Voodoo Woman

Voodoo Woman is a 1957 horror film directed by Edward L. Cahn and starring Marla English in her final film role, Tom Conway, and Mike Connors. It was released by American International Pictures as a double feature with The Undead. In 1966 it was remade by Larry Buchanan into a made for television film, Curse of the Swamp Creature.



Plot
Harry West (Norman Willis} discover gold in the voodoo idol of a tribe of a jungle in Bantalaya, somewhere in Overseas France. Harry enlists a pair of treasure hunters, one of them is the beautiful but ruthless Marilyn Blanchard (Marla English). Hoping to take the treasure for themselves, Marilyn murders Harry. They con the innocent Ted Bronson (Mike Connors) into acting as a jungle guide and leading them to the tribe that made the idol.

Meanwhile, Dr. Roland Gerard (Tom Conway), a mad scientist who has exiled himself deep in the same jungle, is using a combination of native voodoo and his own biochemical discoveries in an attempt to create a superhuman being. He hopes that this being, possessing the best of man and beast, will be the mother of a new perfect and deathless race which he will control with a mixture of hypnosis and telepathy. He is accompanied by his wife, Susan (Mary Ellen Kay), who has long since disavowed her husband but remains trapped by her husband and the natives.

Dr. Gerard's initial attempts to create a female superbeing are a failure because the transformation is only temporary and the native girl used as the subject of the experiment lacks the killer instinct he deems necessary for survival. However, when he stumbles upon the party of treasure hunters, he decides that Marilyn will be a perfect subject for his experiment. He successfully turns her into an invulnerable monster, but her inherent selfishness and greed outweigh his mental control over her and she turns on him. Ted and Susan are able to escape in the ensuing chaos.