User reviews

Having read the other reviews of this movie, I am struck with the idea that people must have been expecting another Dracula or Frankenstein or The Black Cat. This movie is emblematic of dozens of B horror films of the period that were fun to watch but were hardly great art. It adds the distinction of great atmospherics: the "old dark house", the fabulously creepy Rondo Hatton, the deliciously evil Gale Sondegaard and the handsome, wholesome hero, Kirby Grant. Citizen Kane it ain't, but in the context of films like "Fog Island", "The 13th Guest", or "a Shriek in the Night" it was certainly more enjoyable. Plot wise, it incorporates elements of vampire flicks (blood sucking), wolf man flicks (rare plant research), and the good versus evil conflict within Rondo Hatton's character. Oscar material? Hardly, but great fun. Lighten up people!

It's hard to hate anything with Gale Sondergaard in it. This subpar Universal thriller is light on thrills or chills. It's not much fun either. It does move quickly, however. As I realized the film was reaching its climax I was surprised as I thought it had only been on maybe half an hour. Outside of Sondergaard and (visually, at least) Rondo Hatton, the cast is pretty forgettable. The script is riddled with holes, too. When the villain reveals their big master plan I guarantee you'll say "Wait, what? Really? But what about..." It's that kind of movie. Still, it's watchable enough. Fans of Universal's horror classics from this period will enjoy it more than most.

This movie promises to be a sequel to the Sherlock Holmes movie, "The Spider Woman". It isn't. True, Gale Sondergard is the villainess and "Spider Woman" is in the title, but that's where any similarity ends. It's not a horrible film, but it's disappointing to tease the viewer with the promise of something that isn't there.

Rondo Hatton plays a mute, deformed servant. Too bad that he was so exploited.

I do wish Universal had made this a true sequel to the Holmes film. It would have been more interesting.

Spider Woman Strikes Back, The (1946)

** (out of 4)

Rare and forgotten Universal horror film has a nurse going to a creepy house to take care of a blind woman. The blind woman actually has her sight and is poisoning cows so that she can run the farmers off. Sound dumb? It's actually very dumb and the title is quite misleading, although I guess they were trying to cash in on the Sherlock Holmes film. This is the type of film where you keep waiting for something to happen but it never does. The performances are all rather dry as is the direction but it does move at a nice pace making the 57-minutes go by very fast. Jack Pierce is credited as the makeup artist yet there's no makeup in the film!

Despite the title and the fact that Gale Sondegaard stars in both films this is not a sequel to the Sherlock Holmes movie "The Spider Woman". Brenda Joyce plays Jean Kinsley, a young woman who gains employment as a companion to the apparently blind Zenobia Dollard (Sondegaard). However Zenobia is a cunning mad scientist, who with the help of her creepy butler/assistant Mario (Rondo Hatton) is cultivating carnivorous plants in order to drive away the farmers off land that her family once owned. The film is well filmed, fast paced and has an eerie feel to it, helped by the musical score, however the plot is pretty daft and the fiery finale is a bit weak. But the most appealing thing for me is Rondo Hatton, one of the most recognisable classic horror stars. He suffered with a growth defect called acromegaly which resulted in enlargement of the facial bones, hands etc, and unlike Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff, and so on he requited no make up to turn him into a "brute". Strikes Back was released after his tragic death.

Gale Sondergaard was terribly misused by Universal Studio's. She had a great talent but was wasted in grade Z film's such as this tripe. Two years before she had made a big impression as one Sherlock Holmes most diabolical and resourceful adversaries in "The Spider Woman" 1944. She and Basil Rathbone were wonderful as they tried to one up each other right to the end. This movie promised to be a return of that original character. But that wasn't the case.It's a mystery with more plot holes the you could imagine with a story line that makes very little sense.

Brenda Joyce is the damsel in distress, and Kirby Grant is her rescuer and hero of the story. Grant went on to play Sky King a decade later. Rondo Hatton is around to be sinister but is just sort of "there".

You can figure out what's going on fairly quickly. The question becomes WHY is it going on. When that WHY is reveled at the end of the film it's totally unsatisfying. If you are are a Sondergaard fan you will like the way she gives it her all to keep things going. She's the only reason to watch this picture. Beyond that there really isn't anything to recommend The Spider Woman Strikes Back.

Back in the late 1930s into the 40s, Rondo Hatton was a very sad figure in films. Bluntly put, Rondo was an ugly guy...due to the effects of acromegaly. It seems that during WWI, he was exposed to poison gas which damaged his pituitary gland...causing the disorder. This made his hands and face deformed. Sadly, Universal Studios hired him to mostly appear in horror films to take advantage of his face. It sure might have been nice had some of these movies NOT feautured him as a monstrous creature and a bit of sympathy might have been nice. Here in "The Spider Woman Strikes Back" (a film, despite its title, which is NOT a sequel), Rondo plays a mute servant who helps his mistress do experiments with human blood!

