Villain(s)  Nando witchdoctor

Actor(s):  Grant Williams, Coleen Gray, Phillip Terry, Gloria Talbott

Brief Description  The Leech Woman is a 1960 black-and-white sci-fi horror film directed by Edward Dein. It follows June Talbot (Coleen Gray), an aging, alcoholic woman, and her endocrinologist husband Paul (Phillip Terry), who travels to Africa with her to find an ancient tribal secret for eternal youth that requires human sacrifice.

Plot:
The story opens by introducing Dr. Paul Talbot, a callous endocrinologist obsessed with reversing human aging. His marriage to June Talbot is highly toxic; Paul constantly ridicules June for her fading beauty, which has driven her to alcoholism as a coping mechanism. Paul’s scientific breakthroughs stall until he is approached by a mysterious, heavily wrinkled elderly woman named Malla. Malla claims she is actually 152 years old and a member of the hidden African Nando tribe. She promises to reveal her tribe's ancient secret of physical rejuvenation if Paul finances her journey back home. Seeing a perfect, disposable test subject, Paul forces a desperate June to accompany him on an expedition to Africa.

Deep in the African wilderness, the group finds the Nando tribe. The tribal elders show Paul and June the truth behind their immortality: a unique powder made from the "Nandipe" orchid. However, the powder alone does not grant youth. It must be mixed with a fresh hormone extracted from the pineal gland of a living person—a process that inevitably kills the donor. The tribe rules that June will be the one to undergo the transformation. Realizing that Paul intends to exploit her and abandon her once he has the formula, June turns the tables. With the help of the tribe, she chooses Paul as her sacrificial donor. The hormone is drained from his head via a ceremonial ring equipped with a hidden needle, killing him instantly. June drinks the potion and is instantly transformed into a stunning, voluptuous woman in her twenties.

June escapes back to New York City under the alias "Terry Albright," masquerading as her own "niece". She claims control of her late husband's estate and instantly captivates his old colleague, Dr. Garfield. However, June soon learns the horrific catch to her transformation: the youth elixir is strictly temporary. When it wears off, she rapidly ages back into an old woman, looking even more withered each time it occurs. Desperate to maintain her youth and prevent Dr. Garfield from marrying his actual fiancé, Sally Howard, June is trapped in a cycle of murder. Using her husband's ceremonial ring, she lures unsuspecting men into dark alleys to extract their pineal fluid and sustain her beauty.

As the police begin investigating the string of dead male victims with punctured skulls, June's control unravels. She attempts to kidnap Sally to eliminate her competition for Dr. Garfield's affection. When confronted, June frantically prepares one last dose of the elixir. In a twist of poetic justice, June uses a pineal gland that had been previously extracted from a dead body, rather than a living donor. Because the hormone was no longer fresh, the serum fails entirely. Confronted by the police and looking older and more decrepit than ever, a distraught June leaps out of a window to her death, her body instantly turning to dust upon impact.