The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959)

In THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS, a series of grisly decapitation deaths occur in a small seaside town. Suspiciously, the local lighthouse keeper has been feeding meat scraps to a certain big-clawed creature. Keeping his secret becomes increasingly difficult as the body count rises. Upon watching this movie again, I was struck by the subtle influences it has had on other films, such as JAWS and THE FOG. It's also pretty grim and graphic for a monster movie from the late 1950's. Overall, the movie is very effective. The finale at the lighthouse is certainly memorable. Co-stars Don Sullivan (THE GIANT GILA MONSTER, TEENAGE ZOMBIES) as Fred and Les Tremayne (WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE SLIME PEOPLE) as Dr. Jorgenson.

Idyllic coastal setting, and I'm a sucker for lighthouses, is the setting for this "monster on the beach" outing that owes a bit to Creature from the Black Lagoon (the monster is basically a stripped down Gillman without the distinctive detail to the costume that made it so memorable and special). California coastal community of Piedras Blancas is suffering a string of beheadings to the locals (it literally goes for the jugular), and it's possible the lighthouse keeper (John Harmon) has known about its existence, living in a cavern nearby, and kept it secret. Forrest Lewis is the constable out to find the killer and stop it, and Lee Tremayne is the doctor/scientist lending his expertise to help identify what it is. Jeanne Carmen is Harmon's daughter, and Don Sullivan is Carmen's beau. Sullivan is studying with Tremayne in a mentor/pupil dynamic. Not enough monster, some rough acting (clear indication some of the actors were struggling with their lines, and the long dialogues seemed to be a chore for some of them to endure), and pacing issues hinder the entertainment value. There is some dead space that just seems to devour the running time. Even at 71 minutes, it feels long. Severed heads (including one scene where the Reptiliman is carrying a bloody head, another where there's a crab crawling on a discarded head in the cavernous home of the monster) add shock value, some description of the monster's handiwork is grisly even if not shown, and there's a haunting scene where the father of a victim carries his child with the locals behind him as he marches up a sidewalk to the constable. I guess I would have boosted my rating had we seen some extra skin from Carmen, but what we do have is rather a slog that kind of drags and energy in the direction is lacking. The face of the monster, when revealed, is disappointing, to say the least. The right move was ending the film using the lighthouse. I think what is definitely missing is a key B-movie actor, like a Denning, Marshall Thompson, or Carlson, to anchor the film as far as a charismatic presence. At their best, the cast is serviceable, if no one is exactly extraordinary. This kind of film was begging for a Universal Studios budget and a helmer like Jack Arnold to move the plot along more effectively. As a creature feature, this is no better or worse than those cheesy Corman/Blaisdel efforts (which had some fun casts and a sense of humor).

It's kind of interesting to see which members of the cast can act and which can't. The two young leads aren't bad, as a matter of fact. Jeanne Carman, the hefty, young college girl, is passable. She went on to become a kind of groupie of Sinatra's Rat Pack. Her sex life must have been beyond imagining.John Harmon, as her suitor and (maybe) an oceanographer -- the plot doesn't make it clear -- gives probably the best performance in the movie, right up there with Les Tremayne as the local doctor who is puzzled over the mutilated bodies that turn up at the beach from time to time. You can tell Tremayne is an experienced actor because his sonorous, seasoned voice, "speaking lines", marks him as one. Harmon, on the other hand, sounds almost believable, and doesn't look like a dork either but rather some kind of uncanny triangulation involving Mark Stevens, David Schwimmer, and Peter Gallagher.It's a small seaside town on the California coast, Piedras Blancas, with a nice lighthouse run by the heroine's embittered and mysterious father. The actual light house is at Point Conception, where the coast takes a sudden eastern bend, and at the time of filming would have been run by the U. S. Coast Guard.In any case, the whole area around Estero Bay is scenic and the weather benign, and Morro Bay has a splendid pizzeria. You don't get to see much of the town: one church, one house, one store front. Nearby California Polytechnic Institute is a magnificent institute of higher learning. I applaud Cal Poly because it has one of my books in its library, plus a raw manuscript of an article. If you want to see Morro Bay in excelsis, see "Personal Best." I know. It's a divagation. But it many ways it's at least as interesting as the movie. So Carman, Harmon, and Tremayne can act. And who can't? Well -- nobody else, really. But the standout is Frank Arvidson as Kolchek, the store keeper and rumor monger. We have to presume he's Slavic, yet when he shouts his lines they come across as Swedish. Fortunately, about at the half way point, he winds up as a decerebrate preparation.The story makes little sense. The monster looks like a close relative of the creature from the Black Lagoon only more ridiculous. The movie isn't really worth commenting on any further. Some of these 50s science-fiction movies are entertaining and some are unspeakable garbage. This one is somewhere in the gray area between, barely tolerable.

There are some genuine frights in what could basically be called a rip off of that famous Universal sci-fi classic. A mysterious creature haunts an ocean front town, resulting in some extremely horrific deaths where victims are decapitated and their blood literally sucked out of the remains of their body. The local doctor and sheriff can't quite figure out where it came from, and only an old, crotchety light house worker seems to be aware of the truth, but he isn't saying anything. A Gothic feel aids in making this more intriguing than the usual low-budget drive-in fare, with some great character performances including Les Tremayne as the doctor and John Harmon as the light house keeper. A slight romantic subplot doesn't get in the way, keeping the focus on the mystery of what the creature is and how the authorities deal with it.