Drums O'Voodoo on AllMovie

Produced for the "all-colored" movie houses prevalent in the U.S. in the early 1930s, Drums O' Voodoo (aka She Devil), isn't nearly as ludicrous as its title. Based on S. August Smith's stage play Louisiana, the film stars Smith as Amos Berry, a black preacher dedicated to purging his Bayou parishioners of their voodoo superstitions. Though he is challenged by powerful voodoo priestess Aunt Hagar (Laura Bowman), the two religious rivals find themselves reluctant allies when the minister's beloved niece Myrtle (Edna Barr) falls into the clutches of Satanic brothel-owner Thomas Catt (Morris McKinney). After this, the film's melodrama mode really shifts into high gear, leading to a bizarre climax involving symbolic bolts of lightning and a pool of bubbling quicksand. Available prints of Drums O'Voodoo are worn, ragged and incomplete, but the modern viewer can get a pretty good idea of the quality of the picture within its first few minutes.