Cult of the Cobra

Plot synopsis:
The movie opens with title and credits over an Indian shrine to the cobra with flanking burning lamps. We are told the time is 1945 and the place is Asia. A group of G.I.s are wandering around an Indian bazaar. Paul Able (Richard Long) and Pete Norton (William Reynolds) are at a table selling cloth. Pete asks Tom Markel (Marshall Thompson) what he thinks of the cloth. Rico Nardi (David Janssen) directs the men's attention to a snake charmer. Nick Hommel (James Dobson) and Carl Turner (Jack Kelly) join the others around a basket. They take a few pictures then talk to the snake charmer, Daru (Leonard Strong). For $2 he agrees to hold the snake. Paul asks about a cult that believes snakes can be transformed into humans. Daru is visibly surprised. One man says he'd give anything to see it. This piques Daru's interest. He tells the men that he is a Lamian and for $100 he will show them, "she who is a snake, and yet a woman." They make arrangements to see the ceremony that evening, but Daru warns them that pictures are forbidden.The men meet and get reasonably drunk. Daru shows up as promised. He gets them past the guards. They are dressed like locals. He warns them that if they are discovered they will be killed. They enter a large curtain lined room. On a raised platform there is a stone shrine and a large basket. They discover Nick is missing from the group. A dancer performs a ritual and out of the basket a woman emerges and dances. The ritual includes the snake woman biting and killing a man. Against orders, Nick takes a picture; his flash angers the assembled men. Nick is attacked. The other five men start a fight as Nick grabs the basket and makes his way to the exit. One of the Lamians (Edward Platt) tells them, "The Cobra Goddess will avenge herself. One by one you will die!" Just prior to exiting, Tom sets the curtains on fire to create a diversion. Daru is killed by the mob. The five men escape in the jeep, but Nick is still missing. They spot a woman walking away from the basket and discover Nick on the ground. Tom chases the woman but she escapes. Nick is still alive, but they discover a snake bite on his neck. Tom performs a hasty snake bite remedy to remove most of the venom. Carl, Rico and Pete carry Nick to the jeep. Tom tells Paul, "Lets get out of here." They return to the base. They are supposed to ship out the next morning.Nick Hommel is in a hospital bed surrounded by his buddies. He tells the men he wanted the basket as a souvenir. The nurse (Mary Alan Hokanson) arrives to take Nick's temperature and asks the men to leave. She adjusts the window down a bit to keep out the rain. Outside a cobra works its way towards the building. It enters Nicks room. He sees it and screams, but a clap of thunder muffles his cry. The next morning Major Martin Fielding (Olan Soule) tells Paul Able that Nick died early in the morning. He succumbed to neurotoxic venom that paralyzed his heart. After Paul leaves to catch his transport home, Fielding explains to Capt. Steve Williams (Alan Reynolds) that he is puzzled also. Most of the venom was removed from Nick before he was admitted to the hospital, but by morning he had been re-infected. The body was loaded with cobra venom.The men fly home on a DC-3. They discuss their post-military lives. Rico will be running his Dad's bowling alley. All the men are discharged from the military and begin their civilian lives.On the streets of New York City, Paul Able and his fiancé, Julia Thompson (Kathleen Hughes) have come to see Rico Nardi at the bowling alley. She tells Tom she is going to marry Paul. She still needs to tell Rico. Tom is initially angry and disappointed and tells Rico the good news before Julia has the chance. She had been dating Tom and Rico before she got serious with Paul. Tom and Paul are roommates. In his apartment, Tom's dog is restless and wakes him in the middle of the night. He goes to the kitchen and hears a woman scream. He exits his apartment and forces the door to the apartment across from his. He finds Lisa Moya (Faith Domergue) against the wall sobbing. She tells Tom there was a man in her apartment. Tom checks the apartment, finds no one, then picks up the phone to call the police. Lisa tells him no, no police. She tells him to stay a while. She explains that she just moved into the apartment today and has only been in the city a week. He tells her he is a commercial artist--advertising. They agree to a date the next day to see the city.They meet the next day and visit some of the sights in the city: Staten Island Ferry, the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street and the Fulton Fish Market. They stop at a hot dog stand for