Womaneater is a 1958 horror film about a mad scientist who feeds women to a flesh-eating tree in order to raise the dead. In the US, it was promoted as The Woman Eater
Directed by Charles Saunders (The Man Without a Body) from a screenplay written by Brandon Fleming. Produced by Guido Coen (Burke & Hare, 1971).
The movie stars George Coulouris (Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb; The Man Without a Body), Vera Day (Quatermass 2), Peter Wayn, Joyce Gregg, Joy Webster, Jimmy Vaughn, Robert MacKenzie and Norman Claridge. Marpessa Dawn, who has a minor role as a ‘native girl’, would achieve international acclaim as Eurydice in Black Orpheus two years later.
The film was passed with an ‘X’ certificate by the BBFC on 21st February 1958, censorship cuts having been made (alas, no details are available).
Plot [includes spoilers]:
At the Explorers’ Club in London, Dr Moran tells the other members about “a tribe in the depths of the Amazon jungle” which has “a miracle-working JuJu that can bring the dead back to life” and that he’s going on an expedition to get it. He finds the tribe and witnesses a secret ceremony in which a young woman, entranced by beating drums, is consumed by a large carnivorous tree. Moran then nearly dies from “jungle fever”.
Five years later, recovered and back in Britain at his manor house, Moran is experimenting with the tree. He has brought it and the tribal drummer, Tanga, back from the Amazon. They kidnap a young English woman, Susan Curtis, and Tanga feeds her to the tree. “She’ll become a part of the plant. And from it I’ll get the serum to bring the dead back to life. She won’t have died in vain”, declares Moran. However, the experiment fails. A dead heart into which Moran injects the serum revives, but dies again after a short time.
Police Sgt Bolton arrives via bicycle to gently question Moran about the missing Susan. Moran denies any knowledge of her. That night, at the local Fun Fair, Sally Norton, is working at a sideshow, dancing the “hula-hula” to attract customers. When she takes a break, Jack Venner, who has fallen in love with her at first sight, introduces himself. But when the sideshow barker tries to drag Sally back to the show, Jack bests him in a fistfight, which costs Sally her job. Jack suggests that she see Moran about becoming an assistant to Moran’s housekeeper, Margaret Santor. Moran gives Sally the job over the objections of Margaret.
After the suspicious Detective Inspector Brownlow questions Moran again about Susan’s disappearance, Moran and Tanga extract more serum from the tree, although without a further sacrifice. Moran says that his English science can improve Tanga’s juju, but Tanga is sceptical. Moran goes to London and picks up Judy. Tanga feeds her to the tree, too.
Moran offers Margaret”s job to Sally, telling her that Margaret is dead. Margaret and Moran had been lovers before he went to the Amazon. She still loved him, but Moran said that he was tired of her “middle aged jealousies” over the younger Sally, whom Margaret has correctly guessed that Moran is in love with. Moran strangled Margaret when she tried to stab him.
Sally tells Jack that she’s frightened of Moran and will quit the next morning. But Moran refuses to let her go and confesses his love for her. Sally is appalled. Moran locks her in his laboratory. When Jack comes to find her, Moran tells him that she’s left. Jack and Moran argue about Sally’s whereabouts, and Jack goes to the police with his suspicions. The police have new evidence about Susan’s disappearance – a torn shred of her dress found near Moran’s house – and they and Jack go off to confront Moran.
In the laboratory, Moran brings Margaret back to life. She starts to attack Sally but drops dead before she can do Sally any harm. Moran ponders this, saying, “Only a body. No mind”. Then he yells at Tanga, “Your people cheated me! They gave me only half the secret!” He can raise the dead, but the result is a mindless zombie. Tanga, hands on hips, says defiantly, “Our secret not for you. The brain for us only”.
Tanga then tries to feed Sally to the tree but fails. Jack and the police arrive as Moran and Tanga struggle. Sally escapes with Jack. Moran hurls a vial of liquid onto the tree and, as it bursts into flames, flees. Tanga throws his knife, killing Moran, then kneels before the burning tree, worshipping it as it’s consumed by fire.
“The entertainment quotient is helped enormously by George Coulouris’ star turn as the maddest of mad scientists; the actor plays Moran with a lasciviousness and gravitas that belie the ludicrous plot and flimsy characterisation” John Hamilton, X-Cert: The British Independent Horror Film 1951 – 1970 book
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“Direction, acting and scripting are all equally questionable and totally lack the inspired silliness required to get away with such a motif, best seen in Roger Corman’s The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) with its carnivorous piece of flora.” The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror book
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“…fans of mad scientists and killer vegetables should on no account miss this little-known Z-grade affair, a British studio’s successful attempt to match similar trash that was coming out of Hollywood in the late 1950s…” David McGillivray, Radio Times
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“The British B picture at its most threadbare, with poor production value and acting to match: it is sad to recall that Coulouris appeared in Citizen Kane.” Alan Frank, The Horror Film Handbook book
Notes:
According to British film critic John Hamilton, there was a setback as production was about to begin: “the already tight budget was stretched to breaking-point by an accidental fire just before shooting started which reduced the original tree to cinders and left the prop department a matter of days to construct the unsatisfactory alternative”
Cast and characters:
George Coulouris … Doctor Moran
Vera Day … Sally
Peter Forbes-Robertson … Jack Venner
Joyce Gregg … Margaret Santor
Joy Webster … Judy
Jimmy Vaughn … Tanga
Robert MacKenzie … Lewis Carling
Norman Claridge … Doctor Patterson
Marpessa Dawn … Native Girl
Sara Leighton … Susan Curtis
Edward Higgins … Sergeant Bolton
Harry Ross … Bristow
Alexander Field … Fair Attendant
David Lawton … Man in Club
John A. Tinn … Lascar
Maxwell Foster … Inspector Brownlow
Peter Lewiston … Det. Sergeant Freeman
Roger Avon … Constable
Shief Ashanti … Witch Doctor
Marie Devereux … Streetwalker
John Grant … Rescue Party Leader
Susan Neill … Orange-Juice Counter Girl
Stanley Platts … Explorers Club Steward
Harry Van Engel … Funfair attendee
Filming locations:
Twickenham Studios
Piccadilly Circus
Soho
Technical specs:
1 hour 10 minutes
Audio: Mono (RCA Sound Recording)
Black and white
Aspect ratio: 1.66: 1
Related ‘plant/tree’ horror: Doctor Terror’s House of Horrors | Konga | The Little Shop of Horrors | Maneater of Hydra| Please Don’t Eat My Mother! | Tales That Witness Madness | Venus Flytrap
Trailer:
Free to watch online on YouTube:
Soundtrack score:
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