The Monster from the Ocean Floor (1954)

1954's Monster from the Ocean Floor, the first film produced by cinematic B-Movie mogul Roger Corman, features its titular monster at the very end o the picture, for all of about four minutes. Once we see the monster, it's a little anti-climatic, since it's essentially an Ed Wood rubber squid with a big, single, glowing Lovecraftian eye.

None of which is to say the incredibly short drive-in cult flick isn't entertaining. Julie Blair (Anne Kimbell) meets Dr. Baldwin (Dick Pinner) on a beach in Mexico. Julie is a graphic artist for a department store or something, and Dr. Baldwin impresses here with some pseudo-apocalyptic jazz about underwater farming and the future of the human race. They begin to fall madly in love and go diving together.

An abalone diver disappears with only his underwater suit being pulled out of the water. Julie is worried about this, but Dr. Baldwin, the "marine biologist,", seems bizarrely untroubled. They hear some monster stories. A gringo boat captain tells Dr. Baldwin about finding a "terranadon egg," leading the viewer to believe that the titular monster will be some sort of winged reptile.

Julie goes diving alone, chasing monster stories told by locals who claim that, chupacabra-like, the thing carries off dogs, cattle...and people. Of course, the remains of these are never found again.

Julie has some tense underwater moments with a giant squid and is circled by a hungry shark. She sees an amoeba surface atop the water. Somehow, Dr. Baldwin gets samples of it (I might have mentally dozed during this part), and there is some further tosh about the amoeba being able to absorb a can of tuna or something.

Julie goes deep underwater a third time. This time, Dr. Baldwin is concerned that his main squeeze just might end up getting absorbed by whatever it is that makes up the weird, protoplasmic amoeba.

Sure enough, Julie finds what she is looking for, a blurry rubber giant squid with one red burning eye (but we really can't tell what color the eye is. The film is black-and-white).

The monster menaces Julie (who, you will remember, was previously menaced by another huge squid, and a shark, but Dr. Blair, her now boyfriend, comes to the rescue in a mini-sub out of a comic book. (Note: I gave away the ending as a spoiler, and I often do. I'm not begging your forgiveness, just commenting on the fact. I'll warn you all next time.)

Surprise, surprise, the mini-sub kills the monster. Julie and Dr. Baldwin end the movie with a passionate kiss on a Mexican beach. Happy trails.

The film is entertaining, with nice underwater action, but the "monster" is a tremendous, laughable let-down. This film is notable for being the first produced by Corman, who would go on to produce other astounding cinematic gems such as The Horror of Party Beach, and A Bucket of Blood (with the inimitable Dick Smith in the lead role). Incidentally, the latter film, about a Seymour Krelboin schlep who works in a beatnik bar and who can only be inspired to paint if he KILLS, seems to have inspired an episode of Showtime's Nineties horror anthology Tales from the Crypt; which, in turn, was inspired by the Fifties comic, which probably featured a similar story of a homicidal artiste.

There's not much more to say about Monster from the Ocean Floor, except the word count here has to be at least 600, so I need to add something else. At least twenty words.

You'll enjoy the movie. I swear it. It's a camp, cult classic.

O K. Good to go.

Wait. Did I mention there is some sort of subplot about the locals wanting to sacrifice Julie to the monster? But I somehow missed that.

Note: This was the easiest film review I've ever written.