Kadu (Sabu), a young native boy sees a blind peddler walking with a donkey laden with baskets. He approaches wanting to look at the man’s wares. The man, Hava (Lon Chaney Jr.), is also mute and refuses to let Kadu look in his baskets. After whining a little, Kadu hears the local church bells ringing. He leaves to get ready for the wedding of his friends Ramu (John Hall) and Tollea (Maria Montez). After he is gone, Hava reveals that he is not really blind and watches Ramu and Tollea from a distance.
While getting ready for the ceremony Ramu learns that Tollea has been kidnapped. Tollea had been raised by MacDonald (Moroni Olsen), a Scottish businessman who lives on the island. Kadu tells Ramu and MacDonald that he believes the stranger, Hava, is the one that took Tollea. MacDonald reveals to Ramu that Tollea came from nearby Cobra Island and was abandoned as a baby. He tells Ramu that during a storm he ended up on Cobra Island. Outsiders are not allowed on the island and are killed. MacDonald says he was tortured and passed out. When he regained consciousness, he was at sea. He found Tollea in the cabin of the boat. He raised her as his own.
Ramu decides to go to Cobra Island to rescue Tollea. Kadu stows away on his boat hoping to help.
On Cobra Island Tollea meets her grandmother (Mary Nash), the Queen of the island. Her grandmother tells Tollea that she has a twin sister, Naja (Maria Montez). As part of the island ritual, both girls were bitten by a cobra. Tollea almost died but Naja was immune to the venom. Naja was made ruler of the island even though Tollea was the first born. Tollea was supposed to have been destroyed but the queen put her on the boat with MacDonald to save her. Naja took up with Martok (Edgar Barrier) and together they ruled with an iron fist. The queen sent Hava to bring Tollea back to take her rightful place on the throne and stop the cruelty being pressed on the islanders.
“Cobra Woman” was released in 1944 and was directed by Robert Siodmak. It is an American jungle adventure film. The film itself is mostly forgotten by film goers. Many filmmakers, however, are quite fond of the film and consider it one of their favorites.
It’s sort of a semi-spectacular color production, not as splashy as some that Universal did, but enough to set it apart from the usual 40’s black and white offerings of the time. It’s not overly great but entertaining enough in its dated campy way.
Sabu was Indian and Maria Montez was Dominican. Where the story takes place is elusive. The only site mentioned is Cobra Island. The biggest plot hole in the film is the chimpanzee, CoCo. The boat with Ramu on it had only one stowaway, Kado. How the chimp got to Cobra Island is never explained.
Born in India and educated in England, Sabu became an American citizen in 1944. He joined the U.S. Army Air Force and became a tail-gunner on B-29s in the Pacific. He flew 42 combat missions and earned the Distinguished Service Cross, Air Medal, four battle stars and three clusters. After his service he went back to making films. In 1963, at the age of 39, Sabu died of a heart attack leaving his wife and one daughter.