User reviews

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.

******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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

For those of you wondering whether Pittsburgh-born beauty Marpessa Dawn ever made another film besides 1959's classic "Black Orpheus," here is your answer. She appeared two years earlier, as an Amazonian native at the opening of "Womaneater," being sacrificed to a carnivorous tree. That tree is stolen by English scientist George Coulouris, who finds it necessary to keep this houseplant well fed with curvaceous lassies in order to harvest the tree's life-giving sap. Things get a bit complicated, however, when he falls in love with his new housekeeper, Vera Day... This picture is certainly pretty bad, objectively speaking, but I've gotta tell you, I've seen a lot worse. The film looks like it cost around 200 pounds to make (although it probably cost twice as much!), and has a tawdry, sleazy aura hanging over it, but the acting isn't all that atrocious, the script doesn't waste our time with unnecessaries (the whole thing is a scant 70 minutes long), and Vera Day, almost looking here like a poor man's Anne Francis, is pretty good as the bird in distress. The killer plant itself is certainly nowhere near as scary as those apple trees in "The Wizard of Oz," however. IMDb viewers looking for a better killer-plant flick should investigate "Day of the Triffids" (1963); even the hilarious 1960 "Little Shop of Horrors" offers more shocks and entertainment value. "Womaneater" (you've gotta love that title!) is decidedly a bargain basement affair; I suppose the producer's name, Guido Coen (!), should have tipped me off. And speaking of tips, potential viewers should know that this picture DOES offer two salient high points: Vera Day looks absolutely smashing in her 1950s-style bullet bra!

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.