lunch. That evening they return home, but she rebuffs his advance to kiss her. Tom introduces Lisa to his roommate, Paul and the dog freaks out. She sees a picture and picks it up. It is a picture of the six men taken when they were deployed in Asia. Tom explains who and where everyone is now. They agree to meet on Sunday at Carl's apartment; he is having a party. No sooner is she back in her apartment, but she gets her coat and leaves. She walks along the street and encounters a cat that screeches at her and runs away. It is apparent she just doesn't have a way with animals, any animals. At Rico's bowling alley, Carl and Pete, who are also roommates, pay their tab and leave. Rico is closing up the place when Lisa arrives outside. A bowling pin falls over and Rico investigates. He carries a case of beer out to his car for Carl's party. Mrs. Webber (Helen Wallace) asks for a donation for a charitable organization. Rico heads back inside to close up. He grabs his coat, locks the door and gets in his car. He drives off, whistling, sees the cobra in the rear view mirror, panics and runs his car off the street. He rolls the car and is killed instantly. Lisa walks back to her apartment.The remaining four men and Lisa attend Rico's funeral. Carl decides to have the party on Sunday. As Tom and Paul walk with Lisa back home a horse freaks out at her presence. She tells Paul she's always been afraid of horses. Paul is beginning to believe Lisa is not who she claims to be and is increasingly worried about her influence over Tom. He is starting to believe the curse is real and they are all destined to be killed.At Carl's party, Lisa is dancing with the host. Tom is jealous. At one point he slugs Carl and tells Lisa to get her coat, they're leaving. Paul tells Carl, "I'm sure she's no good for him." Paul meets Julia after she returns from her show out of town. She is back in New York rehearsing--she is an actress. Paul asks her to talk to Tom. He admits he's afraid of Lisa. It has to do with Rico's death. He doesn't think it was an accident. He tells her about the cult story. He thinks Lisa is involved.Tom returns from his date with Lisa at Carl's party. They talk and he tells her he loves her. She leaves and returns to her own apartment. He checks on the dog. Tom notices that Lisa forgot her gloves. He tries to return them. He knocks on her door, but she doesn't answer. He uses the key he borrowed earlier to get some ice and lets himself in. He discovers she isn't there. He sits and has a smoke and waits for her. The party is over at Carl's and everyone is leaving. Pete leaves with Marian Sheehan (Myrna Hansen) his date for the evening. Carl set them up. He is going to take her home, then return. They leave the building. Lisa sees them and hides, and then enters the building. She knocks on Carl's door; he invites her in. She tells him she wanted to apologize for spoiling the party. She tells him she really came back to see him. Carl goes into the kitchen to mix some drinks, but when he returns to the living room Lisa is gone. He goes over to a chair and sees the cobra. He strikes it with a plaster vase, but it bites him and he falls over a railing and down to his death on the sidewalk. Pete returns and finds a crowd gathered around Carl's body. Lisa joins the crowd and Pete warns her not to look. The police arrive and ask if anyone knows the deceased. Pete volunteers that he and Carl were roommates. The police ask Pete to come with them. Lisa returns home to find Tom sleeping on her couch. They talk about their relationship. She voices her concern about hurting him.The next morning Paul makes breakfast for him and Tom. They talk. He tells Tom he and Julia are going down for their marriage license. The telephone rings; its the police asking about Carl. They want to see both Paul and Tom immediately. Paul tells them they will be right down.Pete Norton's blood is checked for type. The Police Inspector (Walter Coy) tells the lab tech when Paul and Tom arrive he wants their blood typed as well. The Inspector interrogates Pete then releases him. Julia is at Tom and Paul's apartment reading up on cults. Lisa stops by for her usual breakfast coffee and inquires about Tom and Paul. Julia tells her they are at the police station. Julia tells Lisa about Paul's recent fascination with cults and cobras. She tells Lisa that there are people that believe they can turn into snakes. Lisa responds strangely. Julia adds that Paul fells that is why Rico, Carl and Nick are dead. Julia hastily departs after paying the dry cleaner for some shirts delivered.The Police Inspector interrogates Tom and Paul. They are released to go when the blood tests reveal they were not involved directly in