The Spider Woman Strikes Back (1946)

Just perfect...

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Gale Sondergaard was terribly misused by Universal Studio's. She had a great talent but was wasted in grade Z film's such as this tripe. Two years before she had made a big impression as one Sherlock Holmes most diabolical and resourceful adversaries in "The Spider Woman" 1944. She and Basil Rathbone were wonderful as they tried to one up each other right to the end. This movie promised to be a return of that original character. But that wasn't the case.It's a mystery with more plot holes the you could imagine with a story line that makes very little sense.Brenda Joyce is the damsel in distress, and Kirby Grant is her rescuer and hero of the story. Grant went on to play Sky King a decade later. Rondo Hatton is around to be sinister but is just sort of "there".You can figure out what's going on fairly quickly. The question becomes WHY is it going on. When that WHY is reveled at the end of the film it's totally unsatisfying. If you are are a Sondergaard fan you will like the way she gives it her all to keep things going. She's the only reason to watch this picture. Beyond that there really isn't anything to recommend The Spider Woman Strikes Back.

In name only sequel to the film Sherlock Holmes movie Sherlock Holmes and the Spider Woman. The plot here has a young woman staying at a house with a strange woman named Zenobia (played by Gale Sondergaard from the Holmes film)as a house keeper/companion. Unknown to the young woman is the fact that Zenobia is draining her of some blood every night to feed to her plants. Standard but somewhat awkward thriller isn't bad, but isn't anything special. The film feels like a program horror film where they just sort of threw elements together and hoped that they stuck. Is it a horror film or a pseudo-Holmes film? Its never really clear and the film suffers for it. The producers even went so far as to put another connection to the Holmes series by having Rondo Hatton as a mute Handyman, but he isn't given much to do other then look menacing.. Its good but nothing special.

Spider Woman Strikes Back, The (1946) ** (out of 4) Rare and forgotten Universal horror film has a nurse going to a creepy house to take care of a blind woman. The blind woman actually has her sight and is poisoning cows so that she can run the farmers off. Sound dumb? It's actually very dumb and the title is quite misleading, although I guess they were trying to cash in on the Sherlock Holmes film. This is the type of film where you keep waiting for something to happen but it never does. The performances are all rather dry as is the direction but it does move at a nice pace making the 57-minutes go by very fast. Jack Pierce is credited as the makeup artist yet there's no makeup in the film!

Despite the title and the presence of two of Sherlock Holmes' most formidable nemesis (Gale Sondergaard and Rondo Hatton - hilariously named Zenobia and Mario respectively!), this is one lame film which has nothing whatsoever to do with one of the better Universal Sherlock Holmes entries. As a matter of fact, the story is weak, the premise far-fetched, the resolution predictable and the treatment uninspired! Besides, the fiery climax is clumsily executed and Hatton's fidgeting...er...sign language eventually gets on one's nerves! It's fair to say, then, that director Lubin fared much better with the other two 'horror' films he made for the studio - BLACK Friday (1940) and PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1943), even if these weren't completely satisfying either...