OVERLOOKED FILM: THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS (1959)

Nothing like a cheesy Fifties drive-in fare horror film, I say.  So today I present The Monster of Piedras Blanco, with its recycled monster -- inspired by The Creature of the Black Lagoon, the monster's feet and lower torso were from the mutant in This Island Earth and its claws were recycled from The Mole People; the recycling continued past his film when the entire get-up was used in Flipper:  Flipper's Monster (1965).

The movie's credits do not name the characters, just their generic descriptions; i.e., The Doctor, The Constable, The Lighthouse Keeper, The Storekeeper, The Girl, The Boy.

The Lighthouse Keeper (his name is Sturges, played by John Harmon) is a grumpy widower who has been secretly feeding the monster meat scraps bought from The Storekeeper (his name is Kochek, played by Frank Arvidson).  No one else knows about the monster, of course.  Soon the monster gets hungrier and starts feeding on the locals of this quiet seaside town.  Headless, bloodless corpses begin to pile up.  The Constable (his name is George Matson, played by Forest Lewis) doesn't know what to make of it.  The Lighthouse Keeper's daughter is The Girl (her name is Lucille, played by Jeanne Carmen) and she works at the local cafe; The Lighthouse Keeper is concerned that she will walk home in the dark, what with a monster around and all.  Not to worry, he's told; The Boy (his name is Fred and is a biology student, played by Don Sullivan) will be by to walk her home.  The Doctor (his name is Dr. Sam Jorgeson, played by Les Tremayne, who gets top billing in the credits) is around to examined the bodies and to say, yep, the heads were bit clean off and to note that the blood had been sucked out through a severed artery.  Those are the main characters.  Well, there's also Eddie (played by Peter Dunn) who doesn't count, except that Dunn also plays the monster.

Naturally, the girl goes skinny dipping while the unseen monster paws at her clothes.

 Just to show how dastardly the monster is, The Lighthouse Keeper's dog (his name is Ring, I don't know who played him) is killed.  **gasp**

And you wonder why this flick never won an Oscar.

The Monster of Piedras Blancas was produced by make-up artist Jack Kevan.  According to IMDb, this was the only flick he produced, but some of the comments hint that he may have moved on to porn flicks.

The director was dialog coach Irvin Berwin, in his first directing gig.  He went to direct another seven forgettable movies.

The screenplay was the work of H. Haille Chance, who was also a dialog coach.  Chance has a total of five writing credits on IMDb, including V. D. (also known as Damaged Goods), a moralistic exploitation film about a high school who gets the clap.

The tagline for this flick was "The Fiend That Walked Lovers' Beach!"

So take a walk down that beach.  and enjoy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtvdEwzktIs&list=PLRk8KBuNEEmUWIBjIXp_7t4M1iMhuZuJB&index=14&t=0s