Carl's death. Before he leaves, Paul volunteers the cult story. Paul accuses Lisa of being an agent for the curse. Tom storms off. Back at Lisa's apartment, Pete Norton confronts Lisa over a scratch on her arm. He believes it came from the vase Carl threw at the cobra. He accuses her of being a Lamian. She goes to her bedroom under the pretense of getting her passport to prove she was elsewhere when Nick was killed in India. There we see her, in shadow, transform into a cobra. She leaves her apartment and collects Tom at his. They sit and have coffee. They are formally dressed for Julia's Broadway show that evening.The Police Inspector tells Paul that, working on his story, they checked the autopsy reports on Carl Turner and Rico Nardi. It was death by snake venom, a large one. He agrees to pick up Lisa for questioning. The police force the door on Lisa's apartment and find Pete's body. He has two puncture wounds on his neck. Paul calls the Theatre to talk to Tom. Lisa goes up to Julia's dressing room looking for Paul. Paul tells Tom they found Pete dead in Lisa's apartment. The police leave Lisa's apartment and drive over to the Theatre. Julia returns to her dressing room while Tom notices Lisa is missing from her box seat. A door slowly opens and Julia notices the cobra on the floor. She screams. Tom enters her dressing room and is confronted by the snake. He throws a costume over it. He breaks a window with a chair and using a coat rack pushes the cobra out the window. When the police arrive we see the cobra transform back into Lisa, dead on the street below the window. A crowd gathers. We close with an anguished Tom walking away down the street. Cast credits roll.

Tags: cult

Review:
American G.I.'s who trespass in on a forbidden Hindu ceremony are relentlessly hunted down by a beautiful woman who has the power to metamorphose into a snake.While the film gets a bit slow in the middle, the end is exciting and so is the beginning.
What made this film great, for me, was the talented snake dancer from the cult.
In Asia, six airmen from the American Air Forces break in a secret cult of Lamians that worship a cobra goddess.
Back in New York, Sergeant Paul Able (Richard Long), who will marry the actress Julia Thompson (Kathleen Hughes), and G.I. Tom Markel (Marshall Thompson), who also loves Julia, are best friends and roommates.
When Tom stumbles upon the mysterious Lisa Moya (Faith Domergue), they immediately fall in love with each other.
"Cult of the Cobra" is an entertaining horror film with the storyline of a group of arrogant American G.I.s that breaks in a cult without any respect and are cursed by the priest to die.
The gorgeous and exotic Faith Domergue is a goddess with the ability of turning into a cobra that travels to New York to revenge the worshippers.
Set in 1945, six American GIs crash a cult that worships snakes, and are threatened to be killed, one by one, for their misdeeds.
Faith Domergue is amazingly beautiful, and most alluring, as an Asian "Cobra Woman", an instrument of death.
Despite his third billing in the film, Marshall Thompson is her co-star, giving a strong performance as the GI who falls for her, and proves her ruin.
He and the rest of the cast, Richard Long, William Reynolds, Jack Kelly and David Janssen, became more successful as television stars.
They are Faith Domergue, Richard Long, David Janssen, Jack Kelly and Marshall Thompson.
Here is a quick synopsis of the movie:Stationed in Asia, six American G.I.'s witness the secret ritual of Lamians (worshipers of women who change into serpents).
An effective performance by Faith Domergue as a cult leader who has the instincts to be more humanistic (but doesn't quite know how) cannot overcome the blandly directed, badly lit, overly padded middle hour-plus of this movie.
Unfortunately the producers are too cheap to show any cult activity or morphing scenes during the long middle, instead all is only shadow or off screen except at the beginning and the very end.The five future TV stars who portray potential cult victims are all capable and watchable but their efforts are mostly swallowed up in the long dreary middle of the movie.
In fact, the plot is quite derivative of the Jacques Tourneur/Val Lewton classic "Cat People" (undeniably one of the greatest horror milestones ever made), since both stories revolve gorgeous women living with the ability  or is it curse?
Six American members of the same Air Force unit spend a few touristy days in an Asian country (my best guess would be either India or Malaysia) and bluntly pay a snake charmer big money to secretly attend a gathering of the infamous Lamian cult, of which the members supposedly change themselves in snakes and back.
