The Woman Eater (1958) User Reviews

50s B monster movie fun stuff.

[ChuckStraub · 6/10 · 13 January 2005]

You really have to be a 50s B movie sci-fi/horror aficionado to fully appreciate this movie. The plot is poor, and the scenes a bit choppy. The horror in this movie is nothing in comparison to the movies of today. You won't see any blood or gore here. The monster is an odd looking plant that shakes it's limbs a lot. You don't actually see it devouring it's prey. This absurd looking creature is great. It's one of the funniest looking things that ever attempted to scare a movie audience. The terror of the 50s has mellowed a bit over the years. Its not so scary anymore but still holds it's own when pitted against other similar movies. It probably did it's job of scaring people well in it's own day. There are also a couple scenes that were supposed to be sexually suggestive and a bit racy back then but by today's standards it's pretty tame stuff. I was really surprised with "Womaneater". Although somewhat dated, it's still an entertaining movie. You have to remember that this is the 50s. This film is a classic example of that genre in the British style, which in this case, is almost undistinguishable from the American films. Some of the scenes will bring an unintentional smile to your face. Intended shock may produce a laugh. This is fun stuff. Lighten up, relax and enjoy the film. I think "Womaneater is very under rated and should be right up there with some of the other better known B monster movies of the 1950s. If 50s B monster movies are your thing, take a look at "Womaneater". You won't regret it.

The Body For You... The Brain For Us

[sol-kay · 5/10 · 30 March 2004]

******SPOILERS****** Before coming back to civilization from the uncivilized and unexplored Amazon jungle Dr. Moran, George Coulouris, came upon a secret that the local natives had all to themselves for generations, the restoration of life for the recently departed among us.

With his weird and creepy native drummer boy Tanga, Jimmy Vaughn, as well as an exotic plant that he brought back to the UK with him Dr. Moran created the same conditions for the secret native ceremony that he learned in the Amazon jungle from the locals in his basement laboratory to bring the dead back to life. With this the egotistical Dr. Moran planned to become the greatest man in the history of scientific and biological research that the world has even known and all the fame and riches and power that goes along with it.

Now five years later with everything is ready for Dr. Moran's ground-breaking experiment to be tested all he needed was a human sacrifice for the flesh-eating tree and the only humans that the tree eats are well endowed young women needing them to get the tree to extract a secret serum that can give life to those that the serum is injected into.

Tanga goes and captured a young women outside Sara, Susan Curtis, to be given to the tree for lunch. After extracting the serum and injecting it into what looked like a skull in his laboratory the pulsometer. The results showed that the serum wasn't enough for the tree to give the Doctor the jolt that he needed to bring back to life the dead-head that he had in the jar. Soon another unexpected complication arose for Dr. Moran when the young and buxom Sally Norton , Vera Day, came looking for a job at his home as a housekeeper. That didn't go too well with Dr. Moran's long-time housekeeper and lover Margaret, Joyce Gregg, who now has to compete with the much younger and far more attractive Sally for the doctor's affections.

Although obsessed with his findings in life-after-death studies Dr. Moran let his amorous emotions get in the way of his scientific curiosity. Dr. Moran fell madly in love with Sally and didn't use her for his experiment as food-stuff for the hungry tree which made Tanga very mad. It was later that he got into a fight with Margaret over Sally where he strangled her.

Kidnapping another young and will-built woman Judy, Joy Webster, at the local pub in town for the trees unquenchable appetite the serum is ready for Dr. Moran to see if he can bring the dead Margaret back to life. To Dr. Moran' great shock an surprise he finds out when he brings Margaret back to the "living" that Tanga his supposedly loyal and faithful assistant played a dirty trick on him. Margaret's body was alive but her mind was brain-dead! As the gleeful Tanga tells Dr. Moran " The body for you. The brain for us".

Dr. Moran going berserk, with the knowledge that his experiments all these years were a bust, attacks Tanga and ends up with Tanga taking a knife out of his diaper and putting it in Dr. Moran's back. This happened after the doctor set the tree on fire. With that a crazed and despondent Tanga seeing his "God" destroyed he walks into the burning bush and together both go up in flames.

Inspired acting by both George Coulouris and Jimmy Vaughn lifted the movie up to the point where your interested in watching it especially that of Coulouris' Dr. Moran. Coulouris who did such a good job of acting insane during the movie that even the few times that he was supposed to be normal he came across as deranged.

A Woman Eating Plant... What More Could You Want(?)

