Voodoo Woman

Plot synopsis:
The title and credits are shown over an African village of native dancers. The opening scene shows a native girl, Zuranda (Jean Davis) participating in a ritual and placed on a table. A voodoo doll is placed on her chest. A chicken is waved over her and placed on her stomach and killed. Participating in the ritual is Dr. Roland Gerard (Tom Conway). He draws a sample of her blood.In the doctor's hut, Bobo, the houseboy (Otis Greene) enters and opens the blinds. He startles Susan Gerard (Mary Ellen Kay), the doctor's wife. Susan tries to bribe Bobo to help her escape her husband, but he fears the doctor's wrath. The hut is like a prison with bars on all the windows. Outside sits a guard, Gander (Emmett E. Smith). When Susan gets too close to the bars she gets a little too close to Gander's spear and she retreats inside. The ritual continues with Dr. Gerard and Chaka, the Witch Doctor (Martin Wilkins).In a bar, Rick Brady (Lance Fuller) and Marilyn Blanchard (Marla English) wait to approach a potential business partner. The bartender, Marcel Chateau (Paul Dubov) assists them in their scheme. Marilyn cozies up to Harry West (Norman Willis) at his table. They know and dislike each other, but they agree to a business venture. Marilyn tells Harry she intends to marry Rick. Rick and Marilyn leave the table after exchanging a few more barbs with Harry. They walk back to the bar and annoy Marcel and have a drink. She tells Marcel she's going to Harry's room and to distract their "business partner." Marcel tells Yvette, the singer (Giselle DArc) to keep Harry occupied with a song. Marcel helps himself to his own product. Rick and Marilyn rifle Harry's room. They are looking for a map of the location of a tribe that has enormous amounts of gold and jewels. Harry notices his "business partners" have left. For $5 Marcel sells Harry a gun. Harry is unaware his weapon doesn't work, but Marilyn does. Harry returns to his room to find Rick and Marilyn examining a gold statue studded with diamonds and rubies. Harry's gun malfunctions, but Marilyn's works fine and she uses it to kill Harry. They continue to search Harry's room. It seems Harry had made arrangements before his untimely death to secure the services of a guide to find the tribe and collect the gold and jewels. That much Rick and Marilyn know.At the ritual, the girl's feet change. She changes into some kind of blond hairy creature, but we don't get a very good look. The witch doctor tells Dr. Gerard the change is only temporary. Zuranda is the daughter of the priest in the next village, so the tribe is responsible for her safety. Gerard wants to take Zuranda with him, but Chaka objects. Gerard finally convinces Chaka to let her leave, but just about that time Zuranda changes back to a native girl. Gerard wants the change to be permanent.Marcel comes to Harry's room to tell Rick and Marilyn that Harry's funeral is over. For a percentage Marcel arranges such things. He informs Rick and Marilyn there is a considerable fee due and payable. They are waiting for the guide, and since it was arranged by mail, Rick will impersonate Harry. The guide, Ted Bronson (Mike Connors, credited at Touch Connors) arrives at the bar and meets Marilyn. He is suspicious of her motives, but he needs the money.The next day they plan their trip. The three start their trek through the jungle complete with bearers. They decide to make camp just outside the voodoo territory. Gerard has returned to his lab with Zuranda. She screams which upsets his wife back in the hut. Susan enters the lab, against standing orders. Before he can send Susan back to her room, he informs his wife, "I'm using her to create a new being, not man, not beast, but a combination of the best of each. When I'm finished we'll take her back to the States with us. We'll shatter the very foundations of Science." Susans reply is terse, "You're insane." Gerard reminds her if she tries to escape he'll kill her. Zuranda again transforms. She has claws like a panther. The creature (Paul Blaisdell) is directed telepathically to go to the village. It destroys a hut and chases the couple with the baby inside off into the jungle. But Zuranda has serious qualms about harming anyone, and transforms back into her human form.Resting in the camp, Marilyn asks Ted about voodoo. Marilyn is drawn to the drums and tells Ted