I Saw A Film!

As often happens when a bonafide scientist makes his way to remote Amazonian jungles, he’ll likely catch a fever and manage to return to his basement laboratories with a specimen of a floppy-armed “plant” that apparently feeds on human women and produces an elixir that can reverse death. Questions arise; Why women? Why an essential oil of Resurrection (I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them for sale!)? Were these unaffiliated “scientists” common in the fifties? Why did the Amazonians look entirely African? But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I remember reading about this old film as a kid devouring Fangoria and Cinefantastique or another of those old slick magazines about psychotronic films, including that famous reference book to said psychotronic films. The low-brow title, the enticing artwork . . . what kid wouldn’t be left salivating? But, of course, the film barely manages to keep you above comatose, despite the curvaceous fifties beauties and their eminent peril.

In a nutshell the lumpy British scientist, played by George Coulouris, who had parts in Papillion and Citizen Kane, maintains one of the natives in his basement along with the “plant” which doesn’t seem to require any sunlight, but instead subsists on arrhythmic bongo playing and gorgeous ladies. Not unlike a beatnik honestly.

As often happens in these stories, things go awry when love enters the picture. One relationship has decayed and another has blossomed nearby, and these erratic follies of the human heart wind up complicating what was just some good solid, basement, Resurrection research.

This beauty, which looks at least another generation older than 1958, is free on prime!