Creature from the Haunted Sea
Encyclopedia
Creature from the Haunted Sea is a 1961 Horror comedy film directed by Roger Corman
. Written by Charles B. Griffith
, the film is a parody
of spy
, gangster, and monster movies (mostly "The Creature from the Black Lagoon"), concerning a secret agent, XK150 (played by Robert Towne
under the pseudonym "Edward Wain"), who goes under the code name "Sparks Moran" in order to infiltrate a criminal gang led by Renzo Capetto (Antony Carbone
), who is trying to transport a colonel, a group of exiled Cuban nationals, and a large portion of the Cuba
n treasury out of the country.
When Capetto tries to kill the Cubans guarding the money and blame their deaths on a legendary sea monster, he soon finds out that the monster is real. The film was shot in Puerto Rico
back-to-back with two other Corman productions, The Last Woman on Earth and Battle of Blood Island
, from a script that had previously been filmed as Naked Paradise and Beast from Haunted Cave. Griffith rewrote the script to accompany both the locations Corman was shooting on and a comedic storytelling approach, as opposed to the previous versions of the script, which had been straightforward.
, Roger Corman
assembled a small cast and crew and arrived in Puerto Rico
to direct The Last Woman on Earth and produce a World War II
film titled Battle of Blood Island. According to Corman, "I had discovered that tax incentives were available if you 'manufactured' in Puerto Rico. That included making movies." When Corman still had unused footage left over from The Last Woman on Earth, he decided to make another film. Screenwriter Charles B. Griffith
was asked to rewrite a screenplay that had previously been filmed as Naked Paradise and Beast from Haunted Cave for the new locations, to complete the screenplay in three days, and that Corman would be playing one of the characters, Happy Jack Monahan. Angered with the situation, Griffith wrote Corman the most difficult role he could think of, requiring the character to be laughing hysterically in one scene and crying like a baby in the next. Corman states that when he read the script, he "realized Happy Jack practically became the lead. I know Chuck did this to drive me crazy. It was too big a role, and required an actor." Corman gave the role to the film's boom operator, Robert Bean, who also played the role of the Creature.
Creature from the Haunted Sea was shot in five days. Locals appeared in the film as extras, reportedly being paid $1 an hour. According to Corman, "I was trying to get more movement into long dialogue scenes. Chuck had one scene in the script that especially bothered me because I couldn't figure out how to give it some action. We were shooting in a palm grove and I had these Americans playing touch football with a coconut. [...] If nothing else, there was a lot of movement in that scene." During a scene in which the character Renzo Capetto is shown loading a gun, actor Antony Carbone
was given a real gun which fell apart unexpectedly. After shooting a take that "worked perfectly," Corman decided that the first take was funnier, and used it in the film with added narration to achieve humorous effect.
According to Beach Dickerson, the Creature was made from "a wetsuit, some moss, lots of Brillo pads. [...] Tennis balls for the eyes, Ping-Pong balls for the pupils, and pipecleaners for the claws. Then we cover him with black oilcloth to make him slimy." According to Carbone, the cast "really had to do some deep concentration in order not to laugh when we saw it." Carbone felt that Corman should have shot the scenes featuring the Creature from its point-of-view, so that the audience would never see the Creature. "That would at least keep a semblance of some fear. Because when you see this Creature, you gotta laugh! Not that the laughter isn't good, but the laughter should not be about the Creature, it should be about the actions of the Creature. For example, when the Creature kills, you should take the action from the actor to make it funny—his eyes pop out, or he puts his finger in his mouth like a child, or some humorous little bit that the person being killed could do. Therefore you sustain both the secrecy of this thing and bring out the comedy. Then I think it would have been at least plausible, in a way." Despite Carbone's feelings about Corman's filmmaking aesthetics
, he stated that the film was "very funny" and he "had a lot of fun doing it."
