical experiments on the local girls, trying to turn them into rampaging beasts without the natives getting too upset.

The good news is that the atmospheric jungle setting is certainly done well, as in not shot outdoors on the backlot but on sound stages, allowing for deeper, truer blacks, with thick potted vegetation, torch-lit caves, and a swirling abyss topped off with slow brewing fog, in which the unbelievers are tossed to their deaths. And most importantly, we get a full-throated performance of unmitigated villainy from the Maria English as a gold-digging (literally) femme fatale using men like men use their firsts. If you're just used to seeing her passively endure the hypnotic caresses of Chester Morris's one-note villain (in The Astounding She-Monster), until such time as she can sic her ancient prehistoric armor-plated sea brawler other self upon him, you are in for a Halloween treat. Interestingly, that movie--clearly this was made right after since it uses the same monster suit, and a few of the same cast--also traded on the Bridey Murphy past life regression angle. So if you're still awake you might veer over to that film, but I'm finding out I'd much rather watch this one, which has a meatier role for Maria. Though once again turning into a monster she's a monster to start with, a murdering force of nature, unafraid to plunge headfirst deep into voodoo country with only a gun and her punching bag boyfriend, in search of plunderable gold trinkets. And then she's letting Tom Conway turn her into a monster (he tricks her into thinking its an initiation rite which will enable her to become a voodoo priestess able to steal the gold idols). Conway foolishly thinks he can control via ESP (we hear the voice but his lips don't move). He can but only to a degree. Cahn (wisely?) keeps the monster out of focus for the most part, though it seems pretty cool to me. The lobster style face (so iconic to those of us who grew up with Famous Monsters of Filmland) is gone, replaced with a  dime store skull mask, but the armor plating is still there. So if you like strong, armor-plated femme fatales with no qualms about killing, and you dig jungle movies filmed indoors amidst swirling fog and potted fronds, this is your movie, as it is mine. The Prime print via Shout TV, is perfection. (PS - no relation to Voodoo Man, which is also on Prime streaming - see here).