cult film freak: MARK DANA AND ZIVA RODANN STARRING IN 'PHARAOH'S CURSE'

Ziva Rodann in Pharaoh's Curse Year: 1957 Rates: **1/2

Infamously shot in six days, mostly in Death Valley, the Bel Air Production PHARAOH'S CURSE stars their next years' HOT CARS villain Mark Dana...

Here in the square-jawed lead, awkwardly juggling a British and American accent while subtly romancing a greedy archeologist's wife, Diane Brewster, during the initial twenty-minute trek through the desert where gorgeous Israeli bombshell Ziva Rodann appears with the usual "turn back or die" warning...

But none heed her call, as the journey winds up at a pharaoh's tomb, which is actually a pretty neat-looking set full of secret doors and shadowy corridors, but the body count deaths from a cursed local, morphed into an ancient unbandaged mummy, sucking the blood of horses and humans, trudges along as clumsily as the monster... A shame since the rudimentary aura is spooky enough, making this CURSE a let-down of ungodly proportions... but the ladies are great to look at. It's a b-movie after all.