‘Nothing ever struck you like…’
The Snake Woman is a 1961 British horror film directed by Sidney J. Furie (The Entity; Doctor Blood’s Coffin) from a screenplay by American Orville H. Hampton (The Alligator People; Mesa of Lost Women; Lost Continent).
The movie stars Susan Travers (Peeping Tom), John McCarthy, Geoffrey Denton, Elsie Wagstaff, Arnold Marlé, Michael Logan, Stevenson Lang, John Cazabon, Dorothy Frere, Hugh Moxey, Frances Bennett and Jack Cunningham.
The soundtrack score was composed by Buxton Orr (First Man into Space; Doctor Blood’s Coffin; Corridors of Blood; Fiend Without a Face and The Haunted Strangler).
Plot:
Over many years, a scientist in a turn-of-the-century English village in Bellingham, Northumberland, successfully keeps his wife’s mental illness under control by injecting her with snake venom.
When she dies giving birth to a daughter, a local witch claims that the child is pure evil and must be destroyed. The scientist is killed by an angry mob, but the baby girl is miraculously saved with the help of an understanding doctor.
Nineteen years later, several corpses are discovered on the moors, containing lethal amounts of snake poison. Fearful villagers believe the curse of the snake woman has struck, but Charles Prentice, a young Scotland Yard inspector, is sceptical of the supernatural as he begins his investigation…
Reviews:
” …a competent enough B-movie programmer, entertaining in its own way and enjoyable enough to fit into the ‘cosy horror’ subgenre.” BritMovie
“The Snake Woman is as unpretentious as they come; it’s there in the title on down to the very limited sets and settings – everything feels like a no-name off-brand of bigger and more ambitious features. But in its own unassuming way, it ingratiates itself with a rudimentary gothic feel and a couple of performances more in tune with the melodramatic pinnings of The Wolf Man (1941) that help lift the film above grade Z filler.” Daily Dead
“I really like the scene where the local “witch” gets him to shoot three bullets into a voodoo doll in an attempt to break the curse […] Not a great movie, but one where you can see that some people were approaching the ideas with a certain amount of creativity and a sense of fun.” Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings
” …this black-and-white programmer blatantly misses all the cues that would insure even the slightest spark of box office fire. The script is clumsy, overly-talkative and there is practically no action to alleviate the plodding pace.” Video Confidential
Trailer:
Choice dialogue:
Aggie Harker, the midwife: “It is evil! It has the eye! It is the Devil’s offspring!”
Filming locations:
Walton Studios, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England
Plot keywords:
snake | venom | scientist | pregnant | midwife | police constable | pub | landlord | village | angry mob | Northumberland | cobra | Scotland Yard | inspector
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