Monday, November 29, 2010

1960 - THE LEECH WOMAN, not to be confused with The Wasp Woman or Invasion of the Bee Girls


Another in the Universal monster movie package and probably one of the worst one.  The Leech Woman is a cross between The Man in Half Moon Street, Dracula, Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and a Bomba the Jungle Boy, film. 


A sleazeball scientist looking for an anti aging formula ends up in Africa with his old croon of a wife where they discover a secret orchid mixed with the hormone from the human pituitary gland.  This goop makes the old croon young and beautiful again but naturally the anti aging compound only works temporarily, so the usual movie killing spree kicks in.


Lots of stock footage in the jungle mixed with the good old Universal back lot, a B list of actors, a stupid plot, latex monster makeup and a short running time.  Usually this type of film could be campy fun but in this case it's not much fun and not very campy.   The film just crawls along from one no fun scene to another. 


This wraps up the Universal Classic Science Fiction box set for me.  My score, The Incredible Shrinking Man, the best in the series, Tarantula, the runner up.  The Mole People, stupid but fun, The Monolith Monsters, boring and The Leech Woman, the bottom of the barrel.

77 minutes with a lot of stock footage which if removed probably would have made it about 44 minutes.

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