''Black Mamba'' is a 1974
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
directed by George Rowe and starring
John Ashley,
Marlene Clark
Marlene Clark (born December 19, 1949) is an American actress, animator and fashion model. Clark is perhaps best known for her portrayals of Ganja Meda in the 1973 horror film ''Ganja & Hess'' and Janet Lawson, Lamont's girlfriend in the sitcom '' ...
,
Pilar Pilapil
Pilar, Portuguese and Spanish for pillar, may refer to:
People
* Pilar (given name), a common abbreviation of ''María del Pilar'', including a list of people so named
* Pilar (surname), a list of people surnamed Pilar or del Pilar
Places Argen ...
, and
Eddie Garcia
Eduardo Verchez Garcia (; May 2, 1929 – June 20, 2019), known colloquially as Manoy, was a Filipino actor, television personality, film director and producer. With almost 600 film and television roles and a career spanning seven decades, he ...
.
Premise
A doctor gets involved with a woman who practices witchcraft and can turn into a python. She intends for a young child to be her next victim. The doctor tries to stop her.
Cast
*
John Ashley
*
Marlene Clark
Marlene Clark (born December 19, 1949) is an American actress, animator and fashion model. Clark is perhaps best known for her portrayals of Ganja Meda in the 1973 horror film ''Ganja & Hess'' and Janet Lawson, Lamont's girlfriend in the sitcom '' ...
*
Pilar Pilapil
Pilar, Portuguese and Spanish for pillar, may refer to:
People
* Pilar (given name), a common abbreviation of ''María del Pilar'', including a list of people so named
* Pilar (surname), a list of people surnamed Pilar or del Pilar
Places Argen ...
*
Eddie Garcia
Eduardo Verchez Garcia (; May 2, 1929 – June 20, 2019), known colloquially as Manoy, was a Filipino actor, television personality, film director and producer. With almost 600 film and television roles and a career spanning seven decades, he ...
Production
The film is notorious for depicting an
autopsy
An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any di ...
performed on a real human
corpse
A cadaver or corpse is a dead human body that is used by medical students, physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue to repair a defect in a living human being. Stu ...
. A real corpse was exhumed from one of the local prisons and used on film. "It is a wild film," said Ashley, ""very graphic, very gory."
[Weaver p 46]
The film was originally known as ''Witchcraft''. Ashley said it co-starred one of the top female stars in the Philippines and that he made it just before his involvement in ''
Apocalypse Now
''Apocalypse Now'' is a 1979 American epic war film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay, co-written by Coppola, John Milius and Michael Herr, is loosely based on the 1899 novella ''Heart of Darkness'' by Joseph Conr ...
''. He says the film was financed by a Chinese man involved in the advertising business.
Release
''Black Mamba'' was not widely screened.
[Tom Weaver, "Interview with John Ashley", ''Interviews with B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers: Writers, Producers, Directors, Actors, Moguls and Makeup'', McFarland 1988 p 45-46] The film was released in the Philippines but not the US. A person bought it and took it to Hong Kong to redub it but ran out of money.
The film remained unreleased until after Ashley's death in 1997.
References
External links
*
1974 films
Philippine horror films
Films shot in the Philippines
1970s English-language films
{{Philippines-film-stub