{"id":3258,"date":"2007-05-26T12:31:17","date_gmt":"2007-05-26T19:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3258"},"modified":"2021-01-16T20:01:47","modified_gmt":"2021-01-17T03:01:47","slug":"cobra-woman-1944","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3258","title":{"rendered":"Cobra Woman (1944)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;You shall see for yourself the cruel barbarism by which Naja holds our people&#8230; Fear has made them religious fanatics!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/Cobra-Woman-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/Cobra-Woman-Poster-194x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-30787\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/Cobra-Woman-Poster-194x300.jpg 194w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/Cobra-Woman-Poster-83x128.jpg 83w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/Cobra-Woman-Poster-664x1024.jpg 664w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/Cobra-Woman-Poster.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 194px) 100vw, 194px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen his fiancee Tollea (Maria Montez) is kidnapped, Ramu (Jon Hall) and his friend Kado (Sabu) follow her to an enchanted island ruled by Tollea&#8217;s evil twin, Naja (also Montez).\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fantasy<\/li>\n<li>Kidnapping<\/li>\n<li>Lon Chaney, Jr. Films<\/li>\n<li>Robert Siodmak Films<\/li>\n<li>Sabu Films<\/li>\n<li>South Sea Islands<\/li>\n<li>Twins<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary begins his review of <em>Cobra Woman<\/em> by labeling it a &#8220;Kitsch Klassic&#8221;, noting that &#8220;the dialogue is enjoyably trite, the decor is ornate, the stars are sexy, the volcano is bubbly, [and] the picture is colorful.&#8221; While Dominican actress Maria Montez remains largely unfamiliar to modern audiences, she is, as noted by Peary, &#8220;as significant to film history as Carmen Miranda&#8221;, and her dual roles here are likely &#8220;her definitive performance&#8221;. Indeed, it is Montez&#8217;s portrayal of both the meek Tollea and the vicious Naja which give this film its delightful air of campiness: Montez takes herself so seriously &#8212; and dresses in such outlandishly colorful costumes &#8212; that it&#8217;s easy to ignore the ridiculous story (which in itself is relatively unimportant). Surprisingly, this camp classic was helmed by <em>noir <\/em>director Robert Siodmak, who would return to the theme of good-and-evil twins in <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=35\"><em>The Dark Mirror<\/em> (1946)<\/a> starring Olivia De Havilland. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The outlandish technicolor costumes and over-the-top headdresses<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/cobra-woman-costumes.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/cobra-woman-costumes.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9325\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Countless campy moments, such as when Naja dances while selecting victims for the island&#8217;s angry volcano god<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/cobra-woman-victims.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/cobra-woman-victims.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9326\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, simply for its status as a campy cult classic. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cult Movie<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt0036716\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1944\/05\/18\/archives\/the-screen.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/fantasticmoviemusings.com\/2014\/11\/17\/cobra-woman-1944\/\">SciFilm Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;You shall see for yourself the cruel barbarism by which Naja holds our people&#8230; Fear has made them religious fanatics!&#8221; Synopsis: When his fiancee Tollea (Maria Montez) is kidnapped, Ramu (Jon Hall) and his friend Kado (Sabu) follow her to an enchanted island ruled by Tollea&#8217;s evil twin, Naja (also Montez). Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Fantasy Kidnapping Lon Chaney, Jr. Films Robert Siodmak Films Sabu Films South Sea Islands Twins Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: Peary begins his review of&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3258\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3258"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63778,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3258\/revisions\/63778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}