Creature from the Haunted Sea
Directed by Roger Corman
Written by Charles B. Griffith
1961/USA
Roger Corman Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant
[box] Sparks Moran: [narrating] It was dusk. I could tell ’cause the sun was going down.[/box]
The “unspeakable secret” is that the creature is a badly executed muppet.
The Bay of Pigs was apparently on Corman’s mind. A gangster, his moll, and his gang transport a group of Cubans and stolen loot from the Cuban treasury to the US for use by counter-revolutionalry forces. Among the gang is an American spy. The gangster’s plan is to bump off his passengers and steal the money. The gangster invents a sea creature as the cause of the mysterious disappearances. Little does he know that there really is a monster.
The film feels a lot like a spoof of James Bond movies a year before they even existed. The monster is ridiculous but some of the dialogue is pretty funny.
Corman had an extra couple of days while shooting The Last Woman on Earth in Puerto Rico so he commissioned a script that could use the same cast. The rush job and ultra-low budget certainly show.
Joe Dante – Trailers from Hell