she's going to the north country. Ted informs her it will be without him. The next day Gerard approaches the village and is stopped by the natives until Chaka intervenes. Chaka confronts Gerard with the evidence he made Zuranda attack her own village. Chaka wants her back and Gerard agrees. He is told she will never kill because it is not in her nature to do so. Gerard departs. Ted and Rick get into a fight over Rick's trying to shoot a native scout. Ted is victorious and takes Rick's rifle. But the native village now knows of the white man's presence. Gerard takes his wife down to the lab to see Zuranda. Susan thinks she's dead. But Gerard explains that she is between life and death--a state of pre-transformation. Gerard smears blood on a doll and then tells Zuranda to get up and walk around the room. Zuranda complies. He injects her with a substance that turns her skin into armor plating. Gerard fires a gun at Zuranda and the bullets bounce off. Even acid has no effect when poured on her leg. Susan accuses her husband of being crazy and gets a slap across the face for it.Ted confesses to Marilyn that he thought she was poison the minute they met, but took the job because he needed the money. He asks for a straight answer, what are they looking for? She makes him a bargain--a 50/50 deal. She wants gold and badly. He agrees to take her as far as Bandaleya. She pulls a gun on Ted and takes his gun. She informs Ted he's going with her and Rick.When Bobo tries to take a message from Susan to the party approaching he is killed by Gander. When Ted tries to escape, Marilyn ties him up. Rick leaves looking for the village. Gerard is looking for Ted, Rick, and Marilyn. He has Zuranda with him in her transformed state. Gerard finds the camp and directs Zuranda to kill, but she is unable and retreats and transforms back into human form. Gerard admits that Chaka was right, he can't make her kill. He sends her back to her village. Rick finds the markings on the native totem pole which confirms they have the correct village. Ricks accosts Zuranda. She screams and bites Rick. He hits her and kills her. He walks back to camp and wakes Marilyn. He tells her they've found the village. Gerard and Chaka find Zuranda's body. Chaka informs Gerard, "White man die for this." Gerard agrees, until Chaka informs him that all white men, "You too." They go to the camp and capture Rick, Ted, and Marilyn. They want the one who killed Zuranda. Marilyn rats out Rick. The bite on his hand is the evidence. Chaka insists Rick be executed by a white man, so Marilyn shoots Rick twice killing him. Dr. Gerard cuts Ted loose and they agree to stay with Gerard for a few days until things calm down with the villagers. Of course, Gerard has plans. Marilyn tells Gerard, "It's lucky meeting up with you. I've got a hunch I can use you in my business." Smirking uncontrollably, Gerard slyly replies, "I'm almost positive that I can use you in mine." They go back to Gerard's hut. Gerard takes Marilyn on a tour of the lab. He surmises, correctly, that gold is Marilyn's real interest in the village. He tells her he will arrange to make her a priestess. "Then you can have anything you'd like." Susan is locked in her room, but she has a rifle. She leaves her room and Ted notices her. They talk and she returns to her room. Gander keeps Ted inside the hut.At the village, they prepare for another ritual. Gerard and Marilyn arrive. Gerard convinces Chaka to use Marilyn for the ritual. They return the next day, and Marilyn is dressed in native garb for the ritual. Gander falls asleep and Ted goes to the lab. He checks around then leaves to get Susan in her room. Gander wakes and goes outside. He hears Susan and Ted talking. He captures Ted. Chaka and Gerard work on Marilyn. She transforms into the monster. Chaka pulls a ritual knife on Gerard so he takes Marilyn back to his hut after she transforms back into human form. Gerard takes Gander away from guarding Ted for a little task. Unguarded, Ted goes to see Susan. He grabs a knife and departs. In the lab, Gerard preps Marilyn for her new role as his monster/slave. Ted bolts the hut with Gander in hot pursuit. Just before Susan can escape, Gerard arrives with his monster. Susan shoots it with no effect. The monster picks Susan up and takes her in the direction of the village. Ted manages to kill Gander. Gerard escorts his wife the