Enjoyable low-budget horror schlock from Universal-International has Colleen Gray giving a juicy performance as the hard-drinking wife of doctor Phillip Terry, an endocrinologist who is tipped off by an ancient African woman to a youth potion utilizing orchid pollen and the secretions of the male pineal gland. Unfortunately, the male has to be killed to get the chemical from the gland--plus, the youthful effect is only temporary. First-half of the movie, with Gray, Terry and John van Dreelen traveling through the jungles of Africa, learning the secret of the potion before being told they will be killed in the morning, looks and sounds like a reel from a Tarzan adventure. Second portion, with Gray using the youth serum on herself and pretending to be her own niece, is far more entertaining (rather like a straight-faced precursor to "Death Becomes Her"). Pulled together quickly by the studio, "The Leech Woman" is better than it has any right to be, with a good cast and fine make-up effects helping to bolster its shaky structure. ** from ****

This movie came out the same year as the Roger Corman production THE WASP WOMAN, which was also a movie concerning an aged woman discovering a secret procedure to make her younger, but with deadly consequences. I don't know if the similarities of the two movies was a coincidence, but the similarities are the only interest one can possibly find from this cinematic yawn. Though the movie is only seventy-seven minutes long, it soon becomes painfully clear that there is only enough story for maybe one of the stories in a multi-part horror anthology; this story is ridiculously stretched out. And there is nothing particularly interesting along the way; the story is very predictable, and the so- called horror is flat. Is there any unintentional camp? Maybe in a few places, but it's not aggressive or plentiful enough to make the movie entertaining on a so-bad-it's-good level. This movie will make you feel your alertness leeched out enough to quickly put you to sleep.

Edward Dein directed this horror yarn that stars Coleen Gray as June Talbot, an alcoholic and unhappy older woman married to a heartless doctor(played by Philip Terry) who is having multiple affairs. When a very old African woman visits him, she promises him an anti-aging cure in her native land, so takes her(and June) along on the safari back there, and the formula works only by extracting a fluid from the back of the neck of a man, killing him in the process(guess who!) June brings the cure back home by subterfuge, but it proves only temporary, forcing her to kill young men to stay young and beautiful. Grant Williams plays her attorney. Good performance by Gray can't save this silly and absurd film, that is only good for unintended laughs.

This movie has gotten a bad rap, I think mainly because of the inane title. It conjures up a ridiculous image of a giant leech with a purse and high heels on. This movie is actually pretty good, given it's low budget. Coleen Gray, a very pretty and capable actress in her day, gives a great performance as June Talbot, the alcoholic, middle aged woman married to Dr. Paul Talbott (portrayed as a total heel by Phillip Terry, better known as Joan Crawford's 4th husband). Dr. Talbott is a scientist who is trying to find a serum to counter aging and is willing to sacrifice his wife in order to find the answer. The performances by Gray and Terry are solid, as is Gloria Talbott who plays Dr. Talbott's assistant and Grant Williams, Dr. Talbott's lawyer and Gloria's boyfriend who falls under the spell of "The Leech Woman". Estelle Hemsley is also good as an old African woman who looks like a human prune and offers to show the good doctor the secret to turn back the effects of aging, for a very steep price, of course. I thought the make up of the Leech Woman was very affective, pretty scary stuff for it's day. Don't let the title of this movie keep you from watching...it's very entertaining, from start to finish.