Dominada pelo Demônio

This low rent dreary voodoo pic may be one of the dullest low budget horror/science fiction films from the fifties. The film is set in some nondescript jungle where a band of adventurers arrive at the remote jungle home of a "white doctor" and his native wife. The wife is always putting hexes on her doctor husband whom she hates, although the reason for her malice is never explained. The sets consists of a few cheap jungle sets, and the interior of the house. The native population is a strange polyglot mix of blacks, whites and what looks like Indonesians so often found in cheap jungle pictures. The only reason for watching this (other than if you are completest like me) is the presence of Allison Hayes, who looks gorgeous in a flower print sarong. THE DISEMBODIED is one of a handful of cheap Voodoo pictures made in the fifties. Most of these weren't any good, but some like ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU at least have a kind of campy, cockeyed charm that makes them appealing. THE DISEMBODIED is a film so dreary and uneventful that it is no wonder it is mostly forgotten today except by fans of the lovely Allison Hayes.

THE DISEMBODIED features the astonishing Allison Hayes as Tonda, part-time bored wife of the boring Dr. Carl Metz (John Wengraf), and full-time voodoo queen. Ms. Hayes spends most of her time slinking around in her runway-ready fashions and dangling earrings, moaning about the dullness of jungle life. When three young, handsome adventurers happen by her hut, her frowns turn upside down.

Now she has more men to bewitch and bedazzle.

This movie is all about Ms. Hayes, who does not disappoint. She may not be 50 foot tall here, but she's still larger than life! It's incredible how her hair and makeup remain perfect, in spite of the tropical heat and primitive living conditions. The men are all sweaty, dirty messes, while Ms. Hayes retains her glowing aura of freshness throughout, even sporting the latest in ritual-wear during her voodoo dance routines!

A must-see for fans of this goddess...

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 a baddie, and like Barbara Shelley in "Cat Girl" demonstrates real star quality by maintaining interest whenever she's on screen, her finest showcase with no giant aliens to distract us from her feminine wiles (shake that thang!).

Fans of trashy B-movies will no doubt recognise the name of Allison Hayes, best known for cult sci-fi classic Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. In The Disembodied, Hayes plays voluptuous voodoo queen Tonda Metz, who lives with her reclusive older husband Dr. Carl Metz (John Wengraf) in a remote part of an unspecified jungle. When a group of wildlife film-makers stumble upon the Metz's jungle household seeking help, insecure Carl becomes convinced that their leader Tom Maxwell (Paul Burke) has caught his wife's roving eye. He's not wrong, the wicked woman seducing Maxwell in an effort to convince him to kill her husband (although what he's done to deserve her malice is never revealed).

With no cannibal natives, no deadly quick sand, no man-eating plants, and no killer gorillas, there's really only one reason to watch this cheapo jungle thriller-to get an eyeful of the sultry Miss Hayes, who struts around in a slinky dress that shows off her impressive curves, and gets partially unclothed for some sexy gyrating to a bongo beat during her voodoo rituals. The rest of the film is forgettable nonsense, so much so that I already can't recall much about how it all ended and I only watched it last night.

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Walter Grauman; Produced by Ben Schwalb for Allied Artists release. Screenplay by Jack Townley; Photographed by Harry Neumann; Edited by William Austin; Music by Marlin Skiles. Starring: Allison Hayes, Paul Burke, Eugenia Paul, John Wengraf, Joel Marston, Robert Christopher and Dean Fredericks.

Following the usual stupidly written prologue comes a B-movie classic featuring jungle voodoo and zombies, as the natives worship a great white goddess personified by Allison Hayes. Before hitting it big on TV in "Naked City", her handsome leading man is none other than Paul Burke. Endlessly shown in syndication TV packages.