Of the four titles that came in from Germany earlier today, three of them are now ready to join the ranks of the 4xblu online store’s offerings: Gregg Araki’s “Smiley Face,” Woody Allen’s “Match Point,” and Robert Siodmak’s “Cobra Woman.”
Robert Siodmak got his start in the German film industry during his mid-twenties, filling a variety of functions before collaborating on the docudrama “People on Sunday,” a surprise hit that featured a number of German filmmakers (such as Billy Wilder, Edgar G. Ulmer, Fred Zinneman, and Siodmak’s brother Curt) who would later flourish in Hollywood after Hitler’s rise forced them to leave Germany. Before finding success in America, though, Siodmak worked in France for the better part of the 1930’s. He then established himself in the early 40s by directing low budget pictures like “Son of Dracula” and “Cobra Woman” for Universal before helming noirs like “Phantom Lady,” “The Spiral Staircase,” “The Killers,” “Cry of the City,” and “Criss Cross,” which are among the works he’s best known for today.
“Cobra Woman” was the third film in a successful trilogy of Technicolor adventure films starring María Montez, Jon Hall, and Sabu (the previous two being “Arabian Nights” and “White Savage”). Over the years the film — in which the thickly-accented Dominican Montez pulls double duty as both Hall’s abducted girlfriend and her twin sister, the titular serpentine priestess — has become a cult classic, with no less an authority than the high priest of camp Kenneth Anger calling the picture his favorite film of all-time.