Creature from the Haunted Sea [DVD]

Features

• Type: DVD
• Studio: Good Times Video
• Language(s): english
• Director(s): Roger Corman
• Actor(s): Antony Carbone, Betsy Jones-Moreland, Robert Towne, Beach Dickerson, Robert Bean, Esther Sandoval, Sonia Noemí González, Edmundo Rivera Álvarez, Terry Nevin, Elisio Lopez

Producer-director Roger Corman shot three very different low-budget films back to back in Puerto Rico over a period of a few weeks in 1960; ordinarily, this feat would be nothing short of astonishing, but Corman's reputation as a fast and frugal filmmaker was legendary. What is surprising about the three pictures--The Last Woman on Earth, Creature from the Haunted Sea, and Battle on Blood Island--is that they're all entertaining and irreverent pictures (more so the latter in the case of Creature), and possess the independent spark that Corman has brought to all of his productions over the last 40-plus years. Last Woman is an intriguing reworking of The World, the Flesh, and the Devil, with a gangster (Anthony Carbone), his wife (Betsy Jones-Moreland), and his lawyer (Chinatown screenwriter Robert Towne, who appears here under the name Edward Wain) struggling to survive after a mysterious holocaust has left them the apparent last people alive on an island. Creature is the silliest of the trio, a comedic sort-of remake of Beast from Haunted Cave, with Carbone again as a gangster dealing with Cuban soldiers and a monster on a remote island. The picture is most notable for its ludicrous title fiend, but the kitchen-sink humor (very reminiscent of Mad magazine) retains a certain lowbrow charm. Battle for Blood Island (based on a short story by Phillip Roth) is the only film on the disc not directed by Corman; Joel M. Rapp d a moderately tense WWII actioner about a pair of American soldiers pinned down in a cave by the Japanese. Obviously, fans of Corman's oeuvre will receive the biggest thrill from this disc, which offers the best presentation of these films (all long in the public domain) to date--Woman and Creature are both widescreen, with Woman also benefiting from an Eastmancolor print--and the extras, which include introductions by Corman, commentaries by Carbone, Jones-Morel