Tom Conway once achieved movie greatness with voodoo in I Walked with a Zombie and is here with some natives again this time for AIP – however Alex Gordon was no Val Lewton and Edward Cahn no Jacques Tourneur, and this is very poor. His co-star is Marla English, who comes across in Mark McGee’s book on AIP as a sexy, enigmatic good time girl – it was because of her I wanted to see this. She’s quite fun – never as good looking at the beginning as she is later on when she goes on safari along with great white hunter Mike Connors to look for some treasure. They run into Conway who has a creature who he gets to kill people. Typically dull handling from Cahn – if you ever want to know why Corman is regarded so highly, compare Corman’s films from this time.
This doesn’t really feel like an AIP film – there’s no teenagers, or crazy creature, just a lot of running around a studio jungle – it’s more like a Monogram Picture from the 40s, without George Zucco, Lionel Atwill or Bela Lugosi (the film cries out for someone like this, a mistake AIP would rectify in their 60s horror films.)
Very ordinary.
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