final distance to Chaka as the white sacrifice Chaka demands.Ted finds traces of Susan at the hut and hears Susan's screams at the village. He is captured by natives and brought to the village to be added to the sacrifice pile. Susan and Ted are tied up by next to a volcanic steam vent. Gerard calls his monster to come get her gold. Gerard is led away to be tied up with Ted and Susan. Ted and Susan manage to slip their ropes and get away as the monster attacks the village. Gerard orders the monster to kill Chaka--He is thrown into the pit. The monster discovers that all the ritual vessels are made of clay, not gold. Gerard informs the monster that the only gold item was the idol that went into the pit with Chaka. The monster feels betrayed and chokes Gerard. The monster returns to human form, now Marilyn. She sees the golden idol near the pit and approaches it. She bends down to retrieve it and falls into the pit, screaming. Ted and Susan return to the lab and mix up a couple of molotov cocktails. They use them to scare the natives and escape.At the bar, Marcel and Yvette are rolling a drunk for his wallet. Yvette gets her cut. Ted and Susan arrive just in time for the bus to town. Marcel asks about Marilyn and Rick and is told they are dead. Marcel comments, "Her friend perhaps is dead, but not Marilyn. I have a feeling that one still lives." We close at the pit/steam vent as the creature crawls out.

Tags: murder

Review:
Let's face it, this is a pretty bad film.However if you go in ready to make fun of it you can survive the experience.Okay, you'll scream in agony a lot.African jungle fun in a dopey kind of way.Tom Conway (who spends most of the film wearing a funky chapeau) is using the local witch doctor and mad science to create a "perfect" being.It looks like a varmint that has been on a six week drunk and is in a sack dress.Ugly is being kind.But it won't kill for him because he's using a good girl as his subject.He needs a bad bad girl.Marla English and Lance Fuller are two petty crooks in search of African gold.Acting lessons for Ms English should have been at the top of the search list.She's a bad girl and lets everybody know it in a performance worthy of a junior high school play.Mike "Touch" Connors is the white guide English & Fuller con into leading the expedition.English & Conway finally meet and it is a match made in hell.She is the perfect subject to become his voodoo creature because she'll do anything (stress anything) to get what she wants.You will do anything to stop the agony of this movie at this point.What made this movie interesting for me was Conway wearing that funky tribal hat/headdress/floral piece!Still trying to figure out what kind of dead animal it was.Guess he thought if he pulled it down low enough over his eyes nobody would recognize him.Truly bad cinema..
Random thoughts that popped into my head while watching "Voodoo Woman":1) Poor Tom Conway.
He pretty much carries the movie, but he should have carried it straight out the door and into the dumpster.4) The lead female - someone should have gently taken her aside and told her the difference between "tough noir temptress" and "irritating, hateful harpy".
She actually looked pretty good in the role, but every time she opened her mouth, I wanted to punch her.6) The final scene where the murderous harpy tries to retrieve the final remaining chunk of gold from the edge of the volcanic pit where it came to rest, only to lose her balance and fall in...is the single most badly staged and unbelievable choreography of a "fall" I can remember seeing.
Apparently it never occurred to the poor lady to bend her knees.7) This wasn't nearly as bad as earlier AIP fodder like "Beast With A Million Eyes", and I am sure someone had fun watching it as the bottom half of a Drive in double feature...but 40+ years down the road, it has not aged well.
Good AIP/Corman stuff almost always had the germ of something interesting and creative driving them...but this poor cast- off just comes off trite, rote, and derivative.8) At the end of the day, people who were trying to make a living in the movie business got paid.
Tom Conway portrays Dr. Gerard, a scientist who is turning natives into a monster using voodoo.
His poor wife, played by Mary Ellen Kay, is being held captive by her wacko hubby who has no time for her but threatens to kill her if she leaves him.