When the cast and crew had difficulty getting out of the country, the cinematographer hid the film from Corman until the cast and crew got paid for the production. Actress Betsy Jones-Moreland
stated of the production that "the only problem with that movie is that it started out to be a takeoff on everything Roger had ever done before. It was to be a comedy, a laugh a minute. Then all of a sudden, somewhere in the middle of it, that got lost and it got to be serious!" Moreland continued to state that she "just assumed that nobody would ever see it. In the beginning, because it was going to be a "sophisticated" spoof and it was going to be an inside joke, I was not ashamed of it. Later, when it didn't turn out to be that way, when it got off the track and got dumb, then I wished that I'd never heard of it."
The film's musical score, written by Fred Katz, was originally written for A Bucket of Blood
. According to Mark Thomas McGee, author of Roger Corman: The Best of the Cheap Acts, each time Katz was called upon to write music for Corman, Katz sold the same score as if it were new music. The score was used in a total of seven films, including The Wasp Woman
and The Little Shop of Horrors
.
In March 1963, Corman reassembled the cast in Santa Monica
to appear in new scenes directed by Monte Hellman
for television airings of the film, expanding the length to 74 minutes. A title song, sung by Betsy Jones-Moreland, was added by Hellman on the assumption that a film called Creature from the Haunted Sea should have a title song. Hellman also shot footage for television versions of Beast from Haunted Cave, Ski-Troop Attack, and The Last Woman on Earth. According to Hellman, "That was probably the most fun I've ever had, because I was the producer, writer, and director, and I had absolute control over the crew and how the money was spent and everything. It was really fantastic, plus the fact that it was totally off the wall stuff—it was like Saturday Night Fever
."
In 2008, a colorized
version was released by Legend Films
. This version is also available from Amazon Video on Demand.
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
. Written by Charles B. Griffith
Charles B. Griffith
Charles B. Griffith was a Chicago-born screenwriter, son of Donna Dameral, radio star of Myrt and Marge...
, the film is a parody
Parody film
A parody film is a comedy that satirizes other film genres or films. Although the genre is often overlooked, parody films are commonly profitable at the box office...
of spy
Spy film
The spy film genre deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way or as a basis for fantasy . Many novels in the spy fiction genre have been adapted as films, including works by John Buchan, John Le Carré, Ian Fleming and Len Deighton...
, gangster, and monster movies (mostly "The Creature from the Black Lagoon"), concerning a secret agent, XK150 (played by Robert Towne
Robert Towne
Robert Towne is an American screenwriter and director. His most notable work may be his Academy Award-winning original screenplay for Roman Polanski's Chinatown .-Film:...
under the pseudonym "Edward Wain"), who goes under the code name "Sparks Moran" in order to infiltrate a criminal gang led by Renzo Capetto (Antony Carbone
Antony Carbone
Antony Carbone is an American film and television actor.His family moved to Syracuse, New York when he was a young boy, then relocated to Los Angeles, California. After graduating from Los Angeles State College, he moved to New York City to study drama with Harold Clurman and Eva Le Galliene...
), who is trying to transport a colonel, a group of exiled Cuban nationals, and a large portion of the Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n treasury out of the country.
When Capetto tries to kill the Cubans guarding the money and blame their deaths on a legendary sea monster, he soon finds out that the monster is real. The film was shot in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
back-to-back with two other Corman productions, The Last Woman on Earth and Battle of Blood Island
Battle of Blood Island
Battle of Blood Island is a 1960 American World War II war film filmed in Puetro Rico. It was directed by Joel Rapp and based on the 1958 short story Expect the Vandals by Philip Roth....
, from a script that had previously been filmed as Naked Paradise and Beast from Haunted Cave. Griffith rewrote the script to accompany both the locations Corman was shooting on and a comedic storytelling approach, as opposed to the previous versions of the script, which had been straightforward.
