Monster From The Ocean Floor Film Masters Special Edition Blu-Ray Review
Film Masters is back with an important entry in their Special Edition blu-ray series, remastering the works of Roger Corman. Monster From The Ocean Floor is the first film produced by Roger Corman and released here in a wonderful presentation.
My personal viewing of the film took pace at 2am, the perfect time to experience a black and white monster movie of this style. After all, that’s the hour at which it got the most play on broadcast TV over the years since it’s brief theatrical run in the 1950’s.
A Classic Resurfaces in Stunning Quality
Just as with their previous release of Corman classics, Night of the Blood Beast and Attack of the Giant Leeches (which I reviewed for PopGeeks here), this blu-ray package is more than a bare bones disc for an old film, it’s packed with extras that provide fantastic context for this 1954 b-movie by one of the masters of the genre.
Two documentaries from Ballyhoo Motion Pictures are included as Bonus features. The first, “Bob Baker: From Monsters To Marionettes” provides an overview of the puppetry work of the monster maker for this movie. I was fascinated to learn about the many high profile TV and film productions that Baker contributed to over the years for the likes of Walt Disney, Steven Spielberg and more. It’s mentioned that this low budget creature feature was far from his most celebrated work, but the historian interviewed provided fascinating behind the scenes stories from Baker’s life and helped me as a fan of the band The Misfits realize that a creature on one of their album covers was signed by this master puppeteer.
The second documentary, “Roger Corman: Becoming A B-Movie Maker” is an interview with Corman tells the story of how the clever filmmaker used the money he made from this feature to finance the launch of his b-movie film empire. It’s an informative, quickly paced overview of how it all began and what an amazing business mind Roger Corman was throughout his career.
Monster From The Ocean Floor Extras from a Film Historian
Also included with the disc is a booklet of liner notes by film historian, Tom Weaver containing photos and stories about the casting, filming, promotion and legacy of Monster From The Ocean Floor. Weaver also provides a full length commentary for the movie, which elaborates on these stories with audio interviews with Corman himself, cast members and others involved in the production. Also included are the original theatrical trailer and production stills.
A Midnight Movie Experience
As for the film itself, Monster From The Ocean Floor (originally pitched by Corman under the tile “It Stalked The Ocean Floor”) is presented with a beautifully crisp black and white transfer. Viewed on a projector, I can say that the absence of any major grain or scratches in the picture was very impressive. The restoration process definitely paid off and perhaps is too nice a presentation for the quality of film being preserved.
Monster From The Ocean Floor tells the story of an illustrator named Julie Blair (Anne Kimbell) who meets a marine biologist, Steve Dunning (Stuart Wade) while on a vacation to Mexico. Being intrigued by local tales of a deadly creature in the water, she encourages her new boyfriend to help to locals in hunting the beast, especially when a Mexican diver disappears in the waters. Steve and his one-man submarine begin an exploration, but ultimately it is Julie who locates the monster and finally convinces Steve to battle it to the death beneath the waves.
Impressive Effects for a Low-Budget Film
The underwater scenes are reminiscent of Creature From The Black Lagoon, which is a personal favorite monster movie of mine. Whether it’s Julie scuba diving with the actress’ face clearly visible through the mask or Steve in his submarine, it’s pretty impressive for a low budget film in the 50s. The music for those sequences adds just the right tone and Baker’s monster puppet, while hardly frightening, is a campy fun visual that’s hidden well with some wiggling underwater filters. The film gets a lot of leeway for the era and genre in which it was produced.
That being said, the scenes outside of the water play like lectures in a college science class. Much of the script is the Steve droning on and on with facts about the ocean or a scientific theories about crops being grown underwater, which sound like an article from Popular Mechanics or Scientific American. Plus, there’s even a goofy scene of Steve serenading Julie with a guitar while leaning on seaside rocks. It’s not a badly shot film by any means, but the padding to get to a full run time is apparent.
Monster From The Ocean Floor Film Masters Special Edition Blu-Ray is Packed With Bonus Features
This series of discs from Film Masters has been a great education for me in terms of learning more about one of our great movie masters. The amount of passion and care put into these sets continues to impress me, especially the quality of the extras. These commentaries and documentaries help add value to the films’ very existence, since they are far from household names or making any lists of the greatest monster films of all time.
If you are a classic creature feature or Roger Corman film fan, I highly recommend adding Film Masters Monster From The Ocean Floor Special Edition blu-ray to your movie library. For that matter, you should seek out their entire library of offerings. As historical documents, these discs can’t beat.
You can purchase a copy for yourself direct from the Film Masters website here or purchase it from Amazon and other online retailers.
