Dr. Paul Talbot (Phillip Terry), an obnoxious, egomaniacal doctor wants nothing more than the wealth that a de-aging technique would earn him. Besides, he can’t stand old women, or even slightly older women. His wife, June (Coleen Gray), is a self-hating alcoholic (later narcissist). Malla (Estelle Hemsley — later Kim Hamilton) shows up to make a deal. She’s a 150 years old and wants to return to her African tribe. In exchange for the money to do that, she’ll show the doctor a powder which will prolong youth, and with an added secret ingredient will reverse aging. It isn’t long before the foul doctor and his naive wife have called off their divorce lawyer Neil (Grant Williams) are headed to the dark heart of Africa with guide Garvay (John Van Dreelen). They find the tribe, and first Malla, and then June are granted youth, but there is a high cost for youth, and it doesn’t last.
The title points to some strange monster sneaking around, but this is essentially a vampire film, once it gets past the African safari stuff. That travel material does bring up some questions about time. The film seems to take place in modern times (for 1960), but Africa seems set in the 1850s. Well, it’s amusing, so I’ll forgive the time problems. And the stock footage is obvious, but no more so than in fifty other films of the era.
Perhaps the greatest joy of The Leech Woman is how horrible everyone is. Malla is by far the least foul person, and she murders people without a blink. For a brief time it looks like Garvay, and maybe Neil will be OK, but nope, they are atrocious too. This is a group of greedy, cruel, shallow, cheating slime bags. Their particular failings fall somewhat along gender lines, but then the film is commenting on society’s views of beauty. It can be read either as a feminist statement or as a sexist statement and has been taken as both.
1960 was far past the glory days of Universal horror. The great directors were gone, as was the cash and concern. They weren’t going to make a masterpiece, but for the times, this is pretty good, and the the studio allowed for better cinematography then the budget would normally allow, as well as first rate editing. The acting is very broad but enjoyable; John Van Dreelen and Grant Williams were solid second-tier actors, while Gray is a hoot. The script isn’t a classic, but has a few quotable lines and plot-wise gave me exactly what I wanted: nasty things happening to nasty people who deserved every nasty second of it. The Leech Woman is better than it has any right to be and fitting for a double feature with The Creature From the Black Lagoon.