Cobra Woman. Screenplay by Gene Lewis and Richard Brooks

Los Angeles: Universal Pictures, 1943. Original 121 page shooting script with color rewrite pages for the Universal Studios exotic adventure film directed by Robert Siodmak, starring Maria Montez, Jon Hall, Sabu, and Lon Chaney Jr. In the finished film Montez plays the evil Cobra Woman who rules a Pacific island where all strangers are to be killed on landing and human sacrifices are made to a volcano god. Front wrapper is lightly handled with some small chips and tears with the Universal file copy stamp, very good. Screenwriter Richard Brooks went on to be (truncated) one Hollywood’s most noted directors, writes, and producers. For all its exaggerated theatricality, avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger calls Cobra Woman his favorite film and film critic Leonard Maltin gave it 3 out of 4 stars and called it a camp classic. The director Robert Siodmak later called the film "silly but fun... Montez couldn't act from here to there but she was a great personality and completely believed in her roles: if she was playing a princess you had to treat her like one all through lunch but if she was a slave girl you could kick her around anyhow and she wouldn't object - Method acting before its time you might say. (Inventory #: 22753E)