The Leech Woman

The Leech Woman (1960)

She drained men of their loves and lives!

An endocrinologist in a dysfunctional marriage with an aging, alcoholic wife journeys to Africa seeking a drug that will restore youth.

Date of release
1960-05-01
TMDB
4.8 / 10 (42)
Runtime
1h 17m
Genres
Horror, Science Fiction
Director
Edward Dein

Casting

Interesting facts

The Leech Woman is a 1960 black-and-white American horror film directed by Edward Dein, produced by Joseph Gershenon, and starring Coleen Gray, Grant Williams, Gloria Talbott, and Phillip Terry. The plot follows a middle-aged American woman, desperate to be young again, who uses an ancient, secret African potion to regain her lost youth and beauty. The potion works, but only temporarily, requiring repeated usage.

Production

The film's working title was The Leech. According to contemporary reviews, the filmmakers mixed stock footage of African wildlife and tribal dances with scenes shot in the studio. Film critic and psychometrist Bryan Senn notes that much of the stock footage was "taken from the jungle adventure Tanganyika." Production of the film ended in March 1959. It had its official premiere in Los Angeles on 15 June 1960.

The pairing of The Brides of Dracula and The Leech Woman was one of several examples of Universal-International releasing UK horror films with inexpensive, quickly-produced second films to fill double bills in the US. However, as science fiction film historian Bill Warren points out, The Brides of Dracula was a "lively, colorful Hammer film, one of their best," which made the black-and-white The Leech Woman "look drab and old-fashioned." The film…

In the UK, The Leech Woman was given an X-certificate by the British Board of Film Censors, following their viewing of the film on 14 March 1960. The X-certificate limited the exhibition of the film to persons over age 16.

Quoting an unpublished interview with Gray given to film historian Tom Weaver, Senn writes that although the film was one of her most difficult, because of her character's rapid age changes, "That picture was 10 days of sheer joy (...) I got to 'camp' all over the place; it was kind of flamboyant and, really, excrutiatingly funny."

For her part, Talbott told Weaver in a published interview her reason for taking a role in the film: "I made that picture because I wanted to buy a horse for my son," she said, "and The Leech Woman got him a really nice horse and saddle!" Talbott also discussed the scene where she held Gray at gunpoint and the script called for Gray to wrestle the gun away from her.

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