The Spider Woman Strikes Back

Despite the title and the fact that Gale Sondegaard stars in both films this is not a sequel to the Sherlock Holmes movie "The Spider Woman". Brenda Joyce plays Jean Kinsley, a young woman who gains employment as a companion to the apparently blind Zenobia Dollard (Sondegaard). However Zenobia is a cunning mad scientist, who with the help of her creepy butler/assistant Mario (Rondo Hatton) is cultivating carnivorous plants in order to drive away the farmers off land that her family once owned. The film is well filmed, fast paced and has an eerie feel to it, helped by the musical score, however the plot is pretty daft and the fiery finale is a bit weak. But the most appealing thing for me is Rondo Hatton, one of the most recognisable classic horror stars. He suffered with a growth defect called acromegaly which resulted in enlargement of the facial bones, hands etc, and unlike Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff, and so on he requited no make up to turn him into a "brute". Strikes Back was released after his tragic death.

Back in the late 1930s into the 40s, Rondo Hatton was a very sad figure in films. Bluntly put, Rondo was an ugly guy...due to the effects of acromegaly. It seems that during WWI, he was exposed to poison gas which damaged his pituitary gland...causing the disorder. This made his hands and face deformed. Sadly, Universal Studios hired him to mostly appear in horror films to take advantage of his face. It sure might have been nice had some of these movies NOT feautured him as a monstrous creature and a bit of sympathy might have been nice. Here in "The Spider Woman Strikes Back" (a film, despite its title, which is NOT a sequel), Rondo plays a mute servant who helps his mistress do experiments with human blood!

The story begins with Jean arriving in a small town to be the personal assistant and companion of Zenobia, a blind woman....or so she claims. What Jean doesn't know is that she's also been hired to supply blood to Zenobia's pet plant...a huge thing somewhat reminiscent of Audry from "Little Shop of Horrors". Now Zenobia doesn't take all of Jean's blood. Instead, she takes a bit while Jean is sleeping...leaving her, naturally, tired and anemic. To combat this as well as to knock her out, Zenobia insists Jean drink lots of milk...something she dislikes. What's next? See the film and find out for yourself.

So is this any good? Aside from the logical problem i mention in the next paragraph, it is pretty good...especially for a cheaply made B-movie. It has a nice creepy atmosphere and despite many no-name actors, it's effecive.

I have no idea why Zenobia didn't let folks know about her plant and the blood. Had she gotten locals donate very small amounts of blood for cash, this might have worked out just fine...instead of stealing it from her assistants. Heck, if the job paid well and they only took a pint here and there, I might have loved the job!

By the way, throughout the film, Gale Sondergaard plays blind Zenobia strangely. Instead of facing people who are talking with her, she stares off into space...something I never noticed any blind people doing. I think this could have been played better.

Also, the sign language Mario (Hatton) uses in the movie is nonsense and not at all related to American Sign Language.

This film is not as well known as the earlier Universal flick The Spider Woman; and that's because this one isn't a part of the Sherlock Holmes series, isn't nearly as good, and actually has nothing at all to do with spiders. The plot focuses on a young girl that goes to become a nurse in a blind woman's house. However, it turns out that the woman is not really blind and is actually taking blood from the girl in order to feed it to her plant, which ties in with some plot about murdering cows. Aside from the fact that this film features Gale Sondergaard, I really don't see any similarity to The Spider Woman at all - she doesn't even reprise her role! The name, therefore, is just a cash-in on the success of the original. It's the sort of trick I'd expect from Italian films of the seventies and eighties, but not something often done by Universal studios! You can't blame them, though, as the film really does have no other selling points. It's a poor and rather dull tale. Nothing of interest happens for the entire duration, and I'm not surprised that it only runs for about fifty eight minutes. Overall, there's really no reason to track this film down - Sherlock Holmes fans will not be impressed!

I think I prefer this one to the Sherlock Holmes' adventuure yarn starring the same Gale Sondergard in the lead evil role. This very movie directed by Arthur Lubin may remind you some Jacques Tourneur's gems for RKO and produced by Val Lewton on the stories, mystery and horror mix-up, but certainly not on the atmosphere, so typical in Lewton's productions, Tourneur, Wise, Robson.... This one starring Brenda Joyce and Gale Sondergard is worth mostly because of both of them. For the story.... That's not the most exciting but I still prefer this one to the SH movie, which already was the least I liked in the series. Good little Universal horror flick anyway. No reason to miss it.

It's hard to hate anything with Gale Sondergaard in it. This subpar Universal thriller is light on thrills or chills. It's not much fun either. It does move quickly, however. As I realized the film was reaching its climax I was surprised as I thought it had only been on maybe half an hour. Outside of Sondergaard and (visually, at least) Rondo Hatton, the cast is pretty forgettable. The script is riddled with holes, too. When the villain reveals their big master plan I guarantee you'll say "Wait, what? Really? But what about..." It's that kind of movie. Still, it's watchable enough. Fans of Universal's horror classics from this period will enjoy it more than most.