The story begins with Jean arriving in a small town to be the personal assistant and companion of Zenobia, a blind woman....or so she claims. What Jean doesn't know is that she's also been hired to supply blood to Zenobia's pet plant...a huge thing somewhat reminiscent of Audry from "Little Shop of Horrors". Now Zenobia doesn't take all of Jean's blood. Instead, she takes a bit while Jean is sleeping...leaving her, naturally, tired and anemic. To combat this as well as to knock her out, Zenobia insists Jean drink lots of milk...something she dislikes. What's next? See the film and find out for yourself.

So is this any good? Aside from the logical problem i mention in the next paragraph, it is pretty good...especially for a cheaply made B-movie. It has a nice creepy atmosphere and despite many no-name actors, it's effecive.

I have no idea why Zenobia didn't let folks know about her plant and the blood. Had she gotten locals donate very small amounts of blood for cash, this might have worked out just fine...instead of stealing it from her assistants. Heck, if the job paid well and they only took a pint here and there, I might have loved the job!

By the way, throughout the film, Gale Sondergaard plays blind Zenobia strangely. Instead of facing people who are talking with her, she stares off into space...something I never noticed any blind people doing. I think this could have been played better.

Also, the sign language Mario (Hatton) uses in the movie is nonsense and not at all related to American Sign Language.

This film is not as well known as the earlier Universal flick The Spider Woman; and that's because this one isn't a part of the Sherlock Holmes series, isn't nearly as good, and actually has nothing at all to do with spiders. The plot focuses on a young girl that goes to become a nurse in a blind woman's house. However, it turns out that the woman is not really blind and is actually taking blood from the girl in order to feed it to her plant, which ties in with some plot about murdering cows. Aside from the fact that this film features Gale Sondergaard, I really don't see any similarity to The Spider Woman at all - she doesn't even reprise her role! The name, therefore, is just a cash-in on the success of the original. It's the sort of trick I'd expect from Italian films of the seventies and eighties, but not something often done by Universal studios! You can't blame them, though, as the film really does have no other selling points. It's a poor and rather dull tale. Nothing of interest happens for the entire duration, and I'm not surprised that it only runs for about fifty eight minutes. Overall, there's really no reason to track this film down - Sherlock Holmes fans will not be impressed!

Thanks to Kino Lorber we are able to enjoy what is the best quality sound and picture Spider Woman has ever had. Fingers crossed they also release The Brute Man, House of Horrors and The Basil Rathbone Pearl film that's name escapes me right now.

I'm sure someone wonder why I scored this film so high considering the average is much lower. I am a long time fan of Rondo Hatton and Universal Horror films in general. Perhaps I'm a bit biased but when you watch these films now you have to watch them through a certain lens. You're not gonna get slick productions or special effects but you don't need them.

Spider Woman Strikes Back was an attempt to cash in on Gaye Sondergaard's previous Sherlock Holmes film but that doesn't mean this film isn't beautifully filmed or well written, because it is.

The only thing I would've done different is have the reveal of the green room lab more dramatic and the other reveal, which I'm not going to spoil, done differently where the Jean character entraps the Spider Woman. But these are minor things. If you enjoy classic Universal films you'll appreciate this one.

The movie excellently captures the mood, sentiment, and creepiness of the great classic Universal horror movies of the era (Frankenstein, Dracula, et al) and has the makings of great movie in and of itself.

Not framing my expectations around the idea of this movie being a sequel to the Sherlock Holmes movie - which frankly I may or may not have seen decades ago - I'm unburdened of the task.of drawing a comparison and the apparent disappointment described by other reviewers.

The plot line is immensely workable, and the characters are all well-placed, along with a conflicted monstrous henchman, seemingly a Universal staple.

But to the movie's detriment, the movie is stripped down to its most barest elements, hence the extremely lean run time of 59 minutes. Lacking is any character development or sub-plotting that would elevate this to a "conventional" movie.

That said, I was engaged with the movie throughout. The villainous Spider Woman is stealthily creepy enough. I would have enjoyed a more fulsome build-out of the movie. And the movie, like many movies of the era, wraps up many different plot lines, almost jarringly, in no more than about 3 minutes.

All that said, this was a pleasant watch that I just happened to stumble upon on a streaming channel - with no regrets.

Gale Sondergaard and Rondo Hatton, both of whom played villains in the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films, join forces in this creaky Z-grade thriller that, despite the title, has zero connection with the 1943 Holmes adventure The Spider Woman.

Sondergaard plays supposedly blind woman Zenobia Dollard who hires pretty young Jean Kingsley (Brenda Joyce) to be her assistant. Rondo Hatton is Mario, Zenobia's disfigured, dumb henchman, who aids in drugging Jean so that they can extract her blood, using it do nourish the carnivorous plants growing in the basement. Zenobia's plan is to use the plants' petals to poison local livestock and buy back the farmland that once belonged to her family, paying rock-bottom prices.

