The Disembodied

1957 "FEMALE WITCH DOCTOR...FIENDISH TIGRESS OF THE JUNGLE!"
The Disembodied
4.8| 1h13m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 25 August 1957 Released
Producted By: Allied Artists Pictures
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://instant.warnerarchive.com/product.html?productId=60563
Synopsis

When men on a photo safari stumble into a misanthropic doctor’s remote camp with a wounded comrade, the doctor's restless wife supplements her usual pursuit (voodoo, especially as a way to off her husband) with a new one: seduction. As men lose their hearts (sometimes literally) to the alluring voodoo priestess, she embarks on a killing spree that turns the jungle blood red.

... View More
Stream Online

The movie is currently not available onine

Director

Producted By

Allied Artists Pictures

Trailers & Images

Reviews

kapelusznik18 ****SPOILERS*** It's the evil but beautiful Tonda Metz, Allison Hayes, who's behind all the death and carnage in the film "The Disembodied" using her Voodood spells to get whatever she wants with the sole exception of white hunter & photographer Tom Maxwell, Paul Burke, who's on to her from the word go. Tom out on a photo shoot in the African jungle had one of those with him Joe Lawson, Robert Christopher, attacked and badly mauled by a lion who's needs medical help immediately or else he'll bleed to death. Finding a doctor in the house or jungle in Dr. Karl Metz, John E. Wengraf, Tom has him put under his care who doesn't think that Joe will survive the night. That's until Metz's wife Tonda starts to do her Voodoo on him that has Joe miraculously recover from his near fatal wounds by sunrise.Tonda who's been trying to unsuccessfully off her husband for some time sees in the handsome Tom Maxwell her ticket out of the jungle hell that she finds herself in. But as Tom soon finds out she's bad news and the kind of woman, as beautiful as she is, to keep as far away from as possible. With Tonda trying to win over Tom she uses her Voodoo to have his native guide Gogi, Paul Tompson, to be murdered by a self, no one seemed to have thrown it, inflicted flying spear as well as causing Tom's jeep to run out of gas. The biggest mistake that Tonda did was murder her helpless lover Suba, Norman Fredric, during a Voodoo ritual that his shocked wife native girl Lara, Eugenia Paul, witnessed! This in the end proved to be Tonda's undoing in finally putting her out of the Voodoo business.****SPOILERS**** It's when Dr. Metz finally discovers what his wife is up to that would almost turns out to be fatal to him. With Dr. Metz stabbed by Tonda and left for dead Tonda starts trying to frame Tom and his partners both Joe and Norman Adams, Joel Martson, for her husband's , who's in fact still alive & breathing, murder. The only thing that Tonda forgot was that the native servant Kabar, Otis Greene, witnessed the entire event and his testimony can clear them and indite her if her husband dies. It's the vindictive Lara who finally puts and end to Tonda's black magic just when she's about to use it on her rejected, by him,lover Tom. That's by breaking her spell over those in the movie the old fashion way: With a knife in her gut!P.S Check out Voodoo drum leader A.E Ukono doing his thing that's by far, in it being not more then a minute in duration, the biggest and most entertaining scene in the entire movie.
kevin olzak Only four reviews for 1957's "The Disembodied," while its cofeature, the deadly dull "From Hell It Came," has 35? Both films were prominent fixtures on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater back in the 1960s, airing 5 times apiece, each running just over an hour, probably shot on the same studio jungle sets, etc. Guess the Tabonga from Hell gets more love than the sultry Allison Hayes, who practically oozes sensuality every moment she's on screen in "The Disembodied." "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" may be more famous than this Allied Artists potboiler, but you must admit she was certainly the right actress to heighten the temperature of any self respecting male viewer. The bored wife of an older jungle doctor (John E. Wengraf) moonlighting (literally) as a voodoo priestess, captivating every man she comes across, except for the one she wants most (played by a game Paul Burke); her easy seduction of a native servant proves to be her undoing however. The main drawback is hazy character motivation, though the actors carry far more conviction than the somnambulists walking through "From Hell It Came" (the native girls are younger and prettier too). Director Walter Grauman later became a pioneer of the network TV movie, with a pair of early titles featuring John Carradine, 1969's "Daughter of the Mind" and 1970's "Crowhaven Farm." While she got to play her share of good girls ("The Unearthly"), Allison Hayes shows why she truly excels as the bad girl, and like Barbara Shelley in "Cat Girl," demonstrates real star quality by maintaining interest whenever she's on screen, proving to be her finest showcase, with no giant aliens to distract us from her feminine wiles (shake that thang!). "The Disembodied" aired on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater five times: Sun Jan 26 1964 (following Saturday's "The Monster That Challenged the World"), Mar 27 1965 (following 1956's "It Conquered the World"), July 16 1966 (following 1958's "Terror in the Haunted House"), Dec 30 1967 (following 1960's "Circus of Horrors"), and Aug 16 1969 (following 1966's "Majin, the Monster of Terror").
Michael_Elliott Disembodied, The (1957) * 1/2 (out of 4) Allison Hayes plays Tonda Metz, a beautiful woman living in the jungle with her much older husband (John Wengraf) who just happens to be a doctor. A group of men are making a movie in the jungles when one is attacked by a lion so they take him to the doctor and soon the wife tries to get her hooks into Tom (Paul Burke) but he feels something is wrong and he's correct because the lady is a voodoo princess. THE DISEMBODIED has a pretty bad reputation and after viewing the film it's easy to see why so many people want to forget this turkey because it really is as bad as everyone says it is. The film runs just 66-minutes but that's about an hour too long and for the life of me I can't figure out why the wife went through all the trouble she does when she could have accomplished her goal with very little effort. I won't spoil what she's doing but once you figure it out you'll really want to talk to the screen and explain to her that she's wasting her time as well as our time. The screenplay never seems to realize what it wants to do or perhaps Allied Artist simply ran out of money and demanded certain scenes to be removed or shot for cheap. I'm not sure which it was but the screenplay pretty much has characters sitting or standing around talking about what they're going to do and it's just downright boring. There's even a scene where one man threatens to shoot another and he's going to give him a ten-count and then we have to sit there the entire time while he counts this down. The film's one saving grace is that we do get a couple nice performances. I thought Burke was fairly good in his role and at least gave the film a little boost in terms of entertainment. I also enjoyed Wengraf, although it's never really explained what he's doing in the jungle and how he got such a young wife to go out there with him. Hayes will always be remembered for ATTACK OF THE 50FT WOMAN but she's pretty good here as well. I thought she manages to play the femme fatale quite well as she was certainly believable in the part and I felt she really was "strong" enough to control these men with her powers. However, even these nice performances can't save the film and make it worth viewing. There were several voodoo films released in this era and the majority of them were pretty bad and this one here might be the worst.
dbborroughs Fair jungle thriller set entirely on jungle sound stages with a native population consisting whites, blacks, Latinos and pacific islanders. The plot has something to do with the evil wife of the local doctor being a voodoo priestess and using her power to torment her husband while at the same time trying to pick up every good looking guy around. It might have been an okay film had there been any sense of realism, some decent performances or a script that at least explained why the wife was such a bitch. Mostly things just plod along at programmed rate until its appointed conclusion. Give it points for the priestess sexy dancing in dresses from Fredrick's of Hollywood, but take away more for a complete lack of caring anywhere else along the way.