Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Overlooked Movies: Creature from the Haunted Sea

If you ever wonder what Robert Towne was doing before he became a famous screenwriter, you can watch this movie he starred in.  It also features the most hilarious googly-eyed monster of all time, one that looks like a muppet with claws.  That would be terrifying if you were Bucky Katt, but maybe not if you weren't.  Let's face it.  This movie is awful, almost Plan Nine from Outer Space awful, but without the charm.  Just watch the trailer posted below if you don't believe me.

The movie is supposed to be a spoofy comedy, but it's not funny.  The plot features an American mobster who escapes Cuba (it's 1961) with loyalists and bunches of money with which the loyalists plan start a counter-revolution and which the mobster plans to keep for himself.  Our Hero (Towne) is embedded in the mob, and he's going to foil the plan.  There's a woman, of course, the mobster's moll, who's allegedly a singer.  (I report, you decide.)  When the supposedly mythical creature from the haunted sea turns out to be real, people start getting killed.  We sure must have been hard pressed to find entertainment in the earlyu '60s.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I get the feeling Towne thought he was playing Bogart in this. And the "monster" should have been saying, "Me want cookie!"

Hilarious.


Jeff

Todd Mason said...

Well...Corman knew what he could get away with in a drive-in "B" feature, anyway (in the decades since, others have offered THE CREATURE FROM BOGGY CREEK, 1941, JAWS THE REVENGE, THE BLACK DAHLIA...). I remain fond of the opening animation, which is rather better than the rest of the film...

Deb said...

Yeah, very much early Corman--something for the kids to watch at the drive-in between make-out sessions.