THE DISEMBODIED

PLOT SUMMARY

Tonda Metz is displeased with her husband, Dr. Carl Metz. In the opening sequence, she tightenes a noose around the neck of a voodoo doll representing him, and he, relaxing on the patio of his jungle home, suddenly clutches at his throat. Suba, the house servant, brings him water on request. Then Tonda hears someone approaching her room, and tosses the doll into a cupboard. Dr. Metz recovers.

The jungle drums come alive. Suba informs his master that three white men approach — one very sick. Dr. Metz, the misogynist, commands Suba to warn them off. But in the field, Tonda countermands her husband's order. the three approach the house, carrying Joe on a stretcher. He has been mauled by a lion. Dr. Metz says he will do what he can, but Joe's chances are slim.

Tonda is confronted on the porch by Suba, who calls her "bad, bad woman" and turns away. She clutches his shoulder. "Do you think I'm a bad woman, Suba?" she asks. Almost immediately she is in his arms — an embrace his wife Mara observes from a distance. Tonda, drawing back, slaps Suba and goes inside. Soon she is flirting with Tom, leader of the three visitors, and soon he too succumbs to her charms. Even Tonda's husband, who is well aware of what she's been doing, cannot resist her. But when she later asks Tom to kill her husband, he spurns her.

Norm, third of the white visitors, has gone with their native servant Gogi to fetch their jeep. They get back OK, but that night they find the jeep with its gas can punctured and Gogi dead beside it. They make plans to hike out the next morning. When they wake up their guns are missing. They try to take some of the doctor's guns but are discovered. Dr. Metz says he would like to go with them. "I don't want to leave," says Tonda. Her husband tells her she can stay right there where she belongs. Enraged, she pulls the dagger she always wears on her belt and stabs him. Now his chances are slim. Tom makes it clear to Tonda that if her husband dies she will face a murder charge. She replies she'll swear you killed him. He reminds her that Kabar, the other house servant, is a witness. "I can handle Kabar," she says.

She soon does handle Kabar, using her voodoo to eliminate him as a witness. But Tom outwits her on that score, and himself becomes the target of her next voodoo ritual — in which Joe, healed and possessed thanks to voodoo, plays a prominent role. It turns out that Tonda overlooked the player she should have targeted.

Capsule review: This black-and-white film is worth a look, especially for fans of Allison Hayes. However, it is a mediocre example of the genre.