Along comes Marla English as a greedy murderess who has already killed a man to find treasure in the jungle.
Dismal cheapie from AIP that stars a rough-looking Tom Conway as a mad scientist in the jungle using voodoo to turn women into monsters.
Marla English makes for a fun bitch; she's easily the highlight of the movie.
Mike Connors is the "hero" who exists just to give the mad scientist's put-upon wife (Mary Ellen Kay) a stud to walk into the sunset with.
The monster suit for the 'voodoo woman' is the same as the suit from The She-Creature with some minor changes.
"Voodoo Woman" is a super-cheap film from American-International Pictures.
Now you know it's cheap as instead of giving the project to Roger Corman (who had a knack for making good films out of nothing), Edward Cahn directs this silly mess of a film.The film is set in voodoo country--a land inhabited by obese people who inexplicably have allowed a totally loony white man (Tom Conway) to live among them with his wife.
At the same time, an incredibly violent and vicious woman (Marla English) and her male cohort are planning on an expedition to the tribe with whom Conway lives--as the place apparently is loaded with gold.
They need a guide, so they convince tough-talking Mike Connors to join them.By the time Connors and his new 'friends' meet up with Conway and his 'friends', it's obvious that bad things will happen.
That's because Conway is truly crazy and plans on using his personal voodoo monster to kill (bummer)--all with very predictable results.
Often the plot just made little sense so someone would just kill someone of Marla would turn into a monster--the story itself made little difference.
Bad acting, horrible writing and awkward direction--there really isn't anything to recommend this film unless you like bad movies.
Voodoo Woman (1957)* (out of 4) Really bad film about a mad scientist in the African jungle turning a woman into a monster by using voodoo.
I love these old "B" movies and AIP was always one of the best but this film here is just downright boring, slow and not interesting in anyway.
Tom Conway, one of Hollywood's least memorable actors, is the jungle man with the cool hat who discovers something rather unsavory is going on among the trees.
Looking for gold in a remote African village, a team of explorers stumble upon a mad doctor working with the natives to create a race of people using black magic to rule the world, and that the first test subject is stalking them in the jungle along their journey.This one here wasn't all that bad of a low-budget voodoo effort.
What really gives this one a lot of enjoyable elements here is the fact that it really generates a pretty intriguing atmosphere with the use of the voodoo angle to really help sell this one's connection to the jungle setting here.
This one gets that element off to a great start here with the opening voodoo ceremony being performed where the gathered crowd gets whipped into a frenzy as the ritual items placed on her and the enhanced dancing before the transformation makes which for a great start to this, and with the ever-present tribal drumming throughout here as well as the jungle- dwelling atmosphere that really helps to solidify the voodoo-filled atmosphere of this part of the film.
As well, this also makes use of one of the strongest and most vital aspects of voodoo about it not being able to force someone to do something they usually wouldn't do, and it really sells this aspect of the religion by forcing a critical plot-point to come from this and to be able to stick to conventions is to be commended.
Other fun here comes from the scenes with the voodoo-raised creature as the different resurrections in the bunker are incredibly creepy and the action scenes of it charging into villages and destroying everything are quite fun, though it's the finale that really sells this one.
Bringing into play the ceremonial altar deep in the fog-enshrouded jungle, the wild dancing and chanting being quite fun and there's the fine set- pieces of capturing the wife as well as the different battles to be found at the ceremony which is where this one really makes for a great time here.
The main issue against this one is obviously the cheap, low-budget nature of the film which doesn't really make any part of this one look like anything else here except for a cheap cash-in.
The sets, the simplicity of the locations and the whole atmosphere is so obviously and easily seen as such it really takes a lot out of the film in that state.
Likewise, that continues into the overall length of this as the film takes on barely enough to reach the hour mark and really only gets there with only a few minor set-pieces that stretch that length out with the rather lame scenes of her being kept hidden in her room, the time- wasting scene in the motel room where they get held up from going on their trip and the scenes of them in the jungle wrestling for control with each other are quite lame and really just seem stretched out variations just to get it to a proper running time.
