Weird Woman (1944)

‘Weaving her dread spell of Voodoo!’

A college professor travels to a South Sea Island to research the nature of superstition. There he meets and falls in love with the daughter of missionaries but she has been raised to believe and practice in the local customs, which include Voodoo…

The second of Universal’s ‘Inner Sanctum’ series based on the hit radio show. The story is introduced by a floating head in a crystal ball (as per usual!) and starts Lon Chaney Jr (also the series’ regular star). This time around Chaney is the professor, bringing his new bride (the wide-eyed Anne Gwynne) back to the campus to face the machinations of his old girlfriend (Evelyn Ankers). When he discovers his wife still practising the ancient rites (in the local graveyard no less!), Chaney destroys her witchy equipment to cure her of her silly beliefs. But then his life starts to unravel…

‘Well, it beats working in an office…’

This is efficient, small scale studio filmmaking at its best. Yes, it’s a b-movie of course but it’s tightly scripted, has lashings of spooky atmosphere and a nice final twist. The proceedings aren’t particularly credible and the notion that a Professor’s treatise on science vs. superstition could become a best seller is really stretching it… But the supporting cast do their level best to sell the material; from the sharp faced Elisabeth Russell as a nagging wife to Ankers in fine form as a complete bitch.

Apparently, Ankers and Gwynne were best friends and had endless problems ‘cracking up’ in their scenes together. Chaney does his usual ‘worrying’ act and it does seem that, at this point, he was in danger of getting as typecast in this type of role as he was as a monster. Can you be typecast twice at the same time?

The script was based on a Fritz Leiber story called ‘Burn, Witch, Burn’ and was remade in the early 1960s as ‘Night of the Eagle’ (1962), which I have seen but remember little about. It’s certainly a tale that could be retold, although perhaps some of the plot development in ‘Weird Woman’ (1944) would be best forgotten. But, all in all, it’s an enjoyable programmer from a studio so efficient that even their minor projects were quality product.

Buy ‘Weird Woman’ here