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Black Mamba (film)

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Black Mamba
Directed byGeorge Rowe
StarringJohn Ashley
Marlene Clark
Pilar Pilapil
Eddie Garcia
Release date
  • 1974 (1974)
CountryPhilippines
LanguageEnglish

Black Mamba is a 1974 horror film directed by George Rowe and starring John Ashley, Marlene Clark, Pilar Pilapil, and Eddie Garcia.[1][2]

Premise

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A doctor gets involved with a woman who practices witchcraft and can turn into a python. She intends for a young child to be her next victim. The doctor tries to stop her.[1]

Cast

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Production

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The film is notorious for depicting an autopsy performed on a real human corpse. A real corpse was exhumed from one of the local prisons and used on film. "It is a wild film," said Ashley, ""very graphic, very gory."[3]

The film was originally known as Witchcraft. Ashley said it co-starred one of the top female stars in the Philippines and that he made it just before his involvement in Apocalypse Now. He says the film was financed by a Chinese man involved in the advertising business.[1]

Release

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Black Mamba was not widely screened.[4] The film was released in the Philippines but not the US. A person bought it and took it to Hong Kong to redub it but ran out of money.[3]

The film remained unreleased until after Ashley's death in 1997.[5]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Lamont, John (1992). "The John Ashley Interview Part 2". Trash Compactor (Volume 2 No. 6 ed.). p. 6.
  2. ^ Vagg, Stephen (December 2019). "A Hell of a Life: The Nine Lives of John Ashley". Diabolique Magazine.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ a b Weaver p 46
  4. ^ Tom Weaver, "Interview with John Ashley", Interviews with B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers: Writers, Producers, Directors, Actors, Moguls and Makeup, McFarland 1988 p 45-46
  5. ^ Poggiali, Chris (January 20, 2011). "Slinking Through the Seventies: An Interview with Marlene Clark". Retrieved January 9, 2015.
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