Weird Woman (1944)

A college professor (Lon Chaney Jr.) returns from the South Seas with a new bride (Anne Gwynne) who still believes in the pagan ways of the island population. She brings with her some amulets and artifacts that will "protect" her and her husband from evil. Based on the novel CONJURE WIFE by Fritz Leiber (later remade in 1962 in England as NIGHT OF THE EAGLE) and directed by Reginald Le Borg. One of the better Universal horror offerings (under their Inner Sanctum franchise) from the 1940s that isn't part of their Monster legacies: Frankenstein, Dracula, Mummy, Wolf Man etc. Chaney is his usual stolid self and Gwynne is okay but it's a trio of actresses that help keep the movie afloat: Evelyn Ankers (in a rare villainess role), Elizabeth Russell (CAT PEOPLE) and Elisabeth Risdon. All of them providing interesting and contrasting layers (duplicity, neuroticism and sass). It lacks the sophistication of the superior 1962 film, which was called BURN WITCH BURN in the U.S. but its mix of the supernatural, superstition and human spite does its magic. With Ralph Morgan and Lois Collier.