Hapless heroes try to escape the clutches of a Nazi scientist turning native women into monsters. Starring Irish McCalla of “Sheena: Queen of the Jungle” fame, this 1958 clunker is terrible but quite funny. 3/10

She Demons. 1958, USA. Directed by Richard Cunha. Written by Richard Cunha & H.E. Barrie. Starring: Irish McCalla, Tod Griffin, Victor Sen Yung, Rudolph Anders, Produced by Arthur Jacobs. IMDb: 4.5/10. Letterboxd: 2.9/5. Rotten Tomatoes: N/A. Metacritic: N/A.

During a hurricane, four people are stranded on an uncharted island outside of Florida where they have been travelling to investigate rumours of a tribe of animalistic women. These are anthropololgist Fred Maklin (Tod Griffin), assistant Sammy Ching (Victor Sen Yung) and local skipper Kris Kamana (Charles Opunui), as well as spoiled rich girl Jerrie Turner (Irish McCalla), whose father has financed Ted’s exploration trip. After trying their best to repair the radio (without luck) and keeping the aloof, nagging Jerrie happy (with even less luck), the team stumble upon the body of a native woman with a monstrous, fanged face. Later they see a group of scantily clad native girls (the Diane Nellis Dancers) doing a choreographed dance in the jungle, after which the ladies are rounded up by a group of armed Nazis and put in a cage. In the cage beside them, there is another group of women, all as monstrous as the body our heroes found on the beach. Our heroes also makes the unpleasant discovery that the island is used for bombing practice by the US air force, which is about to make a bomb run the next day. With no way to leave the island, our trio is facing death either by “she demons”, Nazis or US bombers.

So begins She Demons, a 1958 low-budget indie picture directed by Richard Cunha, a cinematographer and director, whose fame rests solely on four SF/horror pictures produced for distributor Astor Pictures in 1958. Its selling point, beyond the usual mishmash of native girls, female monsters and mad scientists, was voluptuous lead actress and pin-up model Irish McCalla, best known as the titular star of the TV show Sheena: Queen of the Jungle (1955-1956). It was released as the co-feauture to Cunha’s own Giant from the Unknown.

While Fred, Sammy and Jerrie are birdwatching, Kris is killed, presumably by the “she demons”, as Fred christens them. Going back to the site where the girls were imprisoned, the trio spotted by the Nazis, and despite Fred heroically fighting off the main Nazi Henchman, improbably named Igor (Gene Roth), they are captured and brought befor the island’s ruler. This is Col. Karl Osler (Rudolph Anders), a Nazi scientist and war criminal, who built himself a vast underground bunker during WWII for his experiments with genes. These last years, he has dedicated his life to try and cure his assistant-cum-wife Mona (Leni Tana), whose face has been badly damaged during a lab explosion. She now spends her days with her face covered in bandages, except for the times when she is tomporarily made beautiful buy her husband’s experiments. In short: Dr. Osler transfers the genetic juice from the native women to her wife, making her beautiful again, for a limited time. In return, the girls receive animal genetic juice, turning them hideous and animalistic – but only for a couple of days. They then return to normal, so Osler can have an endless supply of canned beauty for his wife.

Of course, during their adventure Fred and Jerrie fall in love, but unfortunately Osler also has an eye for Jerrie. In the evening, Dr. Osler tries to seduce Jerrie, only to get his head smashed in with a wine bottle. Unknownst to him, his wife has been spying, and helps Jerrie free Fred and Sammy – but to no avail, as they are caught again. In spite, Osler ties Jerrie to the slab, intending to use her as the next victim of his mad science. But thankfully, just when the procedure is about to start, the US air force starts their bombing, stirring up the old volcano on the island. The lab blows up, and our three heroes make for home in a rowboat that Mona has pointed them to. In one of the final scenes, Mona reveals her horrible face, which she uses as an explanation to why she chooses to burn with her husband.

Background & Analysis

In 1957 friends Richard Cunha (a cinematographer) and Arthur Jacobs (who had worked in production) decided to make a movie together, and were able to raise $54,000 in order to produce Giant from the Unknown (1958). In a joint interview, they tell film historian Tom Weaver that Jacobs took the film to New York and shopped around for distributors, and landed on low-budget outfit Astor Pictures, with whom he had worked before. Astor promised to distribute it if Cunha and Jacobs could turn out another film to accompany it. Astor paid an advance of $80,000, of which the duo used $65,000 to produce the bottom-of-the-bill, She Demons. It was written by H.E. Barrie and Cunha, and directed by Cunha, with Jacobs producing.