Retitle This: Creature With The Blonde Wig. Watch this film if you want to make fun of a movie.
It's also very boring so it will help to pass the time to make fun of the film.Why isn't this another "Voodoo Man" titled film instead of being called "Voodoo Woman"?
Tom Conway deserved better than this, but when the roles aren't there and you need work then these kinds of films are what you're stuck with.
He's a mad doc in voodoo tribe trying to use their magic with his science in the hopes of creating a monster to be shown to those colleagues who might have found his theories balderdash.
Marla English is greedy and bad, hoping to gain gold possibly found at the tribe of Martin Wilkins' priest, Chaka.
Following Marla, the two commission Mike Connors as knowledgeable guide to lead them to the tribe, but the triangle deteriorates as they get closer to their destination.
Conway's mad dream might see reality when he meets Marla.
Marla is to be turned into the monster (documented to be a costume held over from She Creature) by Conway but, of course, that goes awry.
Connors is often held at gunpoint or spear, just wanting to leave, eventually joining forces with Kay. The voodoo tribe and their use in horror in the 40s and 50s wouldn't fly today.
Predating the cannibal jungle horror of Italian vintage twenty years, films like Voodoo Woman could be seen as a precursor...the ways of a tribe in the jungle were viewed here as primitive, often easy to deceive and frighten by Conway's cunning scientist, capitalizing on their beliefs and worship practices to benefit his own diabolical agenda.
Conway, though, puts himself in danger by having his monster attack the tribe, and places his own body in harm's way.
A Low-Budget, Grade-B Film from Days Gone By. Believing that a tribe deep in the African jungle has gold a ruthless woman by the name of "Marilyn Blanchard" (Marla English) and her boyfriend "Rick Brady" (Lance Fuller) manage to manipulate a guide named "Ted Bronson" (Mike Connors) to take them to this village.
What none of them realize is that there is a mad scientist named "Dr. Roland Gerard" (Tom Conway) who has been staying there and learning the black arts which he hopes to combine with western science in order to transform a female into a monster he can control with the power of his mind.
Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this is clearly a low-budget, grade-B film from days gone by which most people probably won't like or appreciate.
In any case, having grown up with movies like this in my early years I personally didn't think it was that bad and for that reason I have rated it as about average..
The production style made me think 'Voodoo Woman' was made at least fifteen years earlier.Smooth, deeply disinterested Tom Conway plays Dr. Roland Gerard, a Frankenstein wannabe determined to make a new life form out of a young woman using the magic of voodoo.
It takes most of the running time to get these two characters together, and she proves a perfect choice for his ideal woman on which to experiment.
Hers is my favourite performance in the film.This is a very low budgeted Samuel Z.
Wisely, Director Edward L Cahn obscures our view of the dear old white-haired curio for the most part, because it really doesn't look very fearsome at all.Mike 'Touch' Connors - yes, 'Touch' is his nickname - plays rugged hero Ted Bronson, and blond Mary Ellen Kay is nice Susan, wife of evil Dr. Gerard, and original focus of his indecipherable experiments.
The performances vary from drama school theatrics (Marla English) to a 'couldn't care less' walk through (Tom Conway).
Tom Conway is trying to create a super race, using voodoo and modern science (although there is little science in evidence) which he can control telepathically.
Meanwhile a couple of petty crooks and a white hunter type guide are trying to find the village in which he is working, in the expectation of gold and jewels.
When they finally arrive, Tom Conway decides that one of them, the woman, is the perfect subject for his experiments.
She is turned into a monster, kills Conway (natch!) and then reverts to normal.
In the final shot we see the supposedly drowned woman emerge as the monster again; threatening a sequel (now that really is a scary thought!).The AIP producer, Samuel Z Arkoff, in a lecture included on the DVD, prides himself on spotting the teenage niche market and satisfying it with ingenious low budget movies.