[P3n-E-W1s3 · 6/10 · 7 March 2018]

I'd not even heard of this little horror flick before, however, my interest was piqued at the story's outline. An explorer and professor come across an ancient tribe who have the power to resurrect the dead. All they have to do is give a living female sacrifice to their juju; an alien looking tree. Once devoured the tree produces a serum to reanimate lifeless corpses. Doctor Moran (Coulouris) sees the wealth a drug of this nature could bring him. He takes the tree and the shaman back to his house in a rural English village where he begins to sacrifice women to the plant...

There are a few things that I really liked about this story. Dr Moran's character for starters. This man is driven and used to getting his way. He even lets his ex-wife stay with him so she can clean and look after his house. She loves him, but to him, she's served her purpose in that area so he moves her into another productive role. This is cold, calculating, and logical - maybe he's a Vulcan. The other is the idea of the plant. There are lots of plants out in the world being used in medicines and we are still learning about their uses. So why not a resurrection plant(?)

The acting is top notch and makes this film an enjoyable view. Coulouris is perfect as the driven "Mad Scientist". Though his missus, Mrs Santor (portrayed by Joyce Gregg), can give him a run for his money in the coldness race. I think she'd be right at home running a sweatshop. This coupled with the lovers, Jack (Wayn) and Sally (Day) give a good representation of light and shade, good and evil, normal and abnormal.

Though the story isn't too original in its scares, there's one thing about it I really did love. Sally, while working for Dr Moran, begins to feel as though there's something wrong going on in the house... so she tells Jack about it and they both decide it would be better if she leaves... "What!" you say, "she doesn't decide to search the house?" Well, no she doesn't... but she doesn't quite get away either. There's no "Let's Go Die" march in this film.

If you like your macabre this is the film for you. Though there's nothing too scary the concept is good and the acting and story will keep you entertained. For all horror fans out there.

Tree Horror in Darkest Twickenham.

[gavcrimson · 27 December 2003]

SPOILERS INCLUDED

The Woman Eater was one of two cheap and cheerful horror films made by the producer-director duo of Guido Coen and Charles Saunders who usually specialised in second feature crime thrillers. The teams initial venture into this territory, The Man Without a Body is sadly a bore despite a plot which features Nostradamus' severed head being brought back to life and concludes with a mini-rampage from a monster that resembles a tall man with a pillow case on his head. Opening with location defining shots of the Thames, their second attempt at the genre is an equally ludicrous but much more fun and spirited example of B-movie horror. At the ‘explorer's club' Dr James Moran (George Coulouris, the lead in both the Saunders-Coen horrors) entertains young associate Colin with the tale of a tribe that can bring the dead back to life. Ignoring warnings that insanity runs in the Moran family, Colin joins the doctor on a trek to the Amazon cost cuttingly evoked by stock footage and a few jungle sets at Twickenham studios. Stumbling across the tribe performing a black magic ceremony involving a woman being fed to a monster tree, Colin makes an ill-fated attempt to halt the proceedings (`stop you devils') and ends up with a spear in the chest for his troubles. Moran is later found babbling and suffering from jungle fever.

Five years later Moran has decamped to a sleepy village in England where hidden in his basement lies the bizarre spectacle of Tanga (Jimmy Vaughan) one of the tribe, hypnotizing various women in order to feed them to the monster tree. (Best not to question how Moran got both a tribesman and a carnivorous tree from the Amazon to provincial England without anyone noticing, especially say customs). Moran eases his conscience by ranting ‘she'll become part of the plant, she won't have died in vain' convinced the tree's juices can bring the dead back to life. ‘With this our people make live…the dead… master' remarks Tanga in his broken ‘native' English, a theory demonstrated by Moran injecting the juices into a pulsing heart which he keeps in a jar. In his search for tree food –the preferred victims being buxom women- Moran takes a furtive walk around Piccadilly Circus and Soho, ignoring prostitutes in favour of following a woman to a crummy late night watering hole. After he buys her a drink she asks him if he's a talent spotter for the movies then jadedly adds ‘all men are talent spotters in one way or another'. Soon after she's thrown to the monster tree who sports some barely mobile vines and oven glove like claws, the surreal effect suggests a man who has disguised himself as a Christmas tree in order to grope a passing starlet.

