A horror/sci-fi film, it is the story of June Talbot (Coleen Gray) a woman who seems about 37 who is treated horribly by her husband, endocrinologist Paul Talbot (Philip Terry), who wants to divorce his wife because she is "old"...even though he looks quite a bit older than her. It actually has lots to say about gender roles and aging for a B movie from the mid 20th century.
Paul finds the secret of youth deep in the African Jungle in a remote tribe, and ends up dying the most ironic of deaths. The secret involves drinking the pollen of an orchid found only in that part of Africa. What's the catch? You have to mix it with the pineal gland of a man, which causes his death. What's the other catch? The youth and beauty it bestows only lasts a short time, and seems to get shorter each time you take it. The final catch? After the beauty wears off you look about another decade older than you did before.
June went with Paul into the jungle on his trip, and finds out about catches two and three that I mentioned in the previous paragraph as she escapes the jungle with the pollen of the rare plant. She returns to America and pretty soon you find out WHY she probably married a guy who was such a drip as Paul. As a young woman under the influence of the potion, she is wanton, rash, and vain. These things really don't change with age if you never acquire wisdom, and so that is why as an older woman at the beginning of the film June hit the bottle and it is why towards the end of the film homicide in order to stay young seems increasingly easy for her. But I'm not going to rain all over June' s character without mentioning that just about everybody in the movie is wanton, rash, and vain.
This was made by Universal, so the production values are much better than you'd find in a film in the same genre and the same era as one from Allied Artists, but there are a few goofs. June doesn't get a matronly figure. Her aging seems to amount to some layers of some kind of wrinkled plastic over her face, gray hair and effects on her hands. A cop with a search warrant doesn't bother to search. He just asks a bunch of questions and behaves rudely. And for June to have no medical training, she sure knows how to hit that pineal gland every single time!
One more thing. I first saw this on the late show when I was 14 and babysitting. Now, remember that EVERYBODY over 30 looks old to a 14 year old. I even thought at the time that the initial "old" June did not look old. She just looked like she needed some hair dye, some sleep, and some makeup. I'd recommend this one.
Paul finds the secret of youth deep in the African Jungle in a remote tribe, and ends up dying the most ironic of deaths. The secret involves drinking the pollen of an orchid found only in that part of Africa. What's the catch? You have to mix it with the pineal gland of a man, which causes his death. What's the other catch? The youth and beauty it bestows only lasts a short time, and seems to get shorter each time you take it. The final catch? After the beauty wears off you look about another decade older than you did before.
June went with Paul into the jungle on his trip, and finds out about catches two and three that I mentioned in the previous paragraph as she escapes the jungle with the pollen of the rare plant. She returns to America and pretty soon you find out WHY she probably married a guy who was such a drip as Paul. As a young woman under the influence of the potion, she is wanton, rash, and vain. These things really don't change with age if you never acquire wisdom, and so that is why as an older woman at the beginning of the film June hit the bottle and it is why towards the end of the film homicide in order to stay young seems increasingly easy for her. But I'm not going to rain all over June' s character without mentioning that just about everybody in the movie is wanton, rash, and vain.
This was made by Universal, so the production values are much better than you'd find in a film in the same genre and the same era as one from Allied Artists, but there are a few goofs. June doesn't get a matronly figure. Her aging seems to amount to some layers of some kind of wrinkled plastic over her face, gray hair and effects on her hands. A cop with a search warrant doesn't bother to search. He just asks a bunch of questions and behaves rudely. And for June to have no medical training, she sure knows how to hit that pineal gland every single time!
One more thing. I first saw this on the late show when I was 14 and babysitting. Now, remember that EVERYBODY over 30 looks old to a 14 year old. I even thought at the time that the initial "old" June did not look old. She just looked like she needed some hair dye, some sleep, and some makeup. I'd recommend this one.