Sunday, June 8, 2008

It's A Start...



MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR-1954 This was the first film Roger Corman made as producer. It was a modest hit and made it's money back so as they say "the rest is history"....

Anne Kimball stars as Julie, a vacationing American artist in Mexican who decides to investigate the local legend of a one eyed sea monster. Love blooms when she meets Steve (Stuart Wade; the sheriff in TEENAGE MONSTER) a marine biologist who doesn't believe her when she finally does see the creature. The nerdy looking Dr. Baldwin (Dick Pinner) thinks the monster may be a product of the Bikini Island A-bomb tests.

Future Corman regular Jonathan Haze appears as a local with a bad accent (it's similar to his later role in IT CONQUERED THE WORLD). The monster is kind of a comical stop motion thing and it's demise is pretty silly. Still although it's a little talky MONSTER is a short easy to take cheapy....and it was directed by Wyott Ordung, the guy who wrote ROBOT MONSTER!!!!! He also appears as a villager who thinks Julie should be sacrificed to appease the underwater monster! Earlier Ordung had a role in Sam Fuller's FIXED BAYONETS. He directed one other film, WALK THE DARK STREET.

Cinematography is by Floyd Crosby (who'd shot HIGH NOON in '52) who would become a AIP mainstay and collaborate with Corman again in the future. Look quick for Corman himself in the brief role of "Tommy".....

Thanks for reading!

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