Cobra Dance | Karavansara

I was surprised, this morning, when I found out the cobra dance clip from Cobra Woman, that I had posted in 2015 as I reviewed that movie, has been pulled off Youtube because the sensual moves of Maria Montez as she dances with a cobra muppet could cause dirty thoughts in the innocent viewers.

I am seriously worried by this weird form of preventive censorship, based on the idea that something might offend those that don’t like it – but if they don’t like it, why are they watching it?

So, just for the sake of being contrarian, here’s another exotic dance that the censors have yet to purge: Debra Paget’s dance from Fritz Lang’s 1959 tits & sand movie, The Indian Tomb.
This one, too, had the censors’ knickers in a twist.
IN 1959.
Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se6NuvKYl9g&t=24s

… and yes, the Indian priests speaking German are somewhat unusual.

As a side note, the whole “woman dancing with cobras” might be familiar to my friends that are into Robert E Howard.
Shadows in Zamboula¹, anyone?

Weird_Tales_1935-11_-_Shadows_in_Zamboula

Go and talk about censorship and undue perturbations of the viewer’s spirit.

the comic adaptation of Shadows in Zamboula was actually the first ever Conan comic I read. ↩

220px-Cobrawoman There’s no sand, in Cobra Woman, the 1944 Universal movie that brought Maria Montez, Jon Hall and Sabu back to the screens after the success of Arabian Nights… so this is an anomalous entry in the Tits & Sand series.
Cobra Woman is a South Seas movie – and yes, that’s another genre we’ll have to keep an eye on, because it’s a fun, pulp sort of entertainment.

Directed by Robert Siodmak, Cobra Woman also features Lon Chaney Jr.¹ in a small but foundamental role.
And yes, there’s also a big plastic cobra – somewhat embarrassing – but we’ll get to that.
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