"Cult of the Cobra" benefits the most from Faith Domergue's performance as the oddly seductive Lisa (she's a lot better here than she was in "This Island Earth" or "It Came from beneath the Sea") and a couple of imaginative camera gimmicks, like for example snake POV shots and nice use of shadow effects.
On paper, this was arguably the least promising entry among Universal's second exclusive "Sci-Fi Collection" – but it turned out to be quite enjoyable in its unassumingly campy way, lying somewhere between the exotic fancy of Universal's earlier COBRA WOMAN (1944) and the cautionary Gothic of Hammer's THE REPTILE (1966).
Director Lyon generally cut his teeth on a variety of Western oaters and, while not exactly inspired by the material at hand, elicits a very good performance from his leading lady Faith Domergue – a former protégée' of the legendary Howard Hughes.
The story starts at the tail-end of WWII where six G.I. buddies, looking for some kicks before leaving Asia for home, attend a clandestine ceremony held by the titular sect where no reptiles are actually worshipped – instead we have a woman painted like one who comes out of a large vase and crawls around on the floor!
Suspicious Richard Long, embittered (and incredulous) Marshall Thompson and a carefree David Janssen comprise half of the band of infidels who incite the wrath of the cultists by their irreverent presence (foolishly, one of them photo-graphs the ceremony, even if he had been repeatedly warned beforehand not to); needless to say, the proverbial curse is invoked on them by the High Priest which is subsequently enforced when they return to the United States.
In quick succession, four of them get offed (including bowling alley owner Janssen who expires in a fairly spectacular car crash) after having a close encounter with a cobra; their demise coincides with Thompson's meeting with his sensuous but enigmatic neighbor Domergue.
There are virtually no transformation scenes (or, rather, only in silhouette and via a quick dissolve to boot!) and we only get a good look at the large cobra during its last attack backstage in a theater, where it eventually receives its come-uppance by being pushed out a high window by Thompson (for whom the conflicted Domergue actually almost jeopardized her mission!)...and which is just as well, since there is no creature on earth that I loathe or fear more!
Six army buddies decide to do some sight-seeing among a cult of shape-shifters when they should have stayed in the bar and had a few more beers.The movie's not as bad as the title suggests, thanks mainly to enthusiastic performances from Thompson, Kelly, and Long.
Now, if Domergue could just suggest some menace in an otherwise deadpan performance as the snake lady, we might get a hint of a coming shape-shift.
We find it fascinating, because - like many "cheap" productions - it has unconscious psychological/cultural elements that make it timelessly significant and - frankly - as entertaining as hell.One of the large themes coursing through the film is American imperialism, as it manifests itself in the GIs' callous disregard of local religious customs, and the subsequent defilement of a temple by theft.
And the very ending is a psycho-sexual gem, which prompts one to rename the film "Omigod, I Screwed A Snake." The man who skulks away will not be showing his face in any society for a long, long time..
Lyon directed this horror tale that begins after WWII ends, where six American G.I.s,(among them Richard Long, Marshall Thompson, and David Janssen) stationed in Asia sneak into the secret ceremonies of a cult of snake worshipers, where they see a snake turn into a woman(or so it seems) they are discovered but escape, though the cult leader curses them with their avenging snake goddess.
Faith Domergue (better known as "Dr. Ruth" in THIS ISLAND EARTH) is the only reason to watch this film.
The story is very thin, and once the Air Force buddies return to the States with a Cobra Curse upon them the action is just a waiting game.
See Faith the Snake Woman and try to pretend the rest isn't happening..
This film essentially begins with 6 friends from New York City serving in the Army and stationed in an unidentified country in Asia.
Not long after they return a young woman named "Lisa Moya" (Faith Domergue) shows up and it's then that the killing starts.
It is true that Lisa Moya —the cobra woman played by Faith Domergue— is not as a developed character as Simone Simon's Irena Dubrovna in Tourneur's classic, and the erotic elements are not as strong, but Lisa shows anguish and pain as she seems to be in love with one of the American soldiers she has to kill for desecrating the cult of the cobra.
