The Leech Woman (1960)

"Well, that's a novelty -- you're refusing anything with alcohol in it!", 16 September 2007

Dr. Paul Talbot is a scientist who learns of a drug that is supposed to not only retard the effects of aging, but reverse the process as well. With his wife, June, he sets out to make his fortune. In Africa, he finds the leathery old woman who told him about the drug and watches as she is turned into a beautiful young woman. The process requires the pollen of a specific orchid and the fluid from the human pineal gland. But extracting the fluid means death to the donor. When told she is to be the next beneficiary of the drug, Mrs. Talbot is allowed to choose the male who will give his life to make her young again. To get back at him for a life of torment, she selects her husband as the donor. June's youth is restored and her overbearing husband is dead. The problem, as Mrs. Talbot is about to discover, is that the effects of the procedure are only temporary. She'll have to go on killing if she is to remain young.

It's not that The Leech Woman is a particularly bad movie (in fact, there's a lot here I really enjoy), it's just that it's terribly predictable. I mean is anyone surprised that when on the verge of divorce, Paul insists that he and his wife reconcile and she go to Africa with him? Quite naturally, he intends to use her as a human guinea pig and, if the process works, get a hot, young wife in return. His shallow intentions and desires are overly obvious. Or, was anyone surprised that June selected her husband as the donor who would die to give her back her youth? It's an excellent moment, but I saw it coming from miles away. So even though I appreciate and enjoy much of the movie, The Leech Woman lacks any real surprises along the way. I realize that The Leech Woman was cranked out in a hurry and on a low budget to be used by Universal as B-picture, but a little more creativity and thought might have made it a real winner.

6/10