Friday, March 7, 2014

THE SNAKE WOMAN / Caralan Productions Ltd. - 1961

It's Snake Bite Friday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We gots a tale set in northern England in 1890, all about a Scotland Yard detective that's sent to a village to investigate a series of deaths caused by snakebites.

Eegah!! sent over a nice lil' soundclip with a teaser by the narrator and theme from this movie for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there by the atomic viper pit, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's a taste of... THE SNAKE WOMAN!

A doctor in the village, who has a large collection of venomous snakes in his laboratory for medical reasons, injects his wife with snake venom in order to cure her mental illness.

The wife later gives birth (but dies) to a daughter that the villagers begin to call "The Devil's Baby." Arnold (THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN) Marlé plays the kindly Dr. Murton.

Eventually, the villagers burn down the doctor's house, the doctor's bitten and dies when the snakes try to escape the fire, the baby daughter is saved when she's taken and secretly raised by a local shepherd. Years later, the little girl's all grown up!

Then, locals start to die from snakebites, soooo...

Scotland Yard gets involved! They send their man, Charles Prentice, to investigate the rash of deaths in the village. John McCarthy, on the right, plays Charles, who can also be seen in THE ELECTRONIC MONSTER, DUBLIN NIGHTMARE, THE BEDFORD INCIDENT and DR. STRANGELOVE.

Charles uses a flute to attract snakes in a field at night, but, beautiful Atheris shows up instead. She stops him from shooting one of her little buddies that slithers into the scene! Susan Travers plays Atheris and also starred in PEEPING TOM, THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES and FRENZY.

Charles later learns about the curse of the Snake Woman from an old lady who dabbles in black magic. She pulls out a doll and tells Charles to shoot it three times, in order to break the curse, and so, he does!

Dr. Murton decides to confront Atheris, but, she changes into a snake and bites the docor before he can shoot her!

In the end, Charles shoots a snake in the grass, and, with everyone watching, it changes back into Atheris right before their eyes! Back at Scotland Yard, the Inspector tosses the case file into the fireplace, since no one would ever believe the story!! Tune in tomorrow to see what the Hell Eegah!! has in store for us!

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