MANEATER OF HYDRA: Finally Wide-ra

I first saw Mel Welles' botanical shocker MANEATER OF HYDRA (aka known as ISLAND OF THE DOOMED, LA ISLA DE LA MUERTE and LE BARON VAMPIRE) back in 1970 on Cincinnati's SCREAM-IN with the Cool Ghoul. I was transfixed. This movie had everything: Cameron Mitchell, Eurocult atmosphere, sexy Kay Fischer and blood-sucking plants with obscenely drippy tendrils! It also features a supporting role by Ricardo Valle, who played Morpho in THE AWFUL DR ORLOF. During the grand finale, a storm broke out and, as torrents of rain fell on Mitchell's dying plants, the whole screen looked awash in blood. But even then I could tell the picture was cropped to hell and back. People died only half-onscreen. People talked to other people you couldn't see. The end credits were so squeezed I couldn't tell what happened to Cameron Mitchell.

I knew Mel Welles in the last years of his life and we spoke more than once about our shared hopes that a widescreen copy would someday surface on DVD. He wanted to see it again. It didn't happen in his lifetime and it still hasn't happened... but I just found the next best thing on YouTube: a widescreen French-language copy in six installments! Not ideal quality, but it's more watchable than anything we've had before!

Click here for Part 1 of 6. Links to subsequent chapters should appear in YouTube's right-hand column.