NIGHT OF THE COBRA WOMAN (1972) ** ½

A rare species of snake bites Marlene Clark and turns her into eternally young vixen.  She then uses her new powers to get revenge on the soldier (Vic Diaz) who raped her best friend.  She seduces him and her venomous sex organs causes his body to “rot”, which turns him into a bug-eyed hunchback imbecile.  The awesomely named Joy Bang comes to the Philippines to study the mythical snake and freaks out when she sees Diaz.  Joy calls her boyfriend (Stan Duff) and he has to fly all the way to Manila to keep her safe.  While out and about, Stan gets bitten by the snake and Clark nurses him back to health.  Clark soon gets the hots for Joy’s man and sets out to drive them apart.   She commands her trusty snake to kill Joy, but luckily Joy brought along her pet eagle to defend her.  Marlene eventually seduces Joy’s boyfriend and her snake-ified snatch “sucks the years out of him”.  To keep him from turning old, she runs around seducing more men to extract the vital juices necessary to prolong his life.

Night of the Cobra Woman kind of plays like a grimy Pilipino version of an old Universal jungle horror movie, complete with lap dissolve transformation scenes.  (Clark’s silly painted-on snake eyes are good for a laugh.)  It was produced by Roger Corman, who of course threw a little skin in there just to keep things lively enough during the dull stretches.  The film is at its best during the extended scenes of Clark going around banging dudes to keep Duff young.  Eventually, he comes running back to Joy, much to her chagrin.  Sure, some parts of the film are kind of dull, but I promise you, the scene where Clark catches him cheating on her while she’s in cobra form is priceless. 

Joy is fun as clueless dolt who loses her man to the snake goddess.  Clark is sultry and carries the movie through the rougher patches on her charisma alone.  She also earns a place in movie history for being the first actress to show some skin and SHED some skin in the same scene.  The best performance though comes from Diaz, the Pilipino Brando.  His antics are good for a laugh, but the inappropriately whimsical music that plays when he’s hopping around is hilarious.  (It sounds like something out of a Disney movie.) 

Sure, Night of the Cobra Woman plods along during some stretches, which makes the 76-minute running time feel a lot longer.  However, other bits (like when Clark is seducing her victims) are pure cheesy fun.  I can’t quite recommend it, but this Cobra Woman has its charms. 

AKA:  Cobra Woman.  Movini’s Venom.