Curse of Simba [Curse of the Voodoo] * (1965, Bryant Haliday, Dennis Price, Lisa Daniely) – Classic Movie Review 11,108

Director Lindsay Shonteff’s 1965 British-American black-and-white supernatural horror film Curse of Simba [Curse of the Voodoo] [Voodoo Blood Death] stars Bryant Haliday, Dennis Price, and Lisa Daniely, and is set in Africa but filmed in England.

Executive producer Richard Gordon, producer Kenneth Rive and director Shonteff chose a screenplay by Brian Clemens (written under the pseudonym Tony O’Grady, with additional dialogue and scenes by Leigh Vance) originally titled The Lion Man for their star Bryant Haliday as a follow-up to Devil Doll (1964).

Bryant Haliday stars as safari-leading white hunter Mike Stacey who brings a curse home to England after enraging the African Simbazi tribe by killing one of their venerates lions. He must return to Africa to break the curse and kill the tribal chief Simbaza (Danny Daniels) who put it on him.

US theatrical release poster of double feature with Curse of the Voodoo.

Its ‘African’ outdoor sequences were filmed in London’s Regent’s Park and it uses stock footage of African fauna extensively. Gordon said: ‘It is one of the ways to make low-budget pictures – to have plenty of running time without having to do a lot of complicated shooting.’ Unfortunately, however, Curse of the Voodoo is a really bad example of the way to make low-budget pictures, without any noticeable redeeming features.

Interiors are shot at Shepperton Studios.

Production began in April 1964 as a joint project of the UK’s Galaworld Films and the US’s Gordon Films. Originally budgeted at £35,000 to be shot in four weeks, it ended up a week over schedule and £15,000 over budget because, Gordon said: ‘The weather really botched things up and sort of depressed everybody.’

The movie was released as Curse of the Voodoo in the US in a double bill with the low-budget US sci-fi movie Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster (1965).

The cast are Bryant Haliday as Mike Stacey, Dennis Price as Major Lomas, Lisa Daniely as Janet Stacey, Mary Kerridge as Janet’s mother, Ronald Leigh-Hunt as doctor, Jean Lodge as Mrs Lomas, Dennis Alba Peters as Saidi, Danny Daniels as Simbaza, Tony Thawnton as Radlett, Michael Nightingale as second hunter, John Witty as police inspector, Andy Meyers as Tommy Stacey, Louis Mahoney as African expert, Jimmy Felgate as Barman, Nigel Feyisetan as Simbaza in London, Beryl Cunningham as nightclub dancer, Valli Newby as night club pickup and The Bobby Breen Quintet as night club band.

The running time is 77 minutes (UK) and 61 minutes (US).

American actor/ producer Bryant Haliday (April 7, 1928 – July 28, 1996) was the co-founder of Janus Films, a showcase for international films in the US. Haliday returned to England to appear in The Projected Man (1966) and Tower of Evil (1971).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,108

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