Despite a brief running time of 71 minutes and a plot that drafts in a zombie woman on top of a monster tree and a mad doctor The Woman Eater does contain a fair deal of padding and plot diversions that hasn't endeared the film to many critics over the years. In fairness these moments aren't completely without interest though. 50's pin-up Vera Day a kind of proto Barbara Windsor, plays the heroine, an ex-hula hula dancer whose appearance in the village turns the heads of both the local mechanic and the mad doctor. ‘As a scientist I'm more interested in things with six legs rather than two' proclaims Moran at one point but soon changes his mind when he hires Vera to look after his house. Given their Butchers films backgrounds its no surprise that Coen and Saunders also have a tendency to dwell on the police investigation side of things with the forces of law and order quaintly represented by village detectives who wear trench coats and smoke pipes and a cheery copper who gets about on a pushbike. Saunders' chief claim to fame is that he would later direct Britain's first nudist camp film Nudist Paradise (1958) which was still playing in London as late as 1967 and also wound up as a visual gag in a Carry On film, while Coen would end his career producing sex comedies. You can see slight hints of what was to come in The Woman Eater, Coen and Saunders seem to enjoy flirting with salacious sights that never actually materialise, the heroine is introduced hula-hula dancing at a carnival as a barker promises we'll see ‘south sea island belles…all for a bob' and an advert for a West End play called Nude with Violin is used in a almost subliminal message way. Slightly more risqué is one of the film's few scenes played for a comedy in which Vera helps her mechanic boyfriend mend a car only for him to become distracted by staring at her chest. Less the censor suspect the hero (or the cameraman for that matter) is meant to be having amoral thoughts about Miss Day, moments later he's doing the honest thing and asking her to marry him, even though they've only ever met three times. It could all of course play on Sunday afternoon television today without anyone raising so much as an eyebrow but this was what a British exploitation film looked like in 1957. The Woman Eater also anticipates many a home-grown horror effort (usually the ones starring Michael Gough) in which dedicated mad doctors become distracted by something blond, half their age and in a tight sweater, leaving their repressed middle aged housekeeper fuming with envy and putting the spanner in the works that eventually causes everything to (literally) go up in smoke.

Low budget British sci-fi horror that fans of bad movies will not be able to resist.

[jamesraeburn2003 · 5/10 · 18 October 2021]

A crazed scientist called Dr Moran (played by George Coulouris) discovers an Amazonian tribe who worship an idol - a flesh eating tree - that produces a serum, which can resurrect the dead when it is fed with female victims. Back in England, Moran, aided by his native manservant (Jimmy Vaughn), seeks out suitable victims for the tree whilst cultivating the serum using his scientific skills thinking he will become the most acclaimed scientist of all time having discovered the secret of immortality...

Low budget British sci-fi horror that successfully recreates the look and feel of the trashy drive in b-movies that were coming out of America at the time. The man-eating tree is utterly unconvincing and the special effects are threadbare. In addition, its shock moments are tame and too pedestrian in their handling to have all that much of a horrific impact either. George Coulouris dominates the film as the mad scientist who entertains by playing an absurd, over the top part complete with inane dialogue with restraint and that works since it is all the funnier for it. The supporting performances are variable with Peter Forbes-Robertson and Vera Day adequate as the young couple who offer some charming moments of light comedy. Joyce Gregg tries hard as Coulouris's housekeeper and former lover who becomes jealous when he throws her over in favour of Day whom he has fallen in love with himself and employed as a replacement. The worst performance comes from Jimmy Vaughn who is totally unconvincing as the scientist's native manservant. Yet, the characterisations are not sufficiently developed to give them any real depth and, in a picture like this, you wouldn't really expect that anyway. Director Charles Saunders, a former editor and a not uninteresting filmmaker, made some efficient second features as a director and he keeps the proceedings here moving at a good pace. There are also some good period location shots of the Home Counties countryside and London's West End and Theatreland areas, which are atmospherically lit by cameraman Ernest Palmer.

In conclusion, yes, it is bad but in a way that is enjoyable since it is a time capsule of an era of film making that has long since gone. And lovers of bad movies will not be able to resist it.