Besides, the film has other resonances today: maybe in the pre-Vietnam time it was made (1955) it was taken for granted that all American soldiers in service abroad were very cute guys who meant no harm as they fought for "democracy", but today we know how things have always been with troops from any nation in invaded countries, and how often they have victimized their people.
And last but not least it is interesting to watch all these future TV male stars together: Marshall Thompson, Richard Long, William Reynolds, Jack Kelly and David Janssen..
For $100.00 given to a snake charmer played by Leonard Strong they get invited to the ceremony of a cobra worshiping cult.
And it all starts about the time that the mysterious and slinky Faith Domergue enters the life of another of the thrill seekers, Marshall Thompson.For a cobra woman that Faith Domergue is sure a fox.
But whatever he did see, he was over and done with her because she was doing films like Cult Of The Cobra.As for the film it's an OK horror film with a few camp laughs in it for those who think they're above this sort of thing..
After unintentionally insulting a sacred ceremony while overseas in the war, a group of soldiers return back to America and find themselves stalked and killed by a strange creature with the powers of the cult inflicted upon them.An overall enjoyable 50s Horror effort that's better than expected but still mildly flawed, the best part here is the film's rather entertaining attack scenes.
Using the camera to showcase the snake's approach is quite nice by getting around the troublesome topic of how to show that in the time-period while not really doing anything graphic or such, and several of them get pretty creepy especially the apartment attack.
It's also a lot more modern-feeling than expected, which is due to utilizing the modern theme in this of the revenge-rampage of the cult to set-up the later actions, which is still being done nowadays and gives it a nice touch, as do the scenes inside the meeting which give it a creepy middle-eastern vibe that works well in making it seem foreign and exotic.
There's some flaws here, including the conflicted agent of the cult storyline that's a cliché by the time it was featured here, and comes across moreso even now and seems shoehorned into the film for no reason, as well as the cheap special effects that really denote the low-budget nature of this one quite clearly.
WARNING: Spoiler ahead.In the scene where David Janssen is killed at the bowling alley, he walks by a wall calendar several times.
Cult of the Cobra is now available on DVD in a pristine print that does full justice to whatever merits it has as a movie.
Tom immediately falls in love with Lisa and she never has any reason to be jealous of Julia (nor is she).Julia's 'feminine intuition' is introduced as if it is going to lead to an important plot development, but it doesn't.
Similarly, Pete's investigation into cobra cults and the suspicion that briefly falls on Tom serve no purpose other than to fill up screen time.These are just symptoms of the underlying problem.
Lisa has no reason to want to kill her - she just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Someone said: "Those Val Lewton movies were very successful over at RKO, so why don't we make one like that?"Cult of the Cobra is clearly modelled on Cat People: mysterious, troubled, shape-shifting woman falls in love with the hero, is apparently frigid, kills people, arouses the suspicions of the hero's woman friend and dies at the end.
Neither come off, because the director doesn't understand what makes a 'bus' work and, in any case, they happen to the stalker, not the person being stalked.These faint echoes of Cat People give Cult of the Cobra whatever small distinction it might have, but they only draw attention to the yawning gulf between the original and the imitation.Plagiarism may be the sincerest form of flattery, but I doubt if Lewton or Tourneur were particularly flattered when this tepid little time-passer came out..
(This is definitely a female imitation snake.) The cult member who has sneaked them into the secret meeting has warned the six men repeatedly that the ceremonies must not be interrupted and, most definitely, no photos must be taken or else they will be hunted down and killed.
Naturally, the GIs take a flash photo, send the cult members into an angry hysteria, steal the basket containing the "snake" and run off with it into the Asian night.One of the guys, the most offensive and snarky, dies from a cobra bite on the neck, though no one can explain how the snake got into his hospital room.Back in New York, it all seems rather old news as the discharged men settle down into their civilian lives, still maintaining their bond with one another.
But they all get along well enough and all of them seem happy.Then a dark, shifty-looking, mysterious woman (Faith Domergue) shows up and Marshall Thompson takes a liking to her and insinuates her into the group.Guess what happens.
Long and Dobson begin to suspect what the viewer already knows -- that Domergue has had something to do with the deaths.
