Jean Kingsley (Brenda Joyce) moves to Domingo to work as a companion to the blind Zenobia Dollard (Gale Sondergaard). When she arrives she runs into Hal Wentley (Kirby Grant), a former boyfriend. Although Hal is quick to want to pick up where they left off Jean says she is only there to work. Hal gives her a ride to the Dollard estate. At one time the Dollard family owned all the land in the area. Now it is but a shell of what it used to be. The only people living in the house now are Zenobia and her servant, a deformed mute named Mario (Rondo Hatton).
Right away Jean is creeped out by Mario as well as finding out that Zenobia has gone through several companions recently. The last one she said moved back to New York City to get married. When Jean writes to the previous companion her letter comes back addressee unknown. Also recently cattle in the area have died from a mysterious poison weed that no one can identify. On top of it she is beginning to suspect that Zenobia really isn’t blind.
What Jean doesn’t know is that she is being drugged. Zenobia has been drawing blood from her every night to feed to her carnivorous plants. Along with human blood the plants eat spiders and produce poisonous blooms. Zenobia uses the poison blossoms to create a poison that she has Mario give to the cattle to kill them. Zenobia’s master plan is to drive away all the farmers in the area so she can buy the land cheap and restore her family’s legacy.
“The Spider Woman Strikes Back” was released in 1946 and was directed by Arthur Lubin. It is a horror thriller and at only 58 minutes is one of Universal’s “B” quickies. The film was billed as a sequel to Universal’s “The Spider Woman” which was a Sherlock Holmes movie with Basil Rathbone. The film, however, has nothing to do with the Sherlock Holmes movie other than Gale Sondergaard being in both films.
I enjoyed this movie. Granted the plot was farfetched but it was so much fun. The mad woman scientist who is using human blood, spider venom and poison plants to kill random cattle is what horror movies are made of. To add to it Zenobia pretending to be blind and having a deformed monster servant is just icing on the cake.
Gale Sondergaard is one of the best evil ladies of film. As for Rondo Hatton, all he has to do is look at you and you hear spooky music in your head. I found myself fascinated with the film. The plot was simple but at the same time intricate. Why just poison cattle when you can mad scientist your way to the same result?
The movie has gotten a lot of bad reviews because people think they are getting a Sherlock Holmes sequel instead of a regular old “B” horror movie. The title is misleading. There were tons of these short “B” horror movies done in the forties. Some were good and some were bad. If you can get into the spirit of the “B” movie than you’ll enjoy it.