For those of you wondering whether Pittsburgh-born beauty Marpessa Dawn ever made another film besides 1959's classic "Black Orpheus," here is your answer. She appeared two years earlier, as an Amazonian native at the opening of "Womaneater," being sacrificed to a carnivorous tree. That tree is stolen by English scientist George Coulouris, who finds it necessary to keep this houseplant well fed with curvaceous lassies in order to harvest the tree's life-giving sap. Things get a bit complicated, however, when he falls in love with his new housekeeper, Vera Day... This picture is certainly pretty bad, objectively speaking, but I've gotta tell you, I've seen a lot worse. The film looks like it cost around 200 pounds to make (although it probably cost twice as much!), and has a tawdry, sleazy aura hanging over it, but the acting isn't all that atrocious, the script doesn't waste our time with unnecessaries (the whole thing is a scant 70 minutes long), and Vera Day, almost looking here like a poor man's Anne Francis, is pretty good as the bird in distress. The killer plant itself is certainly nowhere near as scary as those apple trees in "The Wizard of Oz," however. IMDb viewers looking for a better killer-plant flick should investigate "Day of the Triffids" (1963); even the hilarious 1960 "Little Shop of Horrors" offers more shocks and entertainment value. "Womaneater" (you've gotta love that title!) is decidedly a bargain basement affair; I suppose the producer's name, Guido Coen (!), should have tipped me off. And speaking of tips, potential viewers should know that this picture DOES offer two salient high points: Vera Day looks absolutely smashing in her 1950s-style bullet bra!
