''Voodoo Woman'' is a 1957
horror film directed by
Edward L. Cahn and starring
Marla English
Marleine Gaile English (January 4, 1935 – December 10, 2012) was an American film actress during the 1950s.
Early years
She was born Marleine Gaile English in San Diego, California. As a teenager, she worked as a model and performed locally.
...
in her final film role,
Tom Conway
Tom Conway (born Thomas Charles Sanders, 15 September 1904 – 22 April 1967) was a British film, television, and radio actor remembered for playing private detectives (including The Falcon, Sherlock Holmes, Bulldog Drummond, and The Saint) ...
, and
Mike Connors
Krekor Ohanian (August 15, 1925 – January 26, 2017), known professionally as Mike Connors, was an American actor best known for playing private detective Joe Mannix in the CBS television series ''Mannix'' from 1967 to 1975, a role which earne ...
. It was released in March 1957 by
American International Pictures
American International Pictures (AIP) is an American motion picture production label of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing fi ...
as a
double feature with ''
The Undead
The Undead is an American horror punk band formed in 1980 in New York City's East Village by Bobby Steele (vocals and guitar), Chris "Jack" Natz (bass) and Patrick Blanck (drums). They were one of the pioneers in the New York hardcore scene. ...
''.
In 1966, it was remade by
Larry Buchanan
Larry Buchanan (January 31, 1923 − December 2, 2004), born Marcus Larry Seale Jr., was a film director, producer and writer, who proclaimed himself a " schlockmeister". Many of his extremely low-budget films have landed on "worst movie" lists o ...
into an AIP
made for television film
A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...
, ''
Curse of the Swamp Creature''.
Plot
Harry West (Norman Willis) discovers gold in the idol worshipped by a jungle voodoo tribe in Bantalaya, a French-owned jungle colony. Harry enlists a pair of
treasure hunters from the United States, one of them being the beautiful but ruthless Marilyn Blanchard (
Marla English
Marleine Gaile English (January 4, 1935 – December 10, 2012) was an American film actress during the 1950s.
Early years
She was born Marleine Gaile English in San Diego, California. As a teenager, she worked as a model and performed locally.
...
). Hoping to take the treasure for themselves, Marilyn murders Harry and steals his map. They
con the innocent Ted Bronson (
Mike Connors
Krekor Ohanian (August 15, 1925 – January 26, 2017), known professionally as Mike Connors, was an American actor best known for playing private detective Joe Mannix in the CBS television series ''Mannix'' from 1967 to 1975, a role which earne ...
) into acting as a jungle guide and leading them to the tribe that owns the idol.
Meanwhile, Dr. Roland Gerard (
Tom Conway
Tom Conway (born Thomas Charles Sanders, 15 September 1904 – 22 April 1967) was a British film, television, and radio actor remembered for playing private detectives (including The Falcon, Sherlock Holmes, Bulldog Drummond, and The Saint) ...
), a
mad scientist
The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as " mad, bad and dangerous to know" or " insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly a ...
who has exiled himself deep in the same jungle, is using a combination of native
voodoo and his own
biochemical discoveries in an attempt to create a superhuman being. He hopes that this being, possessing the best of man and beast, will be the mother of a new perfect and deathless race which he will control with a mixture of
hypnosis
Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...
and
telepathy. He is accompanied by his wife, Susan (
Mary Ellen Kay), who no longer loves Dr. Gerard but is prevented from leaving by her husband and the natives.
Dr. Gerard's initial attempts to create a female superbeing are a failure because the transformation is only temporary and the native girl used as the subject of the experiment lacks the killer instinct he deems necessary to carryout his instructions. However, when he meets the treasure hunters, he decides that Marilyn would be a perfect subject for his experiment. He successfully turns her into an invulnerable monster, but when she learns her quest for gold was in vain, he loses his mental control over her and she destroys him. Ted and Susan are able to escape in the ensuing chaos. After becoming human again, Marilyn tries to salvage the idol which has almost fallen into a poisonous gas pit which the natives use for their sacrifices, and she accidentally loses her balance and falls into it herself.
Cast
*
Marla English
Marleine Gaile English (January 4, 1935 – December 10, 2012) was an American film actress during the 1950s.
Early years
She was born Marleine Gaile English in San Diego, California. As a teenager, she worked as a model and performed locally.
...
as Marilyn Blanchard
*
Lance Fuller
Lance Fuller (December 6, 1928 – December 22, 2001) was an American actor.
Biography
Born in Somerset, Kentucky, he worked as a contract actor for most of the 1950s with Universal-International.
With many uncredited roles for the fir ...
as Rick Brady
*
Tom Conway
Tom Conway (born Thomas Charles Sanders, 15 September 1904 – 22 April 1967) was a British film, television, and radio actor remembered for playing private detectives (including The Falcon, Sherlock Holmes, Bulldog Drummond, and The Saint) ...
as Dr. Roland Gerard,
mad scientist
The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as " mad, bad and dangerous to know" or " insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly a ...