This weak plot struggles to sustain the incredibly slight runtime of 59 minutes, the action padded out with pointless scenes at the local store, of farmers struggling to understand what is happening to their cattle, and Jean wandering around the house at night. Sondergaard makes for a great villainess, and Hatton is suitably creepy, so it's a shame that the film is so mundane, the mystery not worthy of either performer.

The ending is extremely abrupt, director Arthur Lubin seemingly in a hurry to wrap things up (and not a moment too soon): one second, Jean is making her way to her bedroom, the next she is in the clutches of Zenobia and Mario, having their nefarious scheme explained to her (for the benefit of any viewer still awake by this point). Jean's romantic interest, local farmer Hal (Kirby Grant), suspects that something is wrong and so Zenobia orders Mario to burn the evidence, the blaze claiming the lives of both villains. Jean is rescued from the inferno by Hal, who makes a gag about warm milk. The end.

3/10.

I think I prefer this one to the Sherlock Holmes' adventuure yarn starring the same Gale Sondergard in the lead evil role. This very movie directed by Arthur Lubin may remind you some Jacques Tourneur's gems for RKO and produced by Val Lewton on the stories, mystery and horror mix-up, but certainly not on the atmosphere, so typical in Lewton's productions, Tourneur, Wise, Robson.... This one starring Brenda Joyce and Gale Sondergard is worth mostly because of both of them. For the story.... That's not the most exciting but I still prefer this one to the SH movie, which already was the least I liked in the series. Good little Universal horror flick anyway. No reason to miss it.

The classy Gale Sondergaard ("The Mark of Zorro") stars as Zenobia Dollard, a blind recluse who lives with a mute, hulking henchman named Mario (Rondo Hatton, "The Brute Man"). She goes through young female assistants quickly; perky, pretty Jean Kingsley (Brenda Joyce, "Pillow of Death") is the latest to offer her services. Zenobia turns out to be up to no good, with her schemes involving a greenhouse full of carnivorous, blood-sucking plants.

Although obviously a very minor genre picture from this era, with a less than stellar script, it still delivers its goods with efficiency, incorporating elements from various horror sub-genres and giving the distinctive Hatton a decent showcase as a "monster" with something of a conscience. The principal value lies with the cast. While some people may cringe seeing Ms. Sondergaard in this sort of fare, she does elevate it with her presence; she's deliciously evil. Joyce, the second actress of the sound era to play Jane in "Tarzan" movies, is appealing, as is Kirby Grant ('Sky King') as the nice guy rancher in love with her. Milburn Stone ('Gunsmoke') and Hobart Cavanaugh ("A Letter to Three Wives") round out the principal cast members.

Directed by Arthur Lubin ("The Incredible Mr. Limpet", 'Mister Ed') directs this fast-moving entertainment that may not be high art, but is NOT trying to be, either. It does just fine for people looking for a 40s B picture with a nice and trim run time (a mere 60 minutes in this case).

Six out of 10.

The Spider woman strikes back, 1946 with Gale Sondergaard is a tad better than you might suppose. Old dark house, a mystery to solve re previous female companion to Zenobia. New female being doped up, cattle which are falling prey to a strange malady! Creepy goings on in house like nocturnal sounds coming somewhere adjacent to step in closet of bedroom. Sondergaard is fine in her part and film moves along at a steady pace!

Despite the title and the presence of two of Sherlock Holmes' most formidable nemesis (Gale Sondergaard and Rondo Hatton - hilariously named Zenobia and Mario respectively!), this is one lame film which has nothing whatsoever to do with one of the better Universal Sherlock Holmes entries. As a matter of fact, the story is weak, the premise far-fetched, the resolution predictable and the treatment uninspired! Besides, the fiery climax is clumsily executed and Hatton's fidgeting...er...sign language eventually gets on one's nerves! It's fair to say, then, that director Lubin fared much better with the other two 'horror' films he made for the studio - BLACK Friday (1940) and PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1943), even if these weren't completely satisfying either...

Brenda Joyce goes to work for Gale Sondergaard. Miss Sondergaard is a sweet lady who spends her time knitting sweaters for the youngsters in the area, and who has her manservant, Rondo Hatton, dose Miss Joyce's bedtime glass of warm milk with a sedative, so Miss Sondergaard can get her blood to feed to her spiders to feed her carnivorous plants. Meanwhile, the cattle in the area are dying of an undetectable poison, which has the bumpkins, sorry, farmers upset.

Arthur Lubin was a competent director, but he can't do much with this tripe. He had to let DP Paul Ivano's lighting, and Milt Rosen's uncredited score instill the atmosphere, and then editor Ray Snyder cut it down to 59 minutes, obviously rushing the ending, because Universal was getting out of the B Horror genre.

Miss Sondergaard won the first Best Supporting Actress Oscar, and quickly became typecast as wicked older women. She was starting to work her way out of those roles when the Blacklist hit her and husband Herbert Biberman. She didn't appear on big or little screen for twenty years. She died in 1985 at the age of 86.