There are no teenagers in it and no characters that teenagers could be expected to identify with.The producers exposed 77 minutes of film, but they didn't make a movie.
***SPOILERS*** Hearing that there's gold in them jungles Pittsburg gold digger Marilyn Blanchard, Marla English, and her boyfriend Rick Brady, Lance Fuller,are hot to get their hands on it but need help, a professional jungle guide, to get to it.
That problem is solved for them when Marilyn after failing to get explorer Harry West, Norman Willis, have her go along with him in the unexplored African bush murders him and gets the guide he hired Ted Bronson, no relation to movie macho-man Charles Bronson, played by future TV and private detective he-man Mike Conners to lead both her and Rick to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow or untamed jungle.Back at the far off jungle village the crazed Dr.Roland Gerard, Tim Conway, has no interest in gold or his mentally abused, by him, wife the pretty Susan Gerard, Mary Ellen Kay, who's terrified of him and his insane experiments.
He's only interested in creating a race of superhuman beings that will like in the words of the late Dr. Eric Vernoff, in "Bride of the Monster" dreamed of, conquer the world.
BoBo for his part got himself killed, with a native spear in his back, trying to get word back to civilization in what a nut case his boss Dr. Geared is and to send help, the local police in force, to the village before he ends up having everyone, man woman child & animal, there killed!***SPOILERS*** It turns out that when Marilyn together with her boyfriend Rick and jungle guide Ted Bronson finally get to the village she turns on Rick murdering him just for the fun of it but leaves a confused and befuddled Bronson alive so that he, knowing the area like the back of his hand, can lead her to the gold that's supposedly hidden there.
With Dr. Gerard seeing that the murderous and unfeeling for human life Marilyn is the prefect candidate for his experiment he talked her into going along, by being transformed into a Frankenstein-like monster, with his insane experiment!
The predictable ending, in having seen enough of these mad scientist or doctor movies, couldn't come soon enough with Marilyn becoming a 7 foot tall , with the strength of ten men, Voodoo Woman and tearing the entire village apart but getting screwed, figuratively not physically, by Dr. Gerard in that the gold that he promised her, in agreeing into being turned into a monster, was nothing but a pipe dream.
The acting is all pretty much standard for a film of this type, the men being macho and the women being inferior.
Another woman kills somebody and turns out to be a villain, so I guess the entire female species get a rum deal in this film.
This film is also pretty racist in the depiction of the jabbering natives who run around and perform their voodoo rituals by cutting the heads off chickens.
With some low rent action scenes (mainly involving shooting), an absurd, rarely seen monster and lots of overheated dialogue, this is pretty much your typical kind of '50s exploitation; there are better and there are worse.
The Monster's definitely the "motive" for this kind of movie- which makes one wonder why the filmmakers always insist on keeping the critter off screen as much as possible.
(In this case, Paul Blaisdell's She Creature is given a makeover- head only- and relegated to the surrounding foliage throughout the movie.) Tom Conway has that "far away" look in his eyes, as if he's fondly recalling something funny he heard once, and he more or less sleepwalks through his part- but with enough innate acting ability to carry it off; kind of like Basil Rathbone in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN...
Marla English is center stage and this goes a LONG way toward making VOODOO WOMAN watchable..
*Spoiler/plot- 1956, Natives in Africa are invoking magic with a modern sci-fi twist, a mad scientist is involved seeking to produce a race of super humans.
Gold seekers invade the village and they become sacrifices to the voodoo god and a rescue adventure begins.*Special Stars- Mike 'Touch' Connors, Marla English, Tom Conway, Lance Fuller, Mary Ellen Kaye.*Theme- Africa holds some of the oddest and strange customs and beliefs.*Trivia/location/goofs- Enjoy or NOT the early acting Mike "Manix" Connors aka B-Movie idol billed as 'Touch' Connors at this early time of his career.*Emotion- An enjoyable but rather crazy version of the "Frankenstein" plot story, only in Africa.