She Devil

Poster tagline: THEY CREATED AN INHUMAN BEING WHO DESTROYED EVERYTHING SHE TOUCHED!! The synopsis is simple: a woman dying of tuberculosis and is saved by two doctors who inject her with a special healing serum that turns her into an evil being able to shapeshift (manifested by changing the colour of her hair and make-up) and kill anyone who stands in her way. The first thing that strikes you is that the film was shot in gorgeous cinemascope format, which was not yet common in cinemas. The second thing, the lead actress can't act, and the only time I believed her is when she goes into a rage and murders someone. The effects are quite good (the aforementioned sudden change of hair colour observed in the mirror, the disappearing scars on the hand after being scratched by a leopard), the men are exclusively in the position of passive drones with whom the dominant woman does whatever she wants, but above all, the story is so stupidly presented that even the audience of that time couldn't take it seriously (and they were faced with hundreds of even more naive films). Some scenes really fall into self-parody, fortunately for me Neumann fully made up for this one year later, with the fantastic The Fly. (19.12.2016)