Curucu, Beast of the Amazon (1956)

"Can't get a man, so she gets a career." So says male chauvinist John Bromfield about the female doctor behind a screen, and flabbergasted when Beverly Garland opens it up, giving the death stare of all death stares. But she's a tough chick, able to withstand huge snakes, spiders and other jungle creatures as she heads into the Amazon with Bromfield to determine what kind of monster or beast...or worse...is attacking the local tribes people. Once the secret is revealed, it should be all over, but unfortunately, there are several more reels to get through.I'll give this credit in the sense that they did their best to find the best color stock footage to match the new footage, blending it in almost convincingly. The jungle settings are pretty but there's really little mystery in this cartoonish adventure. Once again, Garland is a sight to behold, but the creature is nowhere the campy sight of the vegetable monster she came up against in "It Conquered the World". The scantily clad natives are a muscular erotic sight, but unfortunately, this is the type of schlock that turned movie audiences away and put them in front of their newly bought television screens where, when something was bad, at least you didn't have to pay for it.

Rock Dean (John Bromfield) travels to the Amazon jungles to see why plantation workers are running away from their jobs. On this same dangerous trip is the pretty Dr. Andrea Romar (Beverly Garland); she is in search of medicinal herbs used in the process of shrinking heads. The doctor thinks those same herbs may contain an ingredient that could treat terminal cancers. Their guide, Tupanico (Tom Payne), warns the two that they are wanting to travel way too far up the river where no white man has shown his face before. Plus it is said to be the home of the frightening monster Curucu that has been terrorizing the plantation workers.This feature is directed and written by Curt Siodmak and uses tons of stock footage of jungle creatures. Other players: Harvey Chalk, Wilson Viana, Sergio de Oliveira and dancer Larri Thomas.

I spend a lot of time trying to add lesser known 50's sci-fi titles to my ever growing collection. Unfortunately I came to this title. Cool title and stars Beverly Garland made by Universal - how could I miss? Although the poster looks great on this flick, find the strength to resist. The Brazilian locations are great and acting was acceptable but whoever wrote the script was a loser. This played out more like an episode of Scooby Doo(old man Smithers and all). The part that really killed me was that after they ruin the whole movie after 45 minutes, it goes on for another 35 minutes!! Seriously, for lesser known movies, check out Giant from the Unknown or Monster from Green Hell before you ever touch this garbage.

I have not seen this film for quite some years, but remember -- the 1940-50's HORROR/SCI-FI films were mostly targeted for the juvenile audience and were intended as FUN and "Saturday Matinee" ESCAPISM. I actually have quite a fond rememberance of this film and it was not really a bad film at all. Produced by UNIVERSAL [in my opinion, one of the studio "leaders" of classic "B-Films" from that period [Adventure, Horror, Westerns] and starring the wonderful "1950'S scream-queen" BEVERLY GARLAND and strong, veteran B-stock actor JOHN BROMFIELD [the workable squre-chinned, buff hero]. WARNING - SPOILER: This film's "Monster" was the typical "red-herring" [only ever seen briefly throughout] and was not revealed until the finale. The beast was actually quite intriguing - attacking through the foliage with a large visible slashing claw, and offering an occasional glimpse of it's savage partially seen face [with strange feather-like features protruding from its head]. It was an elaborate hoax staged by an Amazonian local as a territorial offensive maneuver. Lots of great CINE-COLOR with lush, jungle scenery, a piranah attack, and the film plays more like a "DIME-MYSTERY PULP" adventure than a true actual HORROR film. Overall, I enjoyed it - pure, clean, non-offensive FUN!