Sheena Queen of the Jungle

Sheena Queen of the Jungle - Episode 9
Curse of the Voodoo (© 22 Nov 55)

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PRODUCTION CREDITS

Director

Arthur Pierson

Producer

Edward Nassour

Screenplay

Joe Richardson

Story Supervision

Joel Murcott

STARRING

Sheena

Irish McCalla

Bob Rayburn

Christian Drake

Chim

Neal

COSTARS

Chuck Davis

Palmer Fallgren

Tamaru

Joseph Munoz

Chief Manyka

Yerye Bierute

PLOT - NOTE: Spoiler warning
Chuck Davis, an Impetuous wildlife photographer who Bob is guiding, impresses Sheena by taking a Polaroid photograph of her (right). When he expresses a desire to photograph the Wasahili voodoo rites she agrees to help him. When Sheena visits their village to negotiate permission for Chuck to visit she discovers they are in the middle of a voodoo ceremony. Sheena rescues one of the victims (below) and then races back to warn Bob that the Wasahili have declared a voodoo war. Chuck ignores Bob's advice and sneaks away from camp during the night and is soon captured by the Wasahilis. Bob and Sheena are captured when they attempt to rescue Chuck and Sheena is tied up and kept captive in a hut. Tamaru, the tribe's witchdoctor, attempts to puts a curse on Bob and Chuck but Chim loosens Sheena's bonds and she escapes. She recovers Chuck's polaroid camera and then stops the voodoo rites before Bob and Chuck are harmed. Tamaru dies when one of Sheena's arrows spills a skin-penetrating poison over his torso. Manika, the chief is halted in his tracks when Sheena produces a Polaroid photo of him, proving that her magic is stronger than his.

COMMENTS
This episode is a lot of fun because is has the flavour of an adventure fantasy straight out of an old pulp magazine. The lengthy scenes of the voodoo rituals are somewhat atmospheric, complete with pulsating native drums, savage chanting, strange rituals and general hysteria. The set dressings in the native villages in this series are frequently laughable, often resembling cheap high school drama props and this episode is no exception. That, however, merely adds to the hokey charm of the whole thing. I also liked the scene where Sheena rescues Davis from a charging bull elephant. Abundant Miki Carter stock footage is used effectively, despite the slight differences in film stock. The shot where Sheena and Davis are huddled on the ground as the shadow of the elephant passes over their bodies is quite surprising. I suspect it was done with a large cutout, but the effect is pretty impressive. It is also interesting that Palmer Fallgren, the guest star, like many other guests on this series, appears to have done almost nothing else apart from his appearance here. Once again, a Sheena-in-bondage scene features prominently (see clip below).

MOVING PICTURES

Click on the images below to see two short scenes from this episode:

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SOURCES
• The production credits and plot were taken from my DVD of this episode
IMAGES
• All of the photos used on this page are screenshots from my DVD of this episode
• The two video clips were uploaded to Youtube by me to use on this web page
CAPTURE
• Bag yourself a copy of this episode on VHS from Moviecraft; beware the high contrast and heavily cropped versions of these episodes currently available on DVD

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