Talbott admitted in the interview that Gray was right, she was much stronger than Talbott and easily overpowered her. Talbott was taken aback by the comment and approached the scene with the intent of overpowering her blonde co-star even though the script called for Gray to win the fight. Before the scene was filmed, Gray mentioned to Talbott that she was pretty strong and wouldn't have any problem taking the gun away. įor her part, Talbott told Weaver in a published interview her reason for taking a role in the film: "I made that picture because I wanted to buy a horse for my son", she said, "and The Leech Woman got him a really nice horse and saddle"! Talbott also discussed the scene where she held Gray at gunpoint and the script called for Gray to wrestle the gun away from her. Quoting an unpublished interview with Gray given to film historian Tom Weaver, Senn writes that although the film was one of her most difficult, because of her character's rapid age changes, "That picture was 10 days of sheer joy (.) I got to 'camp' all over the place it was kind of flamboyant and, really, excrutiatingly funny". The X-certificate limited the exhibition of the film to persons over age 16. In the UK, The Leech Woman was given an X-certificate by the British Board of Film Censors, following their viewing of the film on 14 March 1960. The film has the "heavy, 'indoorsy' atmosphere of an early '60s TV show" and its "extended takes create the stagy feeling associated with live TV". However, as science fiction film historian Bill Warren points out, The Brides of Dracula was a "lively, colorful Hammer film, one of their best", which made the black-and-white The Leech Woman "look drab and old-fashioned". The pairing of The Brides of Dracula and The Leech Woman was one of several examples of Universal-International releasing UK horror films with inexpensive, quickly-produced second films to fill double bills in the US. It had its official premiere in Los Angeles on 15 June 1960. Production of the film ended in March 1959. Film critic and psychometrist Bryan Senn notes that much of the stock footage was "taken from the jungle adventure Tanganyika (1954)". According to contemporary reviews, the filmmakers mixed stock footage of African wildlife and tribal dances with scenes shot in the studio. Paul Thompson as Head Warrior (uncredited).Harold Goodwin as Second Detective (uncredited).Charles Keane as Chief Detective (uncredited).When they see her body, it is much older and much more shriveled than ever. Before the police can arrest her, she throws herself out her bedroom window, crashes to the ground and dies. When the police come to investigate the murders that June has committed, she uses Sally's pineal gland extract but finds that it does not work because it is from a woman. She kills his jealous fiancée Sally Howards, draining her pineal gland and eliminating Sally as competition. But each time the potion wears off, she is older than she was before.Īs Terry, June quickly becomes enamored of her lawyer Neil Foster, a man half her actual age. Masquerading as her own niece, Terry Hart, she keeps herself young by picking up men and killing them for their pineal extract. She steals the ring and pollen, kills her jungle guide and returns to the United States. The secretions, extracted from the back of the neck via a special ring and mixed with the pollen, temporarily transform Malla into a young, beautiful woman.Īfter discovering that her conniving husband only brought her along as "a guinea pig who could talk," June takes revenge, choosing him to be sacrificed so that she can use his pineal gland extract to become young again herself, though Malla warns her that the transformation will not last long. "Old women," he says, "give me the creeps." They follow Malla to Africa and witness a secret ceremony of the Nando tribe that utilizes orchid pollen and a sacrificial male's pineal gland secretions. Paul is unhappily married to the alcoholic June, who is 10 years his elder. Paul Talbot and promises to reveal to him the secret of eternal youth if he will fund her final trip back to Africa, so that she can be beautiful and young for one last night before she dies. A mysterious old woman named Malla who claims to have been brought to America 140 years ago as a slave approaches endocrinologist Dr.
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