The Monster of Piedras Blancas

In the 1950s and 60s, there were a bazillion cheap and shlocky monster films. They featured silly monsters in silly costumes and were mildly entertaining...but rather stupid. I thought "The Monster of Piedras Blancas" was one of these films but it turned out to be a touch better. Now I am not saying it's brilliant...but the story isn't bad and the monster costume isn't particularly dopey.

The film is set on the California coast. Someone or something is beheading folks and eventually people realize they have a monster on their hands...and it's up to them to defeat it. Oddly, after the killing spree began, no one ever thought to contact the state police or other authorities about the problem...even when a group of folks saw it was a monster!

So, the plot isn't perfect...but it is enjoyable and the monster costume is reasonably scary looking. A good film for afficianados of the genre.

John Harmon plays a crusty lighthouse keeper who lives with his daughter and secretly feeds a monster of a prehistoric fish-man heritage scraps and fish. One day he misses feeding the creature scraps and all hell breaks loose. The creature walks about unseen and walking in and out of stores neatly severing the heads off folks. This is vintage 50's bad sci-fi. It has all the cliches you would expect, yet it is a whole lot of fun. Obviously made on a shoestring budget, Monster of Piedras Blancas has a charm to it. The story is pretty straightforward with everything from one-dimensional characters to the obligatory romance between the lighthouse keeper's daughter and a serendipitous biochemist versed in prehistoric fish species(played by Do Sullivan who you may...or more likely may not...remember as Chase in The Giant Gila Monster...no singing in this one fortunately!). The monster looks decent. Sure, you know its a rubber suit, but at least its not crying out that it is. This film makes great Saturday or Sunday afternoon fare!

A generally underrated monster flick from 1959, The Monster of Piedras Blancas is often compared to the undeniably similar Creature From the Black Lagoon, with this film invariably coming out second best. Certainly, Creature From the Black Lagoon is a true classic and The Monster of Piedras Blancas rarely equals its more famous cousin, but nonetheless this is a very good little film with a lot going for it on its own terms. The Monster, of course, is the star of the show, and the suit designed for him is impressive and scary, and must have seemed even more so in the 50s. As is typical of this sort of film, screen shots of the Monster are limited up until the climax, when he runs wild in all his visceral glory. The Monster's killings are quite brutal and rather bloody for the conservative 50s, and there are several decapitations in his wake. The coastal setting, where folk tales of the alleged Monster are whispered in the shadows, is evocative and the director uses the location to maximum effect. Acting is for the most part competent if unexceptional, highlighted by the dazzling Jeanne Carmen as the lovely Lucy, upon whom the Monster inevitably turns a ravenous gaze. Ms. Carmen is a luscious damsel in distress, and it's a shame she didn't do more sci-fