Miss of the Spider Woman

Exotic ship-dwelling Juanita assigns her henchman Gomez to find an assassin and kill her ex-lover by slipping him a dose of rare and potent cobra venom. Gomez chooses a near-sighted female mud wrestler named Cindy who sneaks into the wrong apartment and ends up poisoning Sledge instead. Sledge has only a few hours to live unless the nearly-nonexistent antidote can be located, but he is determined to crack the case. He and Dori locate the myopic Cindy and learn of the mistake. They get their first real lead when Sledge's flirtatious landlady identifies Gomez as the man who stole her pass-key. Under duress, Gomez tells Sledge and Dori where to find the treacherous Juanita. A shipboard confrontation with her finds Sledge wrestling with a large boa constrictor in a desperation attempt to obtain the antidote in the last few minutes before the poison takes its final, fatal effect. —Sam Spear