Nasty foreign influences on dedicated British scientist, or something

[kevinolzak · 3/10 · 5 August 2019]

1957's "Womaneater" (one word) was such an underwhelming British effort that it took a couple of years to cross the Atlantic, a rare starring role for George Coulouris, whose career had kicked off with the sublime "Citizen Kane," only to sink to the Grade-Z level of "The Man Without a Body" (from the same director, Charles Saunders), Richard Gordon's "Tower of Evil," even Italian rip offs such as 1974's "The Antichrist." His mad scientist is given the generic name of Doctor Moran, believing that life can be restored to the dead through a serum requiring fluid from a plant god worshiped by a tribe of Incas in the Amazon, Tanga (Jimmy Vaughan) returning with Moran to England as its caretaker. It's an odd and rather disgusting idea to feature a carnivorous tree that demands the soft flesh of pretty young maidens, and didn't work much better for Cameron Mitchell's "Maneater of Hydra" a decade later, nor one that devoured nude couples in 1972's "Please Don't Eat My Mother." On the rare occasions when we see it in action its tendrils reach out for each victim, a visual predecessor for those familiar with Roger Corman's 1981 "Galaxy of Terror," its slimy maggot creature raping its buxom female target (Taaffe O'Connell). Apart from that disquieting effect it's a substandard love story between a garage mechanic and an out of work carnival girl (Vera Day), she applying as housekeeper for Doctor Moran, to the envy of his former lover and head housekeeper Margaret Santor (Joyce Gregg). This jealousy angle was rehashed with Michael Gough as an oversexed mad scientist in 1961's "Konga," not very interesting on that occasion either, and the local police prove to be absolutely clueless when it comes to searching for missing girls. The evil foreign influence represented by Tanga became a staple in British titles like "The Plague of the Zombies," "The Reptile," and Peter Cushing's "The Ghoul." There's little for any actor to sink his teeth into, Coulouris coming off as restrained in comparison to the lip smacking Gough, and by the time Columbia picked it up it slipped out on the bottom half with Toho's lively, colorful and gruesome "The H-Man."

Death into Life

[richardchatten · 4/10 · 29 November 2020]

The basic situation in 'Womaneater' is suspiciously similar to that of 'Konga', including the carnivorous plant which dines on nubile young women and the vengeful housekeeper who won't accept that she's yesterday's news. (The scenes of Dr.Moran stalking able-bodied subjects around Soho to act as subjects for his experiments also anticipates Steve Martin on the prowl with a hypodermic filled with cleaning fluid in 'The Man with Two Brains').

The language is very pre-PC, describing the Amazon basin as "some savage country", while the hero is well wide of the mark in describing Moran's "native servant" Tanga as "quite harmless"; since as played by a grimacing Jimmy Vaughan as Sabu's evil sibling in a loin cloth, he proves to have other ideas as to who will be the juju's next lunch.

It's nice to see Vera Day playing a 'straight role' as a damsel in distress for a change, while Moran must have inherited more than just madness from his family if the spacious country house with room downstairs to house a laboratory is anything to go by. The maneater of the title manages to look even funnier that those in 'Konga', but it doesn't reach the dizzying heights of madness achieved by 'Konga' thanks to George Coulourous's relatively restrained performance in the lead, (SPOILER COMING:) especially as he actually saves Miss Day from being sacrificed to the juju at the climax.

Provocative title, dull movie

[Eegah Guy · 4/10 · 20 April 2001]

Ever seen an exciting film about people-eating trees? Well this is not it. The carnivorous tree doesn't really perform the title action very often and looks like a ratty leftover from some high-school production of THE WIZARD OF OZ. Lots of talk takes up the 71-minute running time and makes a good idea into a real drag of a film.

From the serum of these women, he can bring the dead back to life.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 24 January 2020]

But what's with that dizzy, wavy photography? Yes, from hell it came, there's another dangerous tropical tree, not featuring a face Iike the Tonga, but some sort of large bush that when prompted by native drumbeats opens its arms and squeezes the female juices out of its victims. The women don't scream until they are guided to the giant shrubbery that waves its arms, indicating that it's hungry and that the women are being drugged. An evil scientist ( George Coulouris) witnesses the woman eater, brings the drummer (Jimmy Vaughn, ironically named Tanga) back to England and repeats the ritual with scantily clad girls he seemingly picks up out of nowhere, but at one point stalks Trafalgar Square for "working girls". Now why didn't Jack the Ripper not think of that? It would have made a nice disposal rather than leaving the carnage on the street.

When a local mechanic (Peter Forbes-Robertson) comes along abused carny girl (Vera Day), he sends her to see Coulouris who is looking for help for his overworked housekeeper (Joyce Gregg) who is cold towards Day because of her feelings towards her boss who has lost interest in their affair. It appears that Forbes-Robertson may be in on the finding of victims with Courlouris, so that is added as another mystery, and when Day discovers that Gregg is going away for a rest, she decides to leave too, suspicious of what is going on, and ultimately, set up to be the next big squeeze for the Tanga.

