With a title like "Leech Woman", I naturally assumed this was a movie about giant leeches. After all, the 50s and very early 60s produced a huge number of giant insect movies and I took it for granted that this could be something else. Instead, it's still a horror movie, of sorts--just not the giant radiation-produced type!
The film begin with a middle-aged lady having an argument with her cruel and indifferent husband. He's truly a jerk and you feel rather sorry for her. However, after meeting a woman who claims to be 150+ years-old, this scientist has a sudden change of heart--treating his wife much nicer and apologizing for his boorish behaviors. He also announces that they are going to Africa on a safari--a safari to a land where they'd discovered the secret to eternal youth. Once they are in Africa, the film looks a bit like a low-budget Tarzan-like film--complete with the obligatory stock footage. At the same time, the husband's old contempt and mistreatment for his wife returns. It seems the only reason he sweet-talked her was so he could bring this older lady along as a guinea pig once he learns this secret of youth. After all, he wouldn't want to try it on himself, would he?!
So what is the secret? Well, an old woman CAN become young again for a short period of time...but only after a man is killed and his blood mixed with some sort of magic pollen. And, in a funny twist, when the wife does try out this secret formula, she demands that the tribe use her abusive husband as the sacrifice!! Now, young and beautiful, she has a lot of living to catch up with and no one is going to stop her. Fortunately, the first three men she kills deserve it, but even then, her youth is only temporary and she has become smitten with a horny young man. So, she kills again in an attempt to capture this jerk's heart. What happens next you'll have to see for yourself.
Overall, it's a very original film and moderately interesting. The only downside is the budget, which makes the makeup cheap--like the guy from ALLIGATOR PEOPLE instead of elderly people! No one is THAT wrinkled and withered!
The film begin with a middle-aged lady having an argument with her cruel and indifferent husband. He's truly a jerk and you feel rather sorry for her. However, after meeting a woman who claims to be 150+ years-old, this scientist has a sudden change of heart--treating his wife much nicer and apologizing for his boorish behaviors. He also announces that they are going to Africa on a safari--a safari to a land where they'd discovered the secret to eternal youth. Once they are in Africa, the film looks a bit like a low-budget Tarzan-like film--complete with the obligatory stock footage. At the same time, the husband's old contempt and mistreatment for his wife returns. It seems the only reason he sweet-talked her was so he could bring this older lady along as a guinea pig once he learns this secret of youth. After all, he wouldn't want to try it on himself, would he?!
So what is the secret? Well, an old woman CAN become young again for a short period of time...but only after a man is killed and his blood mixed with some sort of magic pollen. And, in a funny twist, when the wife does try out this secret formula, she demands that the tribe use her abusive husband as the sacrifice!! Now, young and beautiful, she has a lot of living to catch up with and no one is going to stop her. Fortunately, the first three men she kills deserve it, but even then, her youth is only temporary and she has become smitten with a horny young man. So, she kills again in an attempt to capture this jerk's heart. What happens next you'll have to see for yourself.
Overall, it's a very original film and moderately interesting. The only downside is the budget, which makes the makeup cheap--like the guy from ALLIGATOR PEOPLE instead of elderly people! No one is THAT wrinkled and withered!