Plot
After smuggling a strong box of the Cuban treasury and a group of exiled Cubans out of the now communist Cuba, a group of criminal and exiled Americans plot how to rid themselves of the Cubans guarding the money and come up with the plan to imitate a sea monster and blame the deaths on it. An American spy smuggles himself on board and acts as a narrator and all around good guy, ending up as the only original character to survive until the end. The sea monster turns out to be real and quite deadly. The movie concludes with the sea monster killing everyone and getting the money for itself, while Sparks Moran, the spy, ends up with the girl.Cast
- Antony CarboneAntony CarboneAntony Carbone is an American film and television actor.His family moved to Syracuse, New York when he was a young boy, then relocated to Los Angeles, California. After graduating from Los Angeles State College, he moved to New York City to study drama with Harold Clurman and Eva Le Galliene...
as Renzo Capetto - Betsy Jones-MorelandBetsy Jones-MorelandBetsy Jones-Moreland was an American actress.She was born as Mary Elizabeth Jones in Brooklyn, New York, and began her career in small roles in the mid-1950s, appearing in several Roger Corman films, including a lead role in Last Woman on Earth...
as Mary-Belle Monahan - Robert TowneRobert TowneRobert Towne is an American screenwriter and director. His most notable work may be his Academy Award-winning original screenplay for Roman Polanski's Chinatown .-Film:...
as Sparks Moran / Agent XK150 / Narrator - Beach Dickerson as Pete Peterson Jr.
- Robert Bean as Happy Jack Monahan
- Esther Sandoval as Rosina Perez
- Sonia Noemí González as Mango Perez
- Edmundo Rivera Álvarez as Gen. Tostada
Production
In 1959, following the completion of The Little Shop of HorrorsThe Little Shop of Horrors
The Little Shop of Horrors is a 1960 American comedy film directed by Roger Corman. Written by Charles B. Griffith, the film is a farce about an inadequate young florist's assistant who cultivates a plant that feeds on human flesh and blood. The film's concept is thought to be based on a 1932...
, Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
assembled a small cast and crew and arrived in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
to direct The Last Woman on Earth and produce a World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
film titled Battle of Blood Island. According to Corman, "I had discovered that tax incentives were available if you 'manufactured' in Puerto Rico. That included making movies." When Corman still had unused footage left over from The Last Woman on Earth, he decided to make another film. Screenwriter Charles B. Griffith
Charles B. Griffith
Charles B. Griffith was a Chicago-born screenwriter, son of Donna Dameral, radio star of Myrt and Marge...
was asked to rewrite a screenplay that had previously been filmed as Naked Paradise and Beast from Haunted Cave for the new locations, to complete the screenplay in three days, and that Corman would be playing one of the characters, Happy Jack Monahan. Angered with the situation, Griffith wrote Corman the most difficult role he could think of, requiring the character to be laughing hysterically in one scene and crying like a baby in the next. Corman states that when he read the script, he "realized Happy Jack practically became the lead. I know Chuck did this to drive me crazy. It was too big a role, and required an actor." Corman gave the role to the film's boom operator, Robert Bean, who also played the role of the Creature.
Creature from the Haunted Sea was shot in five days. Locals appeared in the film as extras, reportedly being paid $1 an hour. According to Corman, "I was trying to get more movement into long dialogue scenes. Chuck had one scene in the script that especially bothered me because I couldn't figure out how to give it some action. We were shooting in a palm grove and I had these Americans playing touch football with a coconut. [...] If nothing else, there was a lot of movement in that scene." During a scene in which the character Renzo Capetto is shown loading a gun, actor Antony Carbone
Antony Carbone
Antony Carbone is an American film and television actor.His family moved to Syracuse, New York when he was a young boy, then relocated to Los Angeles, California. After graduating from Los Angeles State College, he moved to New York City to study drama with Harold Clurman and Eva Le Galliene...
was given a real gun which fell apart unexpectedly. After shooting a take that "worked perfectly," Corman decided that the first take was funnier, and used it in the film with added narration to achieve humorous effect.
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
, he stated that the film was "very funny" and he "had a lot of fun doing it."
