The largest carnivorous plant is the Nepenthes Rajah pitcher plant.
Dr Moran (George Coulouris) has heard of a tribe in the Amazon jungle that can bring the dead back to life. He finds the tribe and witnesses a secret ceremony in which a young woman, entranced by beating drums, is consumed by a large carnivorous tree. Moran, already suffering from a jungle fever collapses and nearly dies.
Five years later Moran is back in England and recovered from his fever. He brought one of the trees back and is experimenting with it. Along with the tree he brought back a tribal drummer, Tanga (Jimmy Vaughan). They kidnap a young woman and Tanga feeds her to the tree. Moran performs his experiment and extracts his serum. The experiment fails. A dead heart into which Moran injects the serum revives, but dies again after a short time.
A police Sgt Bolton (Edward Higgins) arrives and asks a few questions about the missing girl. Moran denies knowing anything about her. That night, at a local Carnival, Sally Norton (Vera Day), is working at a sideshow. When she takes a break, Jack Venner (Peter Wayn), who has been watching her, introduces himself. When the sideshow barker tries to drag Sally back to the show, Jack knocks him out. Sally gets fired. Jack suggests that she see Moran about becoming an assistant to his housekeeper, Margaret Santor (Joyce Gregg). Moran gives Sally the job. Margaret is not happy about it.
Detective Inspector Brownlow (Maxwell Foster) questions Moran again about Susan's disappearance, Moran and Tanga extract more serum from the tree but they need another sacrifice. Moran goes to London and picks up a woman. He brings her back to his house and Tanga feeds her to the tree. Moran kills Margaret and confesses his love for Sally. She tries to leave but he won’t let her. He locks her in his lab. When Jack comes to find her, Moran tells him that she left. Jack and Moran argue. Jack rushes off to find the police. He is desperate and scared. He needs to find Sally before it’s too late.
"The Woman Eater" was released in 1958 and was directed by (Charles Saunders). This is one of those “B” movies that nobody remembers. The plot is not exactly deep. You have your basic mad scientist and killer tree. The tree is rather strange. It’s large and the branches are more like hairy arms wearing boxing gloves. It doesn’t eat men only women. Of course the tree is phallic. I’m not sure exactly how it “eats” the women. All you see is the women being thrown into it and the tree sort of grabs them and pulls them to it. I suppose you could look at it as a rape. But it takes more than your soul. It takes your life. The sap produced is what is supposed to bring people back to life. Little Tanga seems to like throwing women into the killer tree. It’s probably how he deals with his impotence.
As for the movie in general, whether you call it “Womaneater” or “The Woman Eater”, despite the misogynistic tendencies the movie was OK. Not great mind you. There have been a lot of shall we say people eating plants. Plus it’s not like there’s any mystery to it. You know what is going to happen. Sexy woman is going to get “eaten” and guys are going to watch.