The movie was filmed at Cunha’s and Jacobs’ own Screencraft Studios for the few interiors (a lab, a stairway and a sitting room), and cave sets made out of what looks like crumpled paper. The beach sequences were shot at Paradise Cove in Malibu, and we also get a few shots from (where else?) the Bronson Caverns. The jungle scenes were filmed in Griffith Park, where B-movie units must have tripped over each other. The sets look cheap and cramped, but not terrible.

Film historian Bill Warren describes this as one of the worst movies ever made. And there’s no two ways about it, this is a terrible film by any conventional standards. Cunha and Barrie seem to have just thrown everything exploitable in the pot: castaways on an uncharted island, undulating, barely dressed native girls, a volcanic eruption, Nazis, mad scientists, female monsters, body horror and some tame romance. The plot could basically fit on a napkin, most of the film’s running time is made up of people escaping and being recaptured, be it the native women, the she demons, Fred Sammy, Jerrie, and at one time even Mona. This doesn’t mean that film drags, per se, as it actually moves along at a moderately fair pace, but the most of the plot is just repetitive padding.

Plot holes and logic warps abound. For example: after having escaped their Nazi captors, why do the native girls gather around a camp fire and perform choreoghraphed dance routines, rather than try to escape? Why is Jerrie on the trip to begin with? She has no qualifications, hates to be there and seems to be generally disliked by everyone involved. Why is there a window with a view to the jungle in Osler’s underground bunker? Given the recent outbreak of escapes, why are there at no point any Nazis guarding the one and only tunnel leading to the bunker? Etc.

As far as the science goes in this science fiction hodgepodge, it is unusually bonkers. Even if you buy the idea of gene transfer healing scar tissue immediately, and turning someone into a monster, the lack of logic is here is hilarious. For example, why are only the faces of the native women turned hideous, and not their bodies? At one point, Osler explains that he is using the heat from the volcano to power his bunker, as if this was some kind of nefarious new technology. But geothermic energy had been used for decades — the first geothermal power plant was built in 1911. Even more bizarre is that Fred states that through geothermal energy, Osler has discovered perpetual motion.

The monster makuop is appallingly bad. The She Demons wear terrible, rigid masks with laughable fangs glued on top, and long, silly nails. The little we see of Mona’s deformed face is actually not bad, but here the film crew clearly ran out of time and money, as only a small area around her eyes are shown. There are no visual effects in the film, and few special effects. Much of the volcanic eruption is reused footage — partly from One Million BC (1940), for the n:th time. However, the practical effects of the bunker collapsing during the eruption are actually surprisingly good.

The cinematography by Meredith Nicholson is OK, even if the lighting is not only flat, but bad at times. Richard Cunha’s direction and blocking are hurried and lazy.

The acting ranges from indifferent to hammy. One wonders who ever imagined Tod Griffin would make a good leading man. Griffin has problems emoting even the most basic emotions, and walks through the only lead role — or any role of note — in his career as if he was doing a dry run. Perhaps doubting he naturally looked tough and manly enough, he plays almost the entire film with his arms gorilla-style by his sides. I am told Irish McCalla was capable of better, but she certainly doesn’t convince in this film, acting stiffly and almost as if she was reading the lines from cue cards. Of the heroic trio, Victor Sen Yung is by far the best actor, and is able to deliver a fun and almost natural performance, despite having to spend much of his time spouting racially stereotyped puns. Kudos to the film team, though, for letting Yung speak normal American English. Rudolph Anders is the one actor keeping things lively — Anders is clearly happy to command the role of the suave, sinisterly charming, megalomanic villain, and hams it up to the max. Anders also gets some deliciously funny lines, in stark contrast to the rest of the turgid dialogue.

As is often the case in these films, the heroic leading man is absolutely useless, and doesn’t succeed in anything but getting himself caught, not once but twice. It’s actually “helpless” Jerrie that does all the heroics, aided by the villain’s wife.

And or being a film called She Demons, the titular demons are conspicuously absent from the plot. There is at one point some talk of danger as the She Demons are loose in the jungle, but they never present either a thread, an obstacle or anything else. They sort of just exist on the sidelines of the plot.

