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Review by E.C.McMullen Jr. |
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CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA- 1961USA Release: June, 1961 Roger Corman Productions, The Film Group Rated: USA: N/A |
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With animated cartoon opening credits, similar to what you may have seen if you saw the original black and white movie, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, we are set up for Roger Corman's third attempt at comedy.
Understand that in this era, Roger made a lot of funny movies, he just didn't mean to.
It begins with the voice of a world-weary narrator who is one of the characters in the movie. Sparks Moranaja aka Agent XK150 (Robert Towne1: LAST WOMAN ON EARTH, THE ZODIAC KILLER), is a top secret spy on a mission. When Fidel Castro overthrows Military dictator, Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar, takes over Cuba and Batista's assorted loyalists vow to return to power, Sparks will be there to call the U.S. calvary and do god knows what.
Generalisimo Tostada (Edmundo Rivera Álvarez: THE POSSESSION OF JOEL DELANEY) and his men meet in the Cuban jungle with a shady crook named Renzo Capetto (Antony Carbone: A BUCKET OF BLOOD, THE LAST WOMAN ON EARTH, THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM [1961]). Renzo doesn't speak Spanish, Tostada doesn't speak English, so they both go through a translator.
Along for the ride with Capetto is his idiot henchman, Happy Jack Monahan (Robert Bean: DINOCROC VS SUPERGATOR).
These two groups have come together to smuggle the Generalisimo, his small squad, and a crate full of gold bars out of Cuba. The gold is for hiring mercenaries to go to Cuba and destroy Communism (not that the Batista Dictatorship was any better).
TRIVIA 1 Robert Towne is best known as a writer, whose credits include, THE LAST WOMAN ON EARTH, THE TOMB OF LIGEIA, as well as critically acclaimed dramas. In his time, he was considered one of the best Script Doctors in Hollywood. 3 Say what you will about Charles B. Griffith's screenwriting, and I have, but few screenwriters have had as many big budget remakes based on their original material as Charlie. Griffith was an early part the Corman's stable of writers. CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA is one in a long line of Roger and Gene Corman produced movies that kept the TV show, MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 on the air, off and on, for over 30 years. The Blu-ray for this review came to me courtesy of Film Masters, and comes with the main movie, THE DEVIL'S PARTNER. In addition to an informative 22 page booklet on the movie, this comes with a 4K scanned and restored Blu-ray of THE DEVIL'S PARTNER, along with plenty of disc extras that Film Masters is known for, including a new interview with Roger Corman. Plus, the late Corman provides commentary! With an impressive care and attention to detail in restoration, this Film Masters print is likely as good as CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA will ever look and sound. |
An errant Volkswagon bug, filled with Communist revolutionaries, comes shooting its way into the jungle and the goofball chase is on.
Capetto and the Cubans make it to their little get-away boat, not much bigger than the Minnow in Gilligan's Island, and escape with a minimal loss of life.
It's here we meet the rest of Capetto's sparse gang: Pete Peterson Jr. (Beach Dickerson: ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS, WAR OF THE SATELLITES, TEENAGE CAVEMAN, THE DUNWICH HORROR, SCHOOL SPIRIT, DEADLY DREAMS, FUTURE KICK), the aforementioned "Sparks", and of course, Carbone's "Moll" and big sister to Happy Jack, Mary-Belle Monahan (Betsy Jones-Moreland: LAST WOMAN ON EARTH). That's why Renzo puts up with Happy Jack's stupid shit: To keep sister Mary-Belle happy.
Renzo Capetto may be clever but, Damn, is he ever a fool when choosing henchmen. Renzo is planning enough "accidents" for the Cubans onboard that, by the time they reach their destination, all they'll have left is the gold.
Renzo is going to convince Tostada that the path they're taking to their destination is the infamous domain of... THE CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA. The Translator doesn't buy a word of it, but Tostada is a superstitious moron and doubles the number of his soldiers on duty that first night.
That suits Capetto just fine. Secretively killing one soldier in the dark will terrify the other three and spread a convincing rumor among the rest.
Later that night, everyone is perplexed to find two dead Cuban soldiers.
Perplexing for the Cubans who didn't believe the Creature was real, and perplexing for Capetto's gang because Happy Jack and Pete swear that they only murdered one.
So what the hell is happening?
If you haven't guessed by now, there really is a CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA, and if you thought the upside down ice cream cone alien from IT CONQUERED THE WORLD looked ridiculous, man, even Muppets don't top this bug-eyed goof.
But yes, deadly it is.
Renzo doesn't know what to think, but double the number of victims suits him just fine and heightens the fear factor among the young soldiers.
Mary-Belle makes no never mind about it all. One dead soldier, two, what's the difference? Her lover, Capetto plans to kill them all anyway and she can't wait until the creepy, leering General Tostada gets his.
She also wouldn't mind if Sparks was included among the victims, since the loser won't stop furtively whispering his love for her (nearly blowing his cover) and how he will save her from this life of crime: a life she is more than happy to have.
As a Horror movie, CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA utterly fails. As a comedy (written in a matter of days by Charles B. Griffith), it has its rare moments mainly because the comedy is so broad it even makes the old Bullwinkle and Rocky cartoons appear subtle by comparison.
The movie soundtrack from Fred Katz (THE WASP WOMAN, A BUCKET OF BLOOD, BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS), who had just made his mark with Beat poet Ken Nordine and his best selling Word Jazz albums, keeps it all light and in the cartoony comedy spirit of the movie.
Overall?
The movie is terrible. Even Roger thought so and decided to stop making "Dark Comedies" after this one. It was shot in Puerto Rico on 16mm film at the same time as the drama, Naked Paradise and the Thriller, THE LAST WOMAN ON EARTH, from film stock leftover from those productions and using most of the same cast and crew.
Naked Paradise and LAST WOMAN were meant to be a move away from exploitation, but Roger and his brother, Gene, just couldn't help themselves. They had created a new company called The Film Group and knew they needed "Product". CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA was just a way to finish off their budget, resources, and pad their new company catalog.
Which, after three movies in a row, caused an uprising among the still unpaid crew, led by Director of Photography Jacques R. Marquette (THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS, ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN, A BUCKET OF BLOOD, LAST WOMAN ON EARTH, TRAUMA, VARAN THE UNBELIEVABLE, THE STRANGLER, FUZZ, BURNT OFFERINGS, THE ADDAMS FAMILY HALLOWEEN, THE ALIENS ARE COMING) . They hatched their own revolution and refused to work until Roger not only paid them in full, but they could cash the checks.
An angered Roger refused to ever work with Marquette again, which apparently suited Jacques. Neither man's career was negatively affected by their rift.
I would think that such a disposable movie would have gone by the wayside long ago (and so did Roger), but thanks to the owners (The Corman Brothers own The Film Group) not caring for it and allowing its copyright to expire, this movie remained on the market, becoming a source of income for whoever had the best print.
CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA would eventually be digitized and colorized until Film Masters got old of it and
2 Shriek Girls.
This review copyright 2024 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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