THE WOMAN EATER (1958)
Tagline: See the Woman Eater ensnare the beauties of two continents!
(Horror, Sci-Fi, Don’t Go In That Creepy Old Dudes House) [PG]
Note: This movie wasn’t given an MPAA rating, but it would definitely fall under PG by today’s standards. The title sequence just says this movie is called “Womaneater”.
My dear Margaret, I have never trusted you or any other woman with anything I didn't want anyone else to know.
Oh man, in this one, a creepy old man with a giant house and an even creepier servant lure women into his house to feed them to a flesh-eating tree with several arms. The tree then creates a serum that he believes he can use to bring the dead back to life.
First off, this movie is kind of like FROM HELL IT CAME in the sense that we are dealing with another tree creature. The difference in this movie is that the tree was actually worshipped in the village where it was stolen from, a mad scientist named Doctor Moran. You read that right. This dude went up to some village in South America and just steals their tree idol. How does this guy not know this isn’t going to end well?
What works in this film is that it’s more horror than sci-fi and in that regard, it creates a sufficiently creepy atmosphere for a good amount of the film. This is definitely one of those “don’t go in there” movies. What also works is the acting for the most part. George Coulouris is pretty solid as Doctor Moran and had a pretty long career in Hollywood. I am most familiar with his role in THE MAN WITHOUT A BODY. He’s also a basket-case in that. This flick also features a fantastically goofy-looking monster/tree, but I would have liked to have had them throw a bit of a face on this thing. It looks more like an automated car wash but for people than it does anything that can actually do any harm. The ending is abrupt but satisfying.
Acting-wise it’s almost like they just went to some beach and picked out all the curvy girls they could find for these roles. Vera Day does most of the heavy lifting as Sally. She is another actress from the 50s that is still with us as of the writing of this review. Her other big sci-fi flick from the ’50s was QUATERMASS 2. Joy Webster has a small role in this as Judy and does a decent job. She spent a little over a decade in Hollywood and is probably most famous for her role as Stella Creighton in 1961’s THE AVENGERS (pre-Marvel Cinematic Universe). We also get a good amount of screen time from Peter Forbes-Robertson who plays Jack Venner and spends most of his time either being super nice to Sally or inexplicably snapping at her like she kicked his dog. Peter’s role in this reminded me a lot of Jude Law’s role in THE HOLIDAY. He also struck me as a bit “Doctor Who-ish”, and now that makes even more sense knowing he was actually in the old Doctor Who TV show. He even played a Time Lord once.
What doesn’t work in this movie is that it just kind of ends up going nowhere till about the final minute. The plot is super predictable for the most part. It’s basically one of those movies where you are kind of watching the “plot train” come down the metaphorical track and you are just kind of looking at your watch wondering when someone is going to do something we hadn’t seen in the first 5 minutes. The film also just leaves a ton of questions, like why does this tree only kill women, how is it totally fine with having serum sucked out of it regularly, but not okay with chicks who have done nothing to it? Why the heck is Sally so into Jack who seems to fly off the handle if she doesn’t do something right. I don’t want to give away any more of the plot, but yeah. This is a head-scratcher.
I have to give this one a 3 out of 7. I don’t see myself watching it again, but if you want to see some campy tree monster cheese that still manages to rattle the nerves, this is for you.
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