Despite all of its glaring shortcomings, or rather because of them, She Demons is a hilarious so-bad-it’s-good movie. There’s no point trying to suss out any underlying theme or moral from this film, no-one thought about this script long enough for having any such thing in here. Just turn off your brain and enjoy the ineptutude of She Demons.

Reception & Legacy

The movie recieved little attention in the press at its release. Whit in Variety called it “a mediocre adventure yarn” and wrote that “Principals handle their roles as well as script by Richard E. Cunha […] permits.” Monthly Film Bulletin said: “the direction does nothing to enhance the lurid values of this impossible horror film […] The plot consist of a weary succession of convenient clichés and the cast walk through their parts with noticeable lack of enthusiasm.”

Bill Warren in his book Keep Watching the Skies! calls the movie “as unwatchable as other Astor entries”. Mark McGee in You Won’t Believe Your Eyes!, however, states in response: “It’s awful. I won’t argue that. The tongue-in-cheek script is dull and clichéd, but it’s no worse than a lot of pictures made at the time, and slightly better than some.”

Today the film has a 4.5/10 audience rating on IMDb based on 800 entries and a 2.9/5 rating on Letterboxd, based one some 500 votes.

DVD Savant Glenn Erickson plays on the film’s so-bad-it’s-good repution: “The charm of this movie is its excess, and has nothing to do with quality. The camerawork is not bad but the blocking and direction are strictly from the Ed Wood school of maladroit filmmaking […] Every development of the plot is drop-dead stupid, with the added presence of the Nazis to give the whole affair a serious dose of Bad Taste.” Hal Erickson at AllMovie calls it “among the worst films ever made”.

Cast & Crew

Richard Cunha is best, and really only known for his four cheap horror/SF movies produced for Astor in 1958 started his career as a aerial photographer for the US Air Force during WWII, and then was involved in making newsreels, documentaries and military training films at Hal Roach Studios. After this he started working in television, eventually becoming director of photography. When a small studio in Hollywood was closing down, he and editor friend Arthur Jacobs took it over and formed Screencraft, and used the studios to do commercials and industrial films, as an editing facility and rented it out. A friend pushed them to get into filmmaking proper, seeing as they already had a studio and a company, and that is how their first collaboration, Giant from the Unknown (1958), came about. After making its co-feature, She-Demons (1958), Jacobs got the opportunity to work for TV procuder Jack Wrather in production and distribution, and wound up working for different TV companies until 1975, when he set up an independent distribution company. He also produced a small handful of sexploitation films.

After Jacobs’ departure, Screenart was dissolved and Cunha founded Layton Film Productions with investor Marc Frederic, and went on to direct three more films with him, the SF/horror filmsFrankenstein’s Daughter (1958, review), Missile to the Moon (1958, review) andGirl in Room 13 (1960), all distributed by Astor, like his first two movies. After completing these movies, Cunha returned to his work as a director of photography on TV and a small number of films, as well as making commercials, which he continued to do until the early 80s. After this, he opened a video rental shop.

H.E. Barrie, of whom there is little information available, wrote or co-wrote all Richard Cunha’s films, except Giant from the Unknown.

Well-endowed Irish McCalla moved to California at the age of 17 in 1945, and started working odd jobs, including modelling. She soon became a very popular pin-up model, and, among other things, posed as a model for Alberto Vargas’ famous pin-up drawings. Through her model work, she was offered the titular lead role in the 1955-1956 TV show Sheena: Queen of the Jungle (after Anita Ekberg had turned down the role). Sheena was a female version of Tarzan, a woman who grew up in the jungle and protects natives and animals from slave traders, white hunters, dangerous beasts and ruthless villains. Athletic McCalla says she did all her own stunts in the TV show: “I couldn’t act, but I could swing through the trees”. Until one day, she grabbed an unsecured vine, slammed into a tree and broke her arm, and the producers started using a stunt double.

McCalla then got her only starring role in a movie Richard Cunha’s SF/monster movie She Demons (1958). She appeared in small roles in half a dozen other films in the late 50s and early 60s, including Allied Artists’ 1962 adaptation of Maurice Renard’s SF novel The Hands of Orlac, Hands of a Stranger. She did a couple of TV guest spots after this, then retired from acting to become a housewife and accomplished painter.

