''Macumba Love'' is a 1960 American

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

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 and co-produced by

Douglas Fowley Douglas Fowley (born Daniel Vincent Fowley, May 30, 1911 – May 21, 1998) was an American movie and television actor in more than 240 films and dozens of television programs, He is probably best remembered for his role as the frustrated m ...

and written by Norman Graham. The film stars

Walter Reed Walter Reed (September 13, 1851 – November 22, 1902) was a U.S. Army physician who in 1901 led the team that confirmed the theory of Cuban doctor Carlos Finlay that yellow fever is transmitted by a particular mosquito species rather than b ...

Ziva Rodann Ziva Rodann ( he, זיוה רודן, born Ziva Blechman ; 2 March 1933), known first as Ziva Shapir (), is an Israeli-American actress. She was a Hollywood film star and a frequent guest star on television series from the late 1950s to the late ...

William Wellman Jr. William Wellman Jr. (born January 20, 1937) is an American former actor. In a career spanning 65 years, he appeared in about 77 films and television series. Life and career Wellman was born in Los Angeles, California, and is the son of actres ...

June Wilkinson June Wilkinson (born 27 March 1940 in Eastbourne) is an English model and actress, known for her appearances in ''Playboy'' magazine and in films of the 1960s. One of the world's most-photographed women in the late 1950s and early 1960s, at the he ...

and

Ruth de Souza Ruth Pinto de Souza (May 12, 1921 – July 28, 2019) was a Brazilian actress. Biography As a member of the Black Experimental Theater (''Teatro Experimental do Negro,'' TEN), she is one of the first Black actresses in dramatic theater in Brazi ...

. The film centers on a writer who arrives on a South American island in order to finish his book on cult beliefs only to find that the local Voodoo Queen has other plans for him.

Plot

J. Peter Wells, an exposé writer, arrives on an island off the coast of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

, to complete a book on voodoo, ju-ju,

macumba ''Makumba'' () is a term that has been used to describe various religions of the African diaspora found in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. It is sometimes considered by non-practitioners to be a form of witchcraft or black magic. The ...

, mojo and other cult beliefs, which he believes are responsible for unsolved murders on this island. Wealthy landowner Venis de Vias warns him against stirring up the natives, especially any efforts to lessen the prestige of the reigning Voodoo Queen Mama Rata-loi. The arrival of Wells' daughter, Sara, and her husband, Warren, on a honeymoon trip, starts the pot boiling and making the natives restless, along with Queen Mama Rata-loi, who wants Warren and his friends (including Peter) to satisfy her own sexual appetite and blood lust.

Cast

as J. Peter Weils *

as Venus de Viasa *

as Warren *

as Sara *

as Mama Rata-loi *Pedro Paulo Hatheyer as Insp. Escoberto *Cléa Simões as Symanthemum

Reception

On his website ''Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings'', Dave Sindelar noted the film's lively score, effective voodoo sequences and shock moments, but criticized the film's acting as "uneven".

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

awarded the film one out of five stars, offering similar criticism towards the film's acting, calling the film "Fairly tedious".

References

External links

* * * * * 1960 films 1960s adventure thriller films 1960 horror films 1960s horror thriller films American adventure thriller films American horror thriller films Films about Voodoo Films set on islands Films shot in Brazil United Artists films 1960s English-language films 1960s American films {{1960s-horror-film-stub