Summaries
-
Young Canadian nurse Betsy comes to the West Indies to care for Jessica, the wife of a plantation manager Paul Holland. Jessica seems to be suffering from a kind of mental paralysis as a result of fever. When she falls in love with Paul, Betsy determines to cure Jessica even if she needs to use a voodoo ceremony, to give Paul what she thinks he wants.
-
A young Canadian nurse, Betsy Connell, arrives in St. Sebastian in the West Indies to care for Jessica Holland, wife of wealthy sugar plantation owner Paul Holland. For Betsy, she seems to be living in paradise, despite Paul's dim view of his surroundings. His half-brother Wesley Rand is much cheerier. When Betsy finally meets Jessica, she finds her walking in the garden late at night as though she were in a trance. Dr. Maxwell explains that Jessica had a severe tropical fever that burned out portions of her spine, leaving her in a zombie-like state. Maxwell and Betsy recommend insulin shock treatment. Betsy also begins to wonder if voodoo might be able to cure her.
-
The Canadian nurse Betsy Connell is hired to travel to St. Sebastian, in West Indies, to work at Fort Holland nursing Jessica Holland, the wife of the sugar plantation owner Paul Holland. Betsy meets Paul in the ship and is welcomed by Paul's estranged half-brother Wesley "Wes" Rand in the farmhouse. During the night, she overhears a woman crying and she believes that might be Jessica and goes to her room. She finds a creepy mute woman and she learns that Jessica had a mental paralysis after a severe tropical fever and is a hopeless case, unable to speak or have power. Soon Betsy falls in love with Paul and she decides to help Jessica to be cured to make Paul happier. She suggests an experimental treatment with shock to Dr. Maxwell but it fails. While talking to the maid Alma, she discovers that another woman was cured in a voodoo ceremony and she decides to use witchcraft to cure Jessica. However the natives believe that Jessica is a zombie that cannot be cured. When Betsy meets Paul and Wesley's mother Mrs. Rand, she finds that Jessica was the pivot of a fight between Paul and Wes and she believes that her daughter-in-law is a zombie.
-
A Canadian nurse is hired to care for the wife of a sugar plantation owner, who has been acting strangely, on a Caribbean island.
Spoilers
Synopsis
- Hired as a nurse to go to a San Sebastian sugar plantation to care for a patient, Canadian-born Betsy Connell (Frances Dee) is instructed by Paul Holland (Tom Conway) to care for his invalid wife Jessica (Christine Gordon), a woman who appears to be in an extreme state of aloofness. Paul is guilt-ridden by the thought that his wife's condition is his fault, and the knowledge that his alcoholic half-brother Wesley Rand (James Ellison) has been in love with Jessica for many years. Betsy begins to consider possible cures for Jessica, but Mrs. Holland (Edith Barrett) asserts that everything has been tried by every expert, event the private doctor on the plantation. Eventually Betsy begins to believe that Jessica is a zombie, a condition cured only by the mystic Voodoo high priests of the island. Betsy takes Jessica to a local voodoo encampment but Mrs. Holland is there consulting with the local priests who distrust Betsy and make her take Jessica home. Later that night a zombie slave Carrefour (Darby Jones) comes to take Jessica away but he is rebuffed by Paul who confesses to Betsy that his love for Jessica has died and that he wants to take Betsy away from the island. Mrs. Holland then confesses that she entered into a voodoo ritual to cast a spell on Jessica when she threatened to run away with Rand and destroy the marriage between her and Paul.