Tod Griffin studied theatre for two years after WWII, and started acting in summer stock, before trying his luck in TV. During the 50s he had around two dozen guest spots on TV shows, and appeared in bit-parts in a couple of films. His lead in She Demons (1958) was his only appearance of note, and his performance in the movie makes it clear why. Apparently Griffin realised that he wasn’t quite cut for the trade, and instead went into real estate in the early 60s.

Rudolph Anders was born Rudolph Amendt in Germany in 1895 and appeared primarily on stage before emigrating to the US with the rise to power of Hitler in Germany in 1933. During all of his career he was confined to “accent roles”, particularly playing Nazi villains, especially during WWII. His kind appearance, however, prevented him from playing main villains, so he mostly got by in bit-parts. He did remain busy during the late 40s and 50s, trying to steer away from Nazi roles, which he succeeded relatively well in, often playing foreign diplomats, scientists and other roles in which his accent wasn’t a hindrance. Anders appeared in two of W. Lee Wilder’s low-budget SF movies, Phantom from Space (1953, review) and The Snow Creature (1954, review). Richard Cunha’s She Demons (1958) provided him with his only featured role as the mad Nazi scientist creating female monsters in a remote island bunker, and he also appeared in the infamous Frankenstein 1970 (1958, review).

Victor Sen Yung may be familiar to the senior crowd as legendary Chinese TV detective Charlie Chan’s “Number Two Son”, variably named James, Jimmy and Tommy, a role which he played in no less than 25 films between 1938 and 1948. Sung enjoyed playing the role of the maverick investigator, despite the racial stereotyping, however, outside the Jackie Chan series he was offered few interesting roles. He did get cast as the Cartwright family cook in the TV show Bonanza, and provided comic relief in over 100 episodes. While in demand and working steadily, Sung grew tired of playing stereotypical oriental villains, Asian comic reliefs, valets, cooks and other typical roles, and cut down in his acting in the 70s. An accomplished chef, he started giving demonstrations in Cantonese cooking at department stores and released a cookbook. He died in a gas leak accident in 1980.

The rest of the cast is made up of bit-part actors and extras from Cunha’s and Jacobs’ circle. The best known is without doubt Gene Roth, whose burly appearance and menacing look made him perfect for villains, henchmen and the occasional stern authority figure, often playing sheriffs. He appeared in over 250 movies or TV serials between 1922 and 1967, including playing the main villains in a small handful of Columbia movie serials in the early 50s. He was also recogniseable for appearing as a foil for the Three Stooges in a number of movies. Roth’s perhaps most prominent role came in Bert I. Gordon’s Earth vs. the Spider (1958, review, where he played the sheriff, which he also did in Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959). He appeared as the main Nazi henchman Igor in She Demons (1958), in which he has a lengthy fisticuff with lead actor Tod Griffin. He appeared in minor roles in a number of other SF movies, including Red Planet Mars (1952, review), Red Snow (1952, review) and Twice Told Tales (1963).

Composer Nicholas Carras was not a hugely prolific film composer, but when he did make movie music, it was often for low-budget SF films such as Jungle Hell (1956, review), She Demons (1958), Frankenstein’s Daughter (1958), Missile to the Moon (1958), Astro-Zombies (1968), The Bamboo Saucer (1968) and The Doll Squad (1973). Like Carras, cinematographer Meredith Nicholson also collaborated with Richard Cunha on all of his SF films of 1958, except Giant from the Unknown. Nicholson also filmed The Amazing Transparent Man (1960), Beyond the Time Barrier (1960) and was director of photography on both Get Smart and Mork and Mindy.

Janne Wass

She Demons. 1958, USA. Directed by Richard Cunha. Written by Richard Cunha & H.E. Barrie. Starring: Irish McCalla, Tod Griffin, Victor Sen Yung, Rudolph Andes, Gene Roth, Leni Tana, Charles Opunui, Whitey Hughes, Bill Coontz. Music: Nicholas Carras. Cinematography: Meredith Nicholson. Editing: William Shea. Production design: Harold Banks. Costume design: Marjorie Corso. Makeup: Carlie Taylor. Special effects: Dave Koehler. Produced by Arthur Jacobs for Screencraft Enterprises & Astor Pictures Corporation.