When the cast and crew had difficulty getting out of the country, the cinematographer hid the film from Corman until the cast and crew got paid for the production. Actress Betsy Jones-Moreland
Betsy Jones-Moreland
Betsy Jones-Moreland was an American actress.She was born as Mary Elizabeth Jones in Brooklyn, New York, and began her career in small roles in the mid-1950s, appearing in several Roger Corman films, including a lead role in Last Woman on Earth...
stated of the production that "the only problem with that movie is that it started out to be a takeoff on everything Roger had ever done before. It was to be a comedy, a laugh a minute. Then all of a sudden, somewhere in the middle of it, that got lost and it got to be serious!" Moreland continued to state that she "just assumed that nobody would ever see it. In the beginning, because it was going to be a "sophisticated" spoof and it was going to be an inside joke, I was not ashamed of it. Later, when it didn't turn out to be that way, when it got off the track and got dumb, then I wished that I'd never heard of it."
The film's musical score, written by Fred Katz, was originally written for A Bucket of Blood
A Bucket of Blood
A Bucket of Blood is a 1959 American comedy horror film directed by Roger Corman. It starred Dick Miller and was set in beatnik culture. The film, produced on a $50,000 budget, was shot in five days, and shares many of the low-budget filmmaking aesthetics commonly associated with Corman's work....
. According to Mark Thomas McGee, author of Roger Corman: The Best of the Cheap Acts, each time Katz was called upon to write music for Corman, Katz sold the same score as if it were new music. The score was used in a total of seven films, including The Wasp Woman
The Wasp Woman
The Wasp Woman is a science fiction film produced and directed by Roger Corman which was completed in 1959...
and The Little Shop of Horrors
The Little Shop of Horrors
The Little Shop of Horrors is a 1960 American comedy film directed by Roger Corman. Written by Charles B. Griffith, the film is a farce about an inadequate young florist's assistant who cultivates a plant that feeds on human flesh and blood. The film's concept is thought to be based on a 1932...
.
Release history
Creature from the Haunted Sea was not released until 1961. The film's marketing campaign did not make the film out to be a comedy, and instead promoted the film as a straight thriller. The film's poster asks "What was the unspeakable secret of the sea of lost ships?" and requests that audiences "do not give away the answer to the secret." Many audiences found the advertising to be misleading, which hurt the film's box office.In March 1963, Corman reassembled the cast in Santa Monica
Santa Mônica
Santa Mônica is a town and municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil.-References:...
to appear in new scenes directed by Monte Hellman
Monte Hellman
Monte Hellman is an American film director, producer, and film editor.Hellman is among a group of directing talent mentored by Roger Corman, who produced several of the director's early films...
for television airings of the film, expanding the length to 74 minutes. A title song, sung by Betsy Jones-Moreland, was added by Hellman on the assumption that a film called Creature from the Haunted Sea should have a title song. Hellman also shot footage for television versions of Beast from Haunted Cave, Ski-Troop Attack, and The Last Woman on Earth. According to Hellman, "That was probably the most fun I've ever had, because I was the producer, writer, and director, and I had absolute control over the crew and how the money was spent and everything. It was really fantastic, plus the fact that it was totally off the wall stuff—it was like Saturday Night Fever
Saturday Night Fever
Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 drama film directed by John Badham and starring: John Travolta as Tony Manero, an immature young man whose weekends are spent visiting a local Brooklyn discothèque; Karen Lynn Gorney as his dance partner and eventual friend; and Donna Pescow as Tony's former dance...
."
In 2008, a colorized
Film colorization
Film colorization is any process that adds color to black-and-white, sepia or monochrome moving-picture images. It may be done as a special effect, or to modernize black-and-white films, or to restore color films...
version was released by Legend Films
Legend Films
Legend Films, a San Diego-based company, was founded in August 2001. The company specializes in the conversion of feature films, both new release and catalog titles, and commercials from their native 2D format into 3-D film format utilizing proprietary technology and software...
. This version is also available from Amazon Video on Demand.