There's a bit of "Little Shop of Horrors" here as well as "From Hell it Came", and this British rip-off is completely fun trash. Gregg's role is mysterious at first, giving the impression of two Bela Lugosi Z grade thrillers, "The Corpse Vanishes" and "Voodoo Man" where Lugosi was trying to restore the life or beauty of a dead or aging wife. Why she would willingly stay with a cold, woman hater like Coulouris becomes another mystery. Vaughan, clad only in a diaper, is definite eye candy, even with his evil bug eyes. But with detectives on the trail of the mystery of these missing girls, it's a cinch that the doctor and his Amazonian Igor will end up as male serum to mix with what the shrubbery has sucked out of the women. Delightfully funny in spots, this is like pretty much every other sci-fi/monster film of that era, and boring in many overly talkie spots.

Now we have a flesh eating tree

[chris_gaskin123 · 7/10 · 3 October 2005]

The 1950's produced almost everything in sci-fi/horror and The Womaneater is the one about the flesh eating tree. I quite liked this.

A mad scientist brings a flesh eating tree back from the Amazon that the natives used out there. This tree only eats women and he has to look round the local area for these. After it has eaten its "meal", the scientist then gets a serum and uses it to resurrect the dead. He employs a native to help him. The victims includes his housekeeper/lover and nearly her replacement too. The tree is burned at the end.

The cast includes Gorge Coulouris (Citizen Kane), Vera Day (Quatermass 2) and Robert MacKenzie (Feind Without a Face). With Jimmy Vaughn as the Native assistant.

If you wish to see another movie about a killer tree, take a look at From Hell It Came.

The Womaneater is a must see for all 1950's sci-fi fans. Great fun.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

British skid row B-movie

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 19 December 2015]

WOMANEATER is a film that has much in common with the American-made B-flick FROM HELL IT CAME, as both movies are about carnivorous trees that demand sacrificial human victims. However, this is by far the worse movie, as it's just too cheap and stodgy to entertain. Scenes of the tree attacking people only occur a couple of times during the film, and for the most part it's talky and dull.

It's certainly of interest to British horror aficionados, as I enjoyed the colonial background of the tale which has some stylistic similarity to THE REPTILE and THE GHOUL; malign foreign influences corrupt otherwise decent British folk and lead them to murder and madness. It's a shame, then, that the execution is so lacklustre and the horror moments so limited.

Still, B-movie freaks might still enjoy this one, and it's not all bad. B-movie king Charles Saunders contributes brisk and efficient direction, although he can't disguise the problems with the script. George Coulouris (CITIZEN KANE) is fine in one of those down-on-his-luck-famous-actor-makes-a-B-movie type roles. Vera Day is the very definition of the blonde and buxom '50s starlet. But for WOMANEATER to really shine, I needed more cheese, more dodgy effects, and simply more action, as that way it would have been more fun overall.

Rather clever, actually

[Sees All · 6/10 · 11 October 1998]

Yes, it is a cheap Hammer Film done on a budget of nothing, but the story is quite clever and the film has a sassy style. There's one outrageous scene where a blonde secretary in a tight sweater is having her car worked on. The camera is looking over her shoulder at the mechanic under the dashboard. The cast, headed by George Couloris ("Citizen Kane") as a mad scientist, is outstanding, especially Vera Day as his wife. Note that the first victim is played by Marpessa Dawn, who was the star of the oscar-winning foreign film Black Orpheus.

It's a carnivorous tree--and I am not making this up, either!

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 19 July 2008]

IMPORTANT NOTE--Despite the title, this is not a pornographic film but a cheesy horror film. The title is unfortunate, nonetheless.

George Coulouris was not a bad actor and he had a long string of credits to his name. In this film, his performance is pretty good--but this is about the only good thing about this stinking British horror film. How they roped him into starring in this stinky pile of cheese, I have no idea.

The film begins with Coulouris going to the Amazon and experiencing some sort of horror--though the film blacks out--leaving the audience to wonder what happened. He's just suddenly back in merry old England several years later. Now he's spending all his time on his estate doing really stupid experiments that call for a native drummer from South America and a really, really silly tree that obviously has actors inside it. This tree was not the cute apple pie tree from McDonalds or the cranky tree like in the WIZARD OF OZ. No, it was a life-stealing, moving tree that was sure to elicit laughs from everyone seeing this film. How the film makers thought any of this could be scary or even that interesting is beyond me. I think their decision was perhaps based on the abuse of some drug or a head injury.

