Weird film: for starters, Lon Chaney Jnr rarely played a character who was so catnip to the ladies, he’s got three of them panting over him here, all of them stunners, including Evelyn Ankers. As in Calling Dr Death he plays a distinguished professional (in this case a college professor) who is married but is desired by another woman, a co-worker, who turns evil to get him. That role is played by Ankers, and they throw in a hot college student who wants him, too. It’s an odd plot: Chaney Jnr has married a girl he ran into while visiting a Pacific Island (Anne Gwynne), and she keeps praying to her native gods. His marriage annoys Ankers, who sets about trying to destroy him.
The stuff about Chaney Jnr’s wife being South Sea Island aristocracy isn’t really used – I kept expecting an old witchdoctor to turn up and wreck havoc but it was not to be. I did enjoy the depection of academia being full of pushy wives, plagrising academics, horny co-eds, homicidally jealous boyfriends, and psychopathic librarians. The handling is full of the odd flourish and it’s fun to see Chaney playing this supposed intellectual giant and lady-killer.
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