Cobra Woman

Director- Robert Siodmak

Cast- María Montez, Jon Hall, Sabu, Lon Chaney Jr.,

Country of Origin- US

Distributor - Kino

Number of Discs - 1

Reviewed by -David Steigman

Date- 02/10/2020

Jon Hall, who starred in The Invisible Agent, and The Invisible Man’s Revenge for Universal, is visible here starring as Ramu in the 1944 adventure film, Cobra Woman. The key plot for this story is Ramu’s fiancée Tollea(Maria Montez) has been kidnaped, and along with his friend Kado (Sabu) venture off to a pacific island inhabited by “cobra people” to find her. The cobra people perform sacrifices to a volcano god and worship a cobra. The island is ruled by Tollea's evil twin Naja(also Maria Montez ), who is the “Cobra Woman”. She plans to kill Ramu, but Tollea breaks free of captivity leading to a final confrontation with her evil sister.

As much as I enjoy movies from the forties, Cobra Woman was about as exciting as watching paint dry. The acting was flat, and the story seemed to go nowhere, with a load of padding (mostly ceremonial ‘snake’ dances) throughout just for the film to reach 70 minutes. Not even Maria Montez’s exotic looks in two roles could save this exercise in tedium. Director Robert Siodmak, the man responsible for Criss Cross, The Spiral Staircase, Cry of the City and The Killers must have had an off-day or is simply more of a Film Noir crime drama specialist rather than a jungle thrills director.

Cobra Woman arrives on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber presented in its original full-screen aspect ratio of 1.37:1. If only the film itself was as good as the image quality is. The colors are excellent rich, sharp, clear with deep textures. Outdoor scenes just sparkle with vibrant colors, particularly greens and as much as the film takes place in jungle settings. The clothes the characters wear also are cheerful and vivid. Skin tones also look perfect and are highly detailed. The film throughout has a polished look to it and is quite a revelation to just how good this looks in high definition.

The English DTS-HD master audio 2.0 soundtrack applied by Kini Lorber is satisfactory. The dialog screams and other action noises are crisp and clear with the musical score by Edward Ward sounding the most aggressive. Overall this is an excellent audio track. No drop-offs or hissing noises were detected. English subtitles are offered as well

There are a few extras for this release including an audio commentary by film historian Phillipa Berry. She discusses various details of Cobra Woman, everything from the production to the stars.

A theatrical trailer for Cobra Woman and trailers promoting other Kino releases available that either are from the same director or same genre are included as well. The trailers are for Doctor Cyclops, The Land Unknown, The Spiral Staircase, and Cry of the City and run about 2 minutes each.