Supposedly, the same tree that takes lives ultimately has the power to restore life--but the mad doctor spent so much time killing young women that he only had time to try out the life-giving properties at the end of the film. But, instead of working, the bad guys started trying to kill each other and the tree was set ablaze and the audience felt very thankful this stupid mad scientist film was finished!! Dumb and rather boring--this one isn't quite cheesy enough to elicit many laughs, so it's probably one best left to masochists like myself to watch.

Jungle Goddess meets It conquered the World

[thefountainmenace · 7 February 2002]

This is an enjoyable British 50's sci-fi film. More knowledgeable buffs have exhausted the actor references, so let me suffice to say that this film is slow, even by 50's standards, and a tad disjointed. But if you're interested in that good old quaint 50's vision of horror, then it's definitely worth a gander. Funny carnival scenes and several London street scenes from that era, including double decker buses advertising cream crackers and Van Heusen shirts. The whole intro in the jungle is almost needless, as it is never quite explained that the doctor brings back the native with him, who willingly stays with him for years even though we learn later (minor SPOILER) that he's not really all that fond of him. Seems kind of a long playout for a joke, to me. And the scenes of the girls being hypnotized by the wild and uneven bongo playing of said heathen were hard to swallow, especially as they seem to wake up right before they are pushed into the "Womaneater" and start screaming and resisting. And of course there's the silly looking Womaneater tree, comparable to the invading pickle in "It conquered the World." (Hence my catchy title.) So - although most of you won't find this little ditty at your local 'grope and mope'(Blockbuster), if you do run into it, AND you like 50's movies for what they were - BY ALL MEANS watch this movie.

Mad doctor at work in the basement.

[michaelRokeefe · 3/10 · 25 August 2009]

British horror flick that reminds me of Saturday double features as a child. Not a great movie; definitely not a bad movie. Very predictable, but fun to watch. Dr. Moran(George Coulouris)returns from South America with assurance he has found a serum to rejuvenate life. He hides a stolen flesh eating 'tree' in the basement of his mansion. There is also the native Tanga(Jimmy Vaughn)that puts women in a trance with a bongo solo. The victim is fed to the arm waving tree that is suppose to produce the essence of life. After five years or so, the mad professor becomes disillusioned with the hideous ritual.

Obviously low budgeted with just enough substance to keep you to the end. It doesn't hurt having some beautiful women in the cast. Other players: Vera Day, Peter Wayn, Joy Webster, Sara Leighton, Edward Higgins and Marpessa Dawn.

Historical interest - movie of it's era

[cathyannemoore-66196 · 4/10 · 16 October 2021]

By historical interest I mean it's a film of its era. Certainly wouldn't be made in this day and age. With it's polarised stereotypes of villain and victims and non-PC inclusion of a 'native' and exploiting women as fairground exhibits. Plot is as daft as they came in the 1950s. Filmed with the daftest of props.

Semi-agreeable piece of trash

[scsu1975 · 4/10 · 16 November 2022]

George Coulouris plays a scientist who stumbles on a terrible secret (which is, don't make movies like this).

The film opens with Coulouris, machete in hand, hacking his way through what is supposed to be the Amazon. He comes across an unusual sight - dancers and bongo players. Fast forward five years. Now Coulouris is back in England, along with a bongo player named Tanga (no relation to the orange drinka), and a killer plant which is the native god "juju" or something like that. I'm not sure how Coulouris got the plant through customs, but that's a minor point. Apparently if Coulouris feeds great-looking women to the plant, he can produce a serum which will bring people back to life. Hey, I say don't kill them in the first place, and there is no need for the second place.

Switch to a carnival, where the stacked blonde Vera Day is dancing as a hula girl. And you thought all Hawaiians were brunettes. She catches the eye of a car mechanic, but this isn't exactly "Looking For Mr. Goodwrench." Anyway, after he slugs her boss and gets her fired, he offers to help get her a job - with Coulouris. Coulouris quickly orders a supply of Viagra.

Eventually, Coulouris' housekeeper, who is secretly his wife, confronts him and tries to stab him. He chokes her in self-defense - at least, that's how I would explain it to the police. In the exciting climax, Coulouris manages to revive his dead wife, but realizes she has no brain - which explains why she took this gig.