*
Mary Ellen Kay as Susan Gerard, the doctor's wife
*
Mike "Touch" Connors as Ted Bronson, jungle guide
*
Martin Wilkins as Chaka the
witch doctor
A witch doctor (also spelled witch-doctor) was originally a type of healer who treated ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. The term is now more commonly used to refer to healers, particularly in regions which use traditional healing ...
*
Paul Blaisdell
Paul Blaisdell (July 21, 1927 – July 10, 1983) was an American painter, sculptor and visual effects creator, best remembered for his work in science fiction and horror B movies of the 1950s.
Life and career
Blaisdell was born in Newport, Rhod ...
as The Voodoo Women
*
Otis Greene as Bobo, the houseboy
* Emmett Smith as Gandor
*
Jean Davis as Zaranda
*
Paul Dubov
Paul Dubov (October 10, 1918 – September 20, 1979) was an American radio, film and television actor as well as screenwriter. He frequently appeared in the works of Sam Fuller.
Among Dubov's radio credits include the 05/02/1953 episode of Guns ...
as Marcel, the bar owner
* Giselle D'Arc as Yvette, the bargirl
*
Norman Willis
Norman David Willis (21 January 1933 – 7 June 2014) was the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in the United Kingdom from 1984 to 1993, and President of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) from 1991 to 1993.
Li ...
as Harry West
Production
Paul Blaisdell who played the monsters and also appeared as a drunken customer in the bar room sequence believed that as producer Alex Gordon had a big hit with ''
The She-Creature
''The She-Creature'', or ''The She Creature'', is a 1956 American black-and-white science fiction horror film, released by American International Pictures from a script by Lou Rusoff (brother-in-law of AIP executive Samuel Z. Arkoff). It was pr ...
'', he decided to produce a second film for American International Pictures about a female monster. As the scriptwriters of that film were busy on other films, Gordon turned over the writing to actor
Russ Bender
Russ Bender (January 1, 1910 – August 16, 1969) was an American actor.
Career
Before becoming an actor, Bender wrote detective stories for magazines. That part of his life was interrupted when he joined the Army. By the time he returned to c ...
, who was a pre-war
pulp fiction
''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Vin ...
writer and V.I. Voss. (It wound up being the only script Bender would ever write.)
Blaisdell recalled the shoot was not a pleasant one. A prop man handed Tom Conway a small vial of real acid in one scene that was to be poured on the creature's leg, and Blaisdell wound up with a scar on his shin that lasted the rest of his life. Marla English developed a bad case of flu, and Lance Fuller and Mike Connors had a "Who can be taller?" contest with each actor adding higher lifts to their shoes.
Originally titled ''Black Voodoo'', the film was shot during the frigid California winter of 1956-57 under a fast working schedule of six days and a budget of $80,000. Producer Alex Gordon wanted
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before movin ...
who again refused to work with him and then called
George Zucco, the star of ''
Voodoo Man'', who was too ill to work. With the shooting date drawing near, Tom Conway was chosen, who like Marla English and Paul Dubov, had also been in ''The She-Creature''. Publicity for the film declared "Not since he starred in ''
The Cat People'' and ''
I Walked with a Zombie
''I Walked with a Zombie'' is a 1943 American horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced by Val Lewton for RKO Pictures. It stars James Ellison, Frances Dee, and Tom Conway, and follows a Canadian nurse who travels to care for th ...
'' has Tom had a role like his current one!".
In an interview with Tom Weaver, Mike Connors said,
The original make-up design for the Voodoo Woman was deemed unsuitable at the last minute and the title monster is actually the
She Creature
''She Creature'' (originally billed as ''Mermaid Chronicles Part 1: She Creature'') is a 2001 horror made-for-television film, directed by Sebastian Gutierrez and starring Rufus Sewell, Carla Gugino and Rya Kihlstedt in leading roles. It is th ...
costume hurriedly stripped of its tail, fins and
pincer-like claws
A claw is a curved, pointed appendage found at the end of a toe or finger in most amniotes (mammals, reptiles, birds). Some invertebrates such as beetles and spiders have somewhat similar fine, hooked structures at the end of the leg or tarsus ...
. What remained was the bulky
Thing
Thing or The Thing may refer to:
Philosophy
* An object
* Broadly, an entity
* Thing-in-itself (or ''noumenon''), the reality that underlies perceptions, a term coined by Immanuel Kant
* Thing theory, a branch of critical theory that focuse ...