Dobson confronts her with his suspicions and she proves his point.By this time Long and Thompson are thoroughly frazzled, particularly Thompson, who is in love with Domergue and has discovered that she is attracted to him, too, although he must explain to her what "love" is.
A final reckless attack by the cobra woman against Long's girl friend -- not one of the six original offenders -- and Thompson must throw the snake out the window.
In Lewton's "The Cat People", for instance, the woman is transformed into a black leopard but, with one tiny exception, the threat is always kept in the shadows and is all the more spooky for it.
Six American GI's stationed in Asia find themselves in considerable jeopardy after they witness a secret ceremony by a Hindu cult who worship snakes.
Lovely and charming snake goddess Lisa Moya (well played and perfectly embodied by the beautiful and beguiling Faith Domergue), who has the ability to transform into a lethal serpent, goes to America and starts picking the guys off one by one.
The solid acting from a capable cast helps a lot: Richard Long as the affable Paul Able, Marshall Thompson as the decent and likable Tom Markel, Kathleen Hughes as the sweet Julia Thompson, William Reynolds as nice guy Pete Norton, Jack Kelly as smooth womanizer Carl Turner, and David Janssen as the happy-go-lucky Rico Nardi.
GIs in 1945 Asia are introduced to the actual ceremony of a "female human cobra"(essentially a woman in costume who is slithery like a snake)by a native snake charmer who warns them to keep quiet inside their hooded robes, but Nick of the group stupidly attempts to take a snapshot resulting in the American soldiers being cursed.
This curse entails that all the GIs will be hunted down one at a time by the cobra woman, to be victims of her poisonous bite.
Returning home absent Nick(who is "reinfected" when a snake enters his room in a hospital, the bite killing him)to New York, the GIs, now civilians, aren't out of harm's way.
TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE/ FIEND WITHOUT A FACE)and Paul(Richard Long; THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL/THE TWILIGHT ZONE) are both in love with a girl(Paul is chosen over Tom, though)which doesn't end their friendship(the guys are roommates).
A new tenant moves in across from Tom and Paul, an exotic foreigner named Lisa(Faith Domergue).
The filmmakers decide to avoid showing an actual human cobra, opting instead to show Faith Domergue's silhouette on the wall metamorphose into a cobra(there's an ending where we see the actual cobra turn back into a human through dissolve which is flawed because it's highly doubtful that a naked snake would transform into a woman with all of her jewelry and wardrobe on).
This movie does resemble CAT PEOPLE in that Tom falls in love with a beautiful woman he can not attain due to her terrible predicament.
When stage actress Julia(the lovely Kathleen Hughes)begins reading on snake cults and customary practices, like in CAT PEOPLE when Simone Simon's Irena becomes a deadly threat to her husband's best friend(and future lover), Alice(Jane Randolph), Domergue's Lisa follows a similar mold, taking cobra form at the end, awaiting her in the dressing room.
For some reason, CULT OF THE COBRA never quite takes off but it might appeal to fans of Val Lewton and the "less is more" approach, focused more on the soap opera dramatics of Tom and Lisa's relationship and what they are up against..I imagine that had it been made 10 years previous, CULT OF THE COBRA might've been more of a creature feature with Domergue an actual cobra woman..
CULT OF THE COBRA is pretty much a remake of CAT PEOPLE without the Guiding Light of a Val Lewton.
Faith Domergue is at her loveliest here and the Sanke, when used, is handled well, but the movie takes its time shifting into gear (we know damned well where everything is leading; why waste Time- and considerable Footage- getting there?).
As Domergue ends up romantically involved with one of the men, one of the last surviving men, Richard Long, seeks to prove that somehow a curse is involved.
While stationed in Asia,six Air Force buddies sneak into a secret ceremony where cobras are worshiped.
Things get suspicious after the arrival of a vengeful priestess, Lisa Moya(Faith Domerue), who moves into an apartment right across the hall from one of the Air Force buddies Tom Markel(Marshall Thompson).
Shadows of a cobra and snake venom are involved with each death.
Cast includes: Kathleen Hughes, Richard Long, William Reynolds, Jack Kelly, Myrna Hansen and David Janssen.