Coulouris is actually pretty good, and plays his role fairly straight, instead of going over the top. Day is gorgeous, and the director gives us ample side views. The person playing the plant was uncredited, but I assume it was someone who failed the audition for The Little Shop of Horrors.

Could this movie be dumber? No.

[qormi · 1/10 · 26 May 2022]

He managed to bring the many armed tree god, which was worshipped by an Amazon tribe which fed it attractive women to be groped by its many hands before being consumed, back home to England, which is astonishing, even if the customs agent and luggage personnel at the airport were somehow incapacitated. The movie goes downhill from there, as injecting the tree sap into lifeless humans slowly brings them to life, as gauged by the pulsometer. The smiling bongo guy seemed to be having a great time though.

It's not so bad

[Stevieboy666 · 6/10 · 9 April 2018]

A mad doctor discovers a man (well woman) eating plant in the Amazon, brings it back to England & feeds it on beautiful young women in order to raise the dead! If you enjoy horror/sci fi from the 1950's then this is great fun. Yes, the plot is barmy and the plant looks rubbish but the acting, camerawork and music are all decent and the film is played straight. OK, it may not frighten viewers in the 21st Century but it probably did back in the 50's. It also offers a glimpse into Britain from that time, including a somewhat sleazy Soho.

A gloriously silly and surprisingly sleazy B-movie treat.

[BA_Harrison · 8/10 · 17 November 2014]

On an expedition to a remote part of South America, Doctor Moran (George Coulouris) discovers a savage tribe who worship a carnivorous plant that feasts solely on young, beautiful, curvaceous women. No 'plain Janes', oldies, uglies, skinnies or fatties for this lean, green killing machine: it's only interested in attractive babes with impressive curves (quite how the plant has developed this discerning attitude towards its food is never explained).

Having devoured it's prey, the plant produces a liquid that can purportedly restore life to the dead, something that greatly interests the doctor, who arranges for the ravenous shrub to be transported back to his home in England, along with one of the tribesmen, Tanga (Jimmy Vaughn), to help him with his work (quite how Moran came to this arrangement with the bloodthirsty natives is also never explained). Luring women back to his secure, basement laboratory, Moran sets about feeding the plant in an effort to create enough of the sap to revive the dead.

Womaneater is made of the stuff that monster B-movie fans live for: there's the mad scientist with his creepy ethnic assistant, a ropey old tree creature with flailing limbs and tentacles, a bevy of buxom beauties in skimpy sacrificial robes, a pneumatic blonde heroine (sexy ex-funfair worker Sally, played by Vera Day), and a brave but chauvinistic mechanic hero, Jack Venner (Peter Wayn). As one might expect from a low budget '50s B-movie, the film is no Oscar winner, but what it lacks in logic or technical merit it sure makes up for in cheeze 'n' sleaze, with big helpings of both being served up by director Charles Saunders.

The shonky monster is guaranteed to illicit more laughs than screams, as will the sight of Tanga in his adult-sized nappy banging the bongos; the seedier content includes Moran prowling the streets and bars of London for suitable victims and his misogynistic treatment of devoted ex-lover/housekeeper Margaret (Joyce Gregg).

There's also an unexpectedly tacky moment when Sally helps Jack to fix a car: while Jack is in the foot-well, he eyes up Sally's impressive breasts (her '50s torpedo chest blatantly occupying the foreground), after which he rudely berates her for her inability to follow simple instructions. Considering how he has just asked her to marry him, the scene leaves the viewer wondering just how badly he might abuse her once the ring is actually on her finger.

A fun finalé adds even more sleaziness, with sexy Sally narrowly avoiding becoming a meal for the monstrous weed, but not before her blouse has been torn to give viewers a tantalising glimpse of her bra (this being 1958, I imagine that's all audiences needed to get hot and flustered!).

7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for the very lovely Vera Day as Sally.

An entertaining film containing quite a good yarn sandwiched between a silly beginning and an awful ending

[christopouloschris-58388 · 6/10 · 13 September 2019]

The Woman Eater (1958) presents us with an interesting insight into the exploitative nature of many films at the time in relation to the portrayal of female characters. It does this in an odd way by seeming to make use of and be almost enumerating every exploitative technique under the sun in its depiction of the female gender. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, The Woman Eater highlights the various ways in which a male-dominated society sets about using and as the title suggests, consuming women for its own benefit.

