The Spider Woman Strikes Back (1946)

A young woman (Brenda Joyce) comes to a small rural town to act as a companion to a blind woman (Gale Sondergaard) who lives in a secluded mansion with only a mute servant (Rondo Hatton) residing with her. It doesn't take long for the new companion to suspect something is not right in the foreboding household especially when the local cattle begins to mysteriously die. Directed by Arthur Lubin (ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES). Sondergaard had played the Spider Woman in the 1943 Sherlock Holmes film THE SPIDER WOMAN but this is not a sequel and in no way related to the Holmes film. Universal had hoped to add a SPIDER WOMAN franchise to its horror catalog but the movie was not a success and the idea was abandoned. As a horror movie, there's not much style or suspense attached to it and outside of Sondergaard's sinister performance and Rondo Hatton's creepy looks, it's not interesting at all. Certainly, the bland supporting cast brings nothing to the party. Granted, it's a feeble script but director Lubin doesn't even try to up the ante, his direction just plods along. With Kirby Grant, Milburn Stone and Hobart Cavanaugh.