Cult of the Cobra
The movie opens with title and credits over an Indian shrine to the cobra with flanking burning lamps. We are told the time is 1945 and the place is Asia. A group of G.I.s are wandering around an Indian bazaar. Paul Able (Richard Long) and Pete Norton (William Reynolds) are at a table selling cloth. Pete asks Tom Markel (Marshall Thompson) what he thinks of the cloth. Rico Nardi (David Janssen) directs the men's attention to a snake charmer. Nick Hommel (James Dobson) and Carl Turner (Jack Kelly) join the others around a basket. They take a few pictures then talk to the snake charmer, Daru (Leonard Strong). For $2 he agrees to hold the snake. Paul asks about a cult that believes snakes can be transformed into humans. Daru is visibly surprised. One man says he'd give anything to see it. This piques Daru's interest. He tells the men that he is a Lamian and for $100 he will show them, "she who is a snake, and yet a woman." They make arrangements to see the ceremony that evening, but Daru warns them that pictures are forbidden.The men meet and get reasonably drunk. Daru shows up as promised. He gets them past the guards. They are dressed like locals. He warns them that if they are discovered they will be killed. They enter a large curtain lined room. On a raised platform there is a stone shrine and a large basket. They discover Nick is missing from the group. A dancer performs a ritual and out of the basket a woman emerges and dances. The ritual includes the snake woman biting and killing a man. Against orders, Nick takes a picture; his flash angers the assembled men. Nick is attacked. The other five men start a fight as Nick grabs the basket and makes his way to the exit. One of the Lamians (Edward Platt) tells them, "The Cobra Goddess will avenge herself. One by one you will die!" Just prior to exiting, Tom sets the curtains on fire to create a diversion. Daru is killed by the mob. The five men escape in the jeep, but Nick is still missing. They spot a woman walking away from the basket and discover Nick on the ground. Tom chases the woman but she escapes. Nick is still alive, but they discover a snake bite on his neck. Tom performs a hasty snake bite remedy to remove most of the venom. Carl, Rico and Pete carry Nick to the jeep. Tom tells Paul, "Lets get out of here." They return to the base. They are supposed to ship out the next morning.Nick Hommel is in a hospital bed surrounded by his buddies. He tells the men he wanted the basket as a souvenir. The nurse (Mary Alan Hokanson) arrives to take Nick's temperature and asks the men to leave. She adjusts the window down a bit to keep out the rain. Outside a cobra works its way towards the building. It enters Nicks room. He sees it and screams, but a clap of thunder muffles his cry. The next morning Major Martin Fielding (Olan Soule) tells Paul Able that Nick died early in the morning. He succumbed to neurotoxic venom that paralyzed his heart. After Paul leaves to catch his transport home, Fielding explains to Capt. Steve Williams (Alan Reynolds) that he is puzzled also. Most of the venom was removed from Nick before he was admitted to the hospital, but by morning he had been re-infected. The body was loaded with cobra venom.The men fly home on a DC-3. They discuss their post-military lives. Rico will be running his Dad's bowling alley. All the men are discharged from the military and begin their civilian lives.On the streets of New York City, Paul Able and his fiancé, Julia Thompson (Kathleen Hughes) have come to see Rico Nardi at the bowling alley. She tells Tom she is going to marry Paul. She still needs to tell Rico. Tom is initially angry and disappointed and tells Rico the good news before Julia has the chance. She had been dating Tom and Rico before she got serious with Paul. Tom and Paul are roommates. In his apartment, Tom's dog is restless and wakes him in the middle of the night. He goes to the kitchen and hears a woman scream. He exits his apartment and forces the door to the apartment across from his. He finds Lisa Moya (Faith Domergue) against the wall sobbing. She tells Tom there was a man in her apartment. Tom checks the apartment, finds no one, then picks up the phone to call the police. Lisa tells him no, no police. She tells him to stay a while. She explains that she just moved into the apartment today and has only been in the city a week. He tells her he is a commercial artist--advertising. They agree to a date the next day to see the city.They meet the next day and visit some of the sights in the city: Staten Island Ferry, the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street and the Fulton Fish Market. They stop at a hot dog stand for lunch. That evening they return home, but she rebuffs his advance to kiss her. Tom introduces Lisa to his roommate, Paul and the dog freaks out. She sees a picture and picks it up. It is a picture of the six men taken when they were deployed in Asia. Tom explains who and where everyone is now. They agree to meet on Sunday at Carl's apartment; he is having a party. No sooner is she back in her apartment, but she gets her coat and leaves. She walks along the street and encounters a cat that screeches at her and runs away. It is apparent she just doesn't have a way with animals, any animals. At Rico's bowling alley, Carl and Pete, who are also roommates, pay their tab and leave. Rico is closing up the place when Lisa arrives outside. A bowling pin falls over and Rico investigates. He carries a case of beer out to his car for Carl's party. Mrs. Webber (Helen Wallace) asks for a donation for a charitable organization. Rico heads back inside to close up. He grabs his coat, locks the door and gets in his car. He drives off, whistling, sees the cobra in the rear view mirror, panics and runs his car off the street. He rolls the car and is killed instantly. Lisa walks back to her apartment.The remaining four men and Lisa attend Rico's funeral. Carl decides to have the party on Sunday. As Tom and Paul walk with Lisa back home a horse freaks out at her presence. She tells Paul she's always been afraid of horses. Paul is beginning to believe Lisa is not who she claims to be and is increasingly worried about her influence over Tom. He is starting to believe the curse is real and they are all destined to be killed.At Carl's party, Lisa is dancing with the host. Tom is jealous. At one point he slugs Carl and tells Lisa to get her coat, they're leaving. Paul tells Carl, "I'm sure she's no good for him." Paul meets Julia after she returns from her show out of town. She is back in New York rehearsing--she is an actress. Paul asks her to talk to Tom. He admits he's afraid of Lisa. It has to do with Rico's death. He doesn't think it was an accident. He tells her about the cult story. He thinks Lisa is involved.Tom returns from his date with Lisa at Carl's party. They talk and he tells her he loves her. She leaves and returns to her own apartment. He checks on the dog. Tom notices that Lisa forgot her gloves. He tries to return them. He knocks on her door, but she doesn't answer. He uses the key he borrowed earlier to get some ice and lets himself in. He discovers she isn't there. He sits and has a smoke and waits for her. The party is over at Carl's and everyone is leaving. Pete leaves with Marian Sheehan (Myrna Hansen) his date for the evening. Carl set them up. He is going to take her home, then return. They leave the building. Lisa sees them and hides, and then enters the building. She knocks on Carl's door; he invites her in. She tells him she wanted to apologize for spoiling the party. She tells him she really came back to see him. Carl goes into the kitchen to mix some drinks, but when he returns to the living room Lisa is gone. He goes over to a chair and sees the cobra. He strikes it with a plaster vase, but it bites him and he falls over a railing and down to his death on the sidewalk. Pete returns and finds a crowd gathered around Carl's body. Lisa joins the crowd and Pete warns her not to look. The police arrive and ask if anyone knows the deceased. Pete volunteers that he and Carl were roommates. The police ask Pete to come with them. Lisa returns home to find Tom sleeping on her couch. They talk about their relationship. She voices her concern about hurting him.The next morning Paul makes breakfast for him and Tom. They talk. He tells Tom he and Julia are going down for their marriage license. The telephone rings; its the police asking about Carl. They want to see both Paul and Tom immediately. Paul tells them they will be right down.Pete Norton's blood is checked for type. The Police Inspector (Walter Coy) tells the lab tech when Paul and Tom arrive he wants their blood typed as well. The Inspector interrogates Pete then releases him. Julia is at Tom and Paul's apartment reading up on cults. Lisa stops by for her usual breakfast coffee and inquires about Tom and Paul. Julia tells her they are at the police station. Julia tells Lisa about Paul's recent fascination with cults and cobras. She tells Lisa that there are people that believe they can turn into snakes. Lisa responds strangely. Julia adds that Paul fells that is why Rico, Carl and Nick are dead. Julia hastily departs after paying the dry cleaner for some shirts delivered.The Police Inspector interrogates Tom and Paul. They are released to go when the blood tests reveal they were not involved directly in Carl's death. Before he leaves, Paul volunteers the cult story. Paul accuses Lisa of being an agent for the curse. Tom storms off. Back at Lisa's apartment, Pete Norton confronts Lisa over a scratch on her arm. He believes it came from the vase Carl threw at the cobra. He accuses her of being a Lamian. She goes to her bedroom under the pretense of getting her passport to prove she was elsewhere when Nick was killed in India. There we see her, in shadow, transform into a cobra. She leaves her apartment and collects Tom at his. They sit and have coffee. They are formally dressed for Julia's Broadway show that evening.The Police Inspector tells Paul that, working on his story, they checked the autopsy reports on Carl Turner and Rico Nardi. It was death by snake venom, a large one. He agrees to pick up Lisa for questioning. The police force the door on Lisa's apartment and find Pete's body. He has two puncture wounds on his neck. Paul calls the Theatre to talk to Tom. Lisa goes up to Julia's dressing room looking for Paul. Paul tells Tom they found Pete dead in Lisa's apartment. The police leave Lisa's apartment and drive over to the Theatre. Julia returns to her dressing room while Tom notices Lisa is missing from her box seat. A door slowly opens and Julia notices the cobra on the floor. She screams. Tom enters her dressing room and is confronted by the snake. He throws a costume over it. He breaks a window with a chair and using a coat rack pushes the cobra out the window. When the police arrive we see the cobra transform back into Lisa, dead on the street below the window. A crowd gathers. We close with an anguished Tom walking away down the street. Cast credits roll.
cult