I can’t believe I’ve finally made it to the bottom of the
ginormous stack of DVDs that David Hayes brought me 17 years ago. Actually, it
was more like two, but it felt longer. (That’s what she said.)
ANYWAY....
I’ve got some horror/sci fi classics to review for you
today. The best thing about these genre films from the 50s and 60s? They’re
only about an hour long! The worst thing, aside from the low budget, crappy
effects, and terrible acting, is that with such a short window, most of the
action/storyline is told instead of shown. Oh well. I’m willing to overlook
that when you get monsters made out of yarn and cardboard boxes...
Our first film is Creature from the Haunted Sea, a 1961 beaut
from Roger Corman. In Cuba, Castro has just successfully led a revolution,
ousting dictator Batista. But just because they won, doesn’t mean the Revolution
has any money. So, an American casino owner, Renzo Capetto, is asked to smuggle
a giant box of gold out of Cuba for Castro (I’m not really clear on why, but
whatever.) Capetto agrees, but only because he plans to steal it for himself.
In on the job are his gal, Mary-Belle and her brother,
Happy, Jack (the guy who makes animal noises,) and Sparks (who’s actually an
undercover American Agent.) General Tostada, his aide, and a bunch of Cuban
soldiers are accompanying the gold so nothing happens to it on the way. Capetto
decides to kill as many of the Cubans as he can on the boat ride out of Dodge, so decides to use a local legend about a sea monster as cover.
Trouble is....the monster is actually REAL!