A grand example of Hollywood delirium, and a major influence on 60s filmmakers including Jack Smith, Andy Warhol and John Waters. Maria Montez plays twin sisters---one good, one evil---vying to be queen of Cobra Island, a dazzlingly lush tropical location. Actually filmed on location in Laguna Beach. Some think of Montez as the first method actress in the movies, which is to say that she took her roles so seriously that she was known to act as if she had 'become' her character even to the point of appearing off-screen in full costume and expecting to be treated as some sort of exotic royalty. Now that's entertainment!

Not one but two distinguished filmmakers would no doubt love to erase this turkey from their respective CVs. Both screenwriter (later writer-director) Richard Brooks and director Robert Siodmak would make lasting contributions to cinema (for good measure Brooks wrote two fine novels; The Brick Foxhole, which was filmed as Crossfire, and The Producer)but this wasn't one of them. After a one-reel introduction in which a cardboard cutout speaks of the dreaded Cobra Island, Tollea (Maria Montez) is kidnapped and taken there hours before marrying Jon Hall, who promptly sets sail to rescue her accompanied by stowaway Sabu (later, Sabu's pet monk, a cheetah lookalike also turns up on the island but don't ask how he got there). The island is one of those backwaters with no shortage of architects to design sumptuous palaces, masons to build them, gold and silversmiths to provide ornate cobra motifs, modistes to design exotic costumes, seamstresses to run the;m up and, of course, a plentiful supply of silks and satins to work with. The plot, and I use the word loosely has Montez - she took her stage name from Lola Montez an Irish-born colleen who reinvented herself as a 'Spanish' dancer - as twin sisters one good and the other ... Gee! you're ahead of me here; one Naja, 'high priestess' of the island and one, Tollea, who wouldn't know a cobra from a decent screenplay. In terms of expanding waistline there's little to choose between Hall and Montez, in terms of wooden acting even less. See it if you must but don't say I didn't warn you.

This has to be one of the most hilarious bad films of all time. I gave it a 5: 1 for film but 10 for the fun (equals out to a 5). It has what was well on the way to becoming Maria's "stock company" Jon Hall, Sabu and Turhan Bey (except Cobra Woman was without Turhan Bey). Mary Nash plays, I think, the high-priestess of the Cobra Temple or maybe even Maria's nanny(it's been a while since I saw it and it's not available on VHS or DVD so you must depend on the very occasional TV showings to catch it)with her very best Maria Ouspenskaya (the slowest taking woman on the screen...by the time she finished you either forget what she was talking about or no longer cared!). The 2 Marias actually appeared in one film together, The Mystery Of Marie Roget. Pity there were no more. Maria did a couple of films with the always over-the-top Gale Sondergaard. A great pairing. Montez is responsible for two of the funniest moments in screen history; one from SUDAN (again the stock company but less Sabu). Jon Hall discoveries her in the desert, dying from lack of water...BUT...her hair is perfectly coiffed and not a touch of makeup is out of place. (Old Hollywood...don't you just love it!) And the other is in Cobra Woman. After they have overthrown both the high priest and Maria's evil twin sister (is there any other kind?)the country is without a ruler. Nash pleads with her to take possession of the Cobra Throne but she refuses, preferring to go away with Hall and Sabu on their fishing boat. Nash (in her very best Ouspenskaya) says to her: "But mine chhhild, your peep-ole neeed 'chu" Then, without even changing the expression on her face (which she seldom did anyway) Maria turns to her and utters the unforgettable line: "Gif me dah Cob-bra Jo-ols." In my mind still one of the most fall-down-funny lines in the history of film.

Even though this movie was somewhat kind of cheesy but the reason I was watch this movie cause I can't get enough of how beautiful Maria Montez is and it's too bad that she died at such a really young age cause she was the beautiful queen of technicolor.This movie is about Tollea and her fiance Ramu (Maria Montez and Jon Hall, respectivly) who are about to get married on their wedding day and Tollea is forced to go back home to her Cobra people to stop her cruel twin sister Naja's (also done by Maria Montez) wickedness and Ramu and his young buddy Kado (Sabu) go out and try to find her and Ramu mistook Naja as Tollea and as the Cobra law against strangers, they are executed and when the fire mountain gets angry, the people are sentenced to die without question.Overall if you love old cheesy technicolor movies then you should go watch this movie cause it is a clever way to spend 75 minutes of your time and it needs to be released on video and DVD, it's much better than watching most of today's junk. 8/10 stars