... aka: Live to Love
... aka: Naked Goddess, The
... aka: Witchcraft
Directed by:
William J. Hole Jr.
Rick Turner (Robert
Alda) is having a hard time sleeping. Night after night he keeps
having dreams of a beautiful woman he's never seen nor met before. An
unknown force guides his steps to a shop owned an operated by Francis
Lamont (Neil Hamilton), who custom makes dolls. Inside, Rick
discovers two dolls that catch his eye; one identical to the mysterious
dream woman who turns out to be a real woman named; Bianca Milan (Linda
Christian) and another of his own girlfriend, Donna Trent (Ariadna
Welter). Strangely, the shop owner tells him that he had the doll of
Bianca custom made per Rick's orders (which he doesn't remember doing),
but Donna's doll was ordered by someone else. Immediately after they
leave, Francis heads downstairs to an altar with the doll - as we soon
find out, a voodoo doll - with the likeness of Donna and stabs it with a
pin. This puts her in the hospital, where she's diagnosed with a heart
spasm and learns she'll have to be under observation for some time.
Rick's next dream features Bianca informing him that if he wants to find
out just what's going on to come find her. Rick shows up at Bianca's
apartment and realizes the bosomy, heavy-breathing blonde was already
expecting him. She informs him that she was able to come to his dreams
through "thought transference;" projecting her desires into a doll in his
likeness. Bianca's been worshiping "Gamba, the Great Devil God of Evil"
and wants Rick to do the same. She confesses to belonging to a cult of worshipers who congregate at a shrine beneath the doll shop. Taken by the
bewitching Bianca, Rick attends a ceremony there with his new "sponsor."
There, a man plays bongo drums, a woman dances and Francis the "high
executioner" offers up a human sacrifice. To test loyalty, a follower is
placed under a wheel full of blades, the wheel is spun and then lowered
onto the person. If the blade hits and bends then the person is worthy of
being a follower. If the blade falls and pierces the heart, they are not.
Rick swears allegiance to Gamba and promises to abide by all of the rules;
only half-heartedly believing any of this.
Bianca takes him back to her home and promptly informs him "You'll never
escape me, darling!" And he is quite fine with that... at least at first.
He's also quite fine with the fact that he starts reaping the rewards of
being a follower of Gamba; making tons of money at the race track and even
more on the stock market. Still, a call of conscience comes to him in
regards to Donna; who's still in the hospital suffering since her voodoo
doll is still pierced back at the shop. To relieve her pain, he sneaks
back into the shop late at night, removes the pin and positions it to look
like it's still pierced. Growing jealous and insecure, Bianca has cultist
Mary (Gere Craft), a nurse, hired at the hospital to spy on Donna
and make sure she and Rick aren't rekindling things. Rick makes one too
many trips to the hospital for Bianca's liking, so she decides to concoct
a plan that will both test Rick's loyalty and end his relationship with
Donna permanently.
A very low-budget offering, filmed in 1959 but not released until 1961 (IMDb says 1962 but they're wrong),
The Devil's Hand is talky and has extremely cheap-looking sets but the
cast is pretty good (particularly Hamilton and the luscious Christian) and
the plot is well-paced and engaging enough to maintain interest. It's not
surprising that screenwriter Jo Heims went on to a successful
writing career, later penning scripts for Dirty Harry (1971),
Play Misty for Me (1971), You'll Like My Mother (1972) and
other films. Roy Wright (who was also in the same director's
Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow [filmed the same year]) has one brief scene
as a doctor and Jeanne Carmen (from The Monster of Piedras
Blancas [1959]), Corman movie regular Bruno Ve Sota and
Hollywood veteran Gertrude Astor play just a few of the cult
members.
The surprise cast member here though for me was Mexican actress Welter in
an extremely rare (her only?) American film appearance. The daughter of a
wealthy Shell Oil executive born in Mexico City, Ariadna traveled the
globe during her youth and became fluent in six different language (her
English in this one is just fine). In Mexico, she also appeared in The
Vampire (1957), The Vampire's Coffin (1957), The Brainiac
(1961), 100 Cries of Terror (1965), The Panther Women (1967)
and other horror and fantasy films. I wondered how she ended up in this
very cheap independent American production, but a little research revealed
that she's the sister of this film's star, Linda Christian; who was born
under the name Blanca Rosa Welter and was married to actor and heartthrob
Tyrone Power.
A public domain title, this has been spoofed on Rifftrax and you can view
it online f.o.c. The print isn't the best quality but it's watchable.
★★1/2
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