Cult of the Cobra (1955)

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

What is basically a rehash of The Cat People minus the suspense is an alright Gothic horror movie that is not camp like most monster movies of the mid 1950's. It all starts with a curse on a group of soldiers in the middle East who end up cursed as a result of an encounter with a native upset over their ridicule over his beliefs. The arrival with the cool beauty Faith Domergue overlaps with a series of violent deaths where nothing horrific is seen, only implied. As Domergue ends up romantically involved with one of the men, one of the last surviving men, Richard Long, seeks to prove that somehow a curse is involved. Enjoyable but somewhat bland, this is greatly aided by shadowy photography, this takes a bit of time to really began to make sense and retain interest. Domergue, once the protégée of Howard Hughes at RKO finds perhaps the one role for which she will be slightly remembered. Implying the gruesome deaths rather than showing the actual method in which they happen makes this slightly more interesting although it certainly does not belong with the mainline of horror classics which are not forgotten today.

Six army buddies decide to do some sight-seeing among a cult of shape-shifters when they should have stayed in the bar and had a few more beers.The movie's not as bad as the title suggests, thanks mainly to enthusiastic performances from Thompson, Kelly, and Long. You might expect them to walk through their parts in a low budgeter like this, but they don't. Instead they inject needed vitality into the far-fetched premise. Now, if Domergue could just suggest some menace in an otherwise deadpan performance as the snake lady, we might get a hint of a coming shape-shift. No wonder director Lyon has to use a pin light on her expressionless face to indicate she's no lady after all.The bowling alley sequence is the movie's only scary part. Too bad Lyon doesn't play up the suspense in the other stalking sequences. Instead, we go from snake shadow to dead body, leaving out the scary part. Then too, I wish they had more than one staircase street set. If I catch this flick again, I'll try counting the times they use and re-use it. In my book, the movie isn't bad enough to make it as camp. Instead, it's a not-very-good horror flick, mainly because of Domergue. But at least the guys went on to starring success with TV.

Six GIs, about to be send home and discharged, get drunk and sneak into a cult meeting in Asia. Surrounded by hooded figures, two male dancers pretend to have a fight. Behind them, on an altar, a woven basket opens and a figure painted emerges and begins imitating a snake, finally biting one of the dancers on the neck. The imitation snake is dressed in some scaley looking body tights. (This is definitely a female imitation snake.) The cult member who has sneaked them into the secret meeting has warned the six men repeatedly that the ceremonies must not be interrupted and, most definitely, no photos must be taken or else they will be hunted down and killed. Naturally, the GIs take a flash photo, send the cult members into an angry hysteria, steal the basket containing the "snake" and run off with it into the Asian night.One of the guys, the most offensive and snarky, dies from a cobra bite on the neck, though no one can explain how the snake got into his hospital room.Back in New York, it all seems rather old news as the discharged men settle down into their civilian lives, still maintaining their bond with one another. Their jobs range from manager of a bowling alley (David Janssen) to graduate research student (Richard Long). James Dobson, Jack Kelly, and Marshall Thompson are also part of the neighborhood. Richard Long has a nice blond girl friend. Kelly is a somewhat reckless womanizer. But they all get along well enough and all of them seem happy.Then a dark, shifty-looking, mysterious woman (Faith Domergue) shows up and Marshall Thompson takes a liking to her and insinuates her into the group.Guess what happens. First Janssen is terrified by a shadow in the back seat and dies in a car crash. Then Kelly gets a visit from Domergue. Something scares him so badly he tumbles through the window and dies in the fall to the sidewalk. Long and Dobson begin to suspect what the viewer already knows -- that Domergue has had something to do with the deaths. They also reckon that maybe she's turning into a cobra, which is the case. Dobson confronts her with his suspicions and she proves his point.By this time Long and Thompson are thoroughly frazzled, particularly Thompson, who is in love with Domergue and has discovered that she is attracted to him, too, although he must explain to her what "love" is. No matter. A final reckless attack by the cobra woman against Long's girl friend -- not one of the six original offenders -- and Thompson must throw the snake out the window. On the pavement below, the body changes to that of Domergue. The end.I think I'll skip over most of the questions that the plot raises. I'll just mention one of the more prosaic ones in passing. Who paid for Domergue's fare from somewhere in Asia to New York? Who's paying her utility bills in the hotel? Who paid for her spectacular wardrobe? How come she speaks American English so well? What the hell's going on? The writers and director have clearly seen some of Val Lewton's modest horror films and, though not much effort has gone into this production, they've unashamedly stolen some gimmicks from Lewton. In Lewton's "The Cat People", for instance, the woman is transformed into a black leopard but, with one tiny exception, the threat is always kept in the shadows and is all the more spooky for it. Most of the transformations here use shadows too, but unlike Lewton's, the shadows are clumsy and unambiguous.Lewton also made occasional use of what he called "buses". Lewton's first "bus" was a literal one. A potential victim is hurrying alone through the dark tunnels of Central Park with only the sound of footsteps. Something or someone is following her. She freezes with fright under a street lamp. Something rustles the branches of the shrubs above her. She looks upward. There is a loud, wheezing shriek that makes your hair stand on end. It's a bus using its air brakes to stop for her. The producers used at least two "buses" in this film and they amount to nothing. A guy is walking distractedly across an intersection, for instance, and there is the sudden rumble of a truck that almost hits him. There is no set up to the shot. It's jammed in with a shoe horn.I don't much care for movies that perpetuate the stereotype of serpents as slimy, ugly, venomous, and phallic. As a matter of fact, no snakes are slimy, most are harmless, and many are extraordinarily beautiful. Furthermore, they're more feminine than masculine in their sinuous movements and serpentine approach to goals. You want a reptilian symbol for masculinity? Try a six-lined racerunner. It's a really fast lizard. When it sees something to eat, it rushes up and gobbles it down.Anyway, if you want to see some fine, low-budget scary films, don't bother with this one. Find "The Cat People" or one of Lewton's other minor masterpieces, of which this is an obvious copy.

I and my friends have viewed this film more than a few times since first seeing it about two years ago. We find it fascinating, because - like many "cheap" productions - it has unconscious psychological/cultural elements that make it timelessly significant and - frankly - as entertaining as hell.One of the large themes coursing through the film is American imperialism, as it manifests itself in the GIs' callous disregard of local religious customs, and the subsequent defilement of a temple by theft. Needless to say, vengeance is forthcoming in the guise of a cobra/woman. These things happen...Once this avenger has come to the U.S. the boorish behavior of the men continues, their imperialism now rendered down to mere sexual aggressiveness: one of the men finds it perfectly okay to go into a woman's apartment while she's out and camp on the couch.Men die, and one shouldn't forget they EARNED it. And the very ending is a psycho-sexual gem, which prompts one to rename the film "Omigod, I Screwed A Snake." The man who skulks away will not be showing his face in any society for a long, long time.