-style body, which was wrapped in a
burlap
Hessian (, ), burlap in the United States and Canada, or crocus in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean, is a woven fabric usually made from skin of the jute plant or sisal fibres, which may be combined with other vegetable fibres to make rope, nets, ...
sarong
A sarong or sarung () is a large tube or length of fabric, often wrapped around the waist, worn in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Western Asia, Northern Africa, East Africa, West Africa, and on many Pacific islands. The fabric often has woven plaid o ...
and topped with a modified
skull
The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, th ...
mask
A mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance, or entertainment and often they have been employed for rituals and rights. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and pra ...
and big
blond wig
A wig is a head or hair accessory made from human hair, animal hair, or synthetic fiber. The word wig is short for periwig, which makes its earliest known appearance in the English language in William Shakespeare's ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona' ...
. Cahn worked actively to conceal this fact, using quick cuts and keeping her mostly in shadows or behind foliage. The rumbling growl of a
lion was also
dubbed for added effect. Makeup man Harry Thomas supplied the skull mask and wig for the monster (purchased from a Halloween costume store), but it looked so phony, at the last minute, Blaisdell had to totally rework the head to make it look more acceptable.
Lance Fuller reportedly had a two-films-a-year deal over five years with Golden State Productions.
Reception
In his ''The Pit and the Pen'' column in ''
Fangoria'' magazine producer
Alex Gordon
Alexander Jonathan Gordon (born February 10, 1984) is an American former professional baseball left fielder who played his entire career for the Kansas City Royals of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2007 to 2020. Prior to playing professio ...
revealed that the movie nearly caused a break-up with his then-
fiance
An engagement or betrothal is the period of time between the declaration of acceptance of a marriage proposal and the marriage itself (which is typically but not always commenced with a wedding). During this period, a couple is said to be ''fi ...
Ruth Alexander
Ruth Blaney Alexander (May 18, 1905 – September 18, 1930) was an early female pilot in the United States who established several records in altitude and distance during 1929 and 1930.
Youth
Ruth Blaney was raised in Irving, Kansas in Mars ...
. Proud of the finished production he took her to see it at its
Burbank premiere only to have her hand back his
engagement ring when it was over, telling him that he should be making prestigious high class art films and not trash like this. Luckily, his brother
Richard
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stro ...
was able to explain to her the differences between low budget and big budget film-making, and she and Alex were eventually married, with her later actually scripting several of his features.
Soundtrack
Darrell Calker Darrell Wallace Calker (February 18, 1905 – February 20, 1964) was an American composer and arranger who worked on films and animated cartoons.
Early life and education
Calker was born in Washington, D.C. to Morris H. and Lugenia E. (Lily) Wallac ...
composed scores for more than 200 movies, both live action and cartoons, where he was the
musical director for
Walter Lantz Productions
Walter Lantz Productions was an American animation studio. It was in operation from 1928 to 1972 and was the principal supplier of animation for Universal Studios.
The studio was originally formed as Universal Cartoon Studios on the initiative o ...
.
Giselle D'Arc, born Giselle Camille Prugnard, was a soprano vocalist with a five-octave range. In addition to singing the title song in her role as a
bargirl
A bargirl is a woman who is paid to entertain patrons in a bar, either individually or, in some cases, as a performer. The exact nature of the entertainment varies widely from place to place; depending on the venue this can be individual enterta ...
, she provided vocals for the film's score. Whilst she was singing for
Liberty Records, she was discovered by
Jeff Chandler
Jeff Chandler (born Ira Grossel; yi, יראַ גראָססעל; December 15, 1918 – June 17, 1961) was an American actor, film producer, and singer, best remembered for playing Cochise in '' Broken Arrow'' (1950), for which he was no ...
who brought her into motion pictures.
She later married
Clint Walker
Norman Eugene "Clint" Walker (May 30, 1927 – May 21, 2018) was an American actor. He played cowboy Cheyenne Bodie in the ABC/ Warner Bros. western series ''Cheyenne'' from 1955 to 1963.
Early life
Clint Walker was born Norman Eugene W ...
.
''Black Voodoo''
Lyrics by
John Blackburn
Music by Darrell Calker
Sung by Giselle D'Arc (AKA Giselle Camille Prugnard Hennessy)
Quotes
''We're doing it Chaka. White man's science and the black voodoo.'' - Dr. Roland Gerard
See also
*
List of American films of 1957
A list of American films released in 1957. ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
A-B
C-H
I-N
O-Q
R-T
U-Z
See also
* 1957 in the United States
References
External links
1957 filmsat the Interne ...
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{Edward L. Cahn
1957 horror films
1957 films
American supernatural horror films
Films directed by Edward L. Cahn
1950s English-language films
American International Pictures films
American black-and-white films
American independent films
American zombie films
Films about Voodoo
Films set in Africa
Mad scientist films
1950s independent films
1950s supernatural horror films
1950s American films