Certainly, on one level The Woman Eater could be dismissed as being misogynistic in its portrayal of women. However, in a perverse way it also serves to highlight the way in which women have been viewed and treated as objects or things to be used and discarded. The question remains as to the film's intent? Hedging its bets both ways?

The Stem

[tedg · 8 June 2005]

I suppose it is a banal observation that movies both reflect and perpetuated stereotypes.

And we do have stereotypes here, as with all of this era and kind.

But watching this reminded me of a more subtle and interesting phenomenon. The political dialog in the US (and likely elsewhere) is dominated by the successful party's mastery of the cinematic narrative. We just cannot help ourselves; we like to be shown that the world is so.

But once you start that locomotive going, you inherit ALL the baggage of the cinematic narrative, Vincent Price comes uninvited with your John Wayne. This has nothing at all to do with conservative values; it is just a result of adopting the movie world as the basis for your beliefs.

This is the purest example I know of a huge class of similar movies. In this movie, the scientist is a madman whose "science" has no resemble to real science. Instead, he has stolen a ritual and plant from Africa, with the unavoidable association with the dark race and inexplicable VooDoo.

This scientist doesn't mind a bit "saving life by taking life," a catchphrase that is in my newspapers every day. And it is all driven by sex: he is replacing his aged mistress by a younger model. A torpedo bra of course and chirpy British accent denote that she really is dumb. But get this, she was an "exotic dancer" at a carnival. She, in fact, would be representative of the over half of the US population that believes in astrology and nearly half that believes in creationism.

I can understand this thread of influence and consequence when it applies to nuclear energy: the US makes and uses a bomb, many, many movies are made showing the evil side. And we end up with a public that has an unnatural fear of all things radioactive.

But this thread is more interesting and profound and has stifled stem cell research in the US.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Womaneater

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 14 April 2022]

At the Explorers' Club in London - yes, it's all rich white dudes - Dr. Moran (George Coulouris) tells everyone that he's going to the Amazon to get "a miracle-working JuJu that can bring the dead back to life." While there, he watches Marpessa Dawn, a year removed from being in Black Orpheus - get eaten by a tree. Then he gets jungle fever and it takes five years for him to recover.

Dr. Moran has brought the tree and the drummer who controls it, Tanga (Jimmy Vaughan), to keep on working on bringing life to death, which starts with feeding Susan Curtis to the tree. I'm amused that Sara Leighton, who played the role, became a famous lady of British society known for her portrait painting.

Meanwhile, Sally Norton (Vera Day) is working at a sideshow dancing the hula-hula, because Hawaii was all mondo to British people in the late 50s. A local favorite named Jack Venner (Peter Wayn) ends up getting her fired and then hired by Moran, who must love Tanya Donelly because he can't stop feeding that tree. And he starts falling for Sally, even strangling the woman who has loved him nearly forever, Margaret Santor (Joyce Gregg), all so she can start working in his lab.

The end of this movie gets all nihilist, as the drummer refuses to teach the secret of how to keep the brain alive after death and Moran realizes he loved Margaret and tries to bring her back to life, only to have her as a brainless zombie. Tanga tries to feed Sally to the tree, Moran sets it on fire and then gets killed by the drummer's knife before Tanga kneels before the tree and lets it set him on fire.

What!?!

Director Charles Saunders and writer Brandon Fleming stopped making movies after 1963. That's a shame because this movie is just...something.

From the Makers of JUNGLE STREET

[TheFearmakers · 9/10 · 7 November 2021]

Producer Guido Coen and director Charles Saunders, before making the risque neo noir JUNGLE STREET created WOMANEATER about a killer African plant that mad scientist George Coulouris takes back to England for a serum to revive the dead...

A plot harboring two suspenseful deaths as only beautiful women can be eaten by this tree with a lethal hug while an imported native plays bongos,...

Thus making British scream queen Vera Day the Final Girl while her romance with a mechanic coincides with the scientist's lethal experiments and problems with his middle-aged secretary's envy about hiring Day, whose spooked innocence the entire story's based around...

Also featuring another cute British starlet Joy Webster, a shunned lush both here and in JUNGLE STREET (as well as Hammer's THE TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL)...

Her and Coulouris's subtle hunter/hunting sequence along the actual London Streets' Piccadilly Circus (like something from a vintage Jack the Ripper tale) contrasts neatly with the gloomy mansion exteriors, all befitting a maligned, mostly forgotten yet completely entertaining science-fiction/horror curio.