A nurse is hired to care for the wife of a sugar plantation owner, who has been acting strangely, on a Caribbean island.
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.—Ken Yousten <kyousten@bev.net>
Betsy, a young nurse, arrives in St. Sebastian, West Indies to care for Jessica Holland, wife of wealthy sugar plantation owner Paul Holland. When Betsy meets Jessica, she finds her walking as though 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.—garykmcd
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 onboard the ship. During the night, she overhears a woman crying and she believes it might be Jessica and goes to her room. She finds a mute woman and learns that Jessica had a mental breakdown after tropical fever and is hopeless. She suggests an experimental treatment; shock therapy, to Dr. Maxwell but it fails. After talking to the maid, she discovers another woman was cured in a voodoo ceremony and decides to use witchcraft to cure Jessica. But the natives believe Jessica's a zombie who can't be cured.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
In the midst of a Canadian winter, nurse Betsy Connell will have a drastic change of scenery in accepting a job as private nurse for Jessica Holland, the wife of sugar plantation owner Paul Holland on the West Indian island of Saint Sebastian, Betsy not to meet either her employer or her patient until her arrival. That first encounter with Mrs. Holland will be an auspicious one. Officially, Mrs. Holland, who was afflicted with a tropical fever, is now in a zombie-like state a result, where she is conscious and seemingly understands things said to her, but shows no signs of response or emotion. Besides the Hollands, the only other person living on the estate, beyond the servants, is Paul's younger half brother, Wesley Rand, with their mother, missionary widow Mrs. Rand, living in town closer to her work. Because of her emotional connection to Paul, Betsy feels compelled to help Mrs. Holland recover in any way she can, which includes being dragged into the voodoo rituals of the island, many of the locals who see that voodoo both as a cause and a remedy to what afflicts Mrs. Holland. In the process, Betsy may get caught between the brothers, much like Mrs. Holland did, some rumors spreading around the island of that being the true cause behind what led to Mrs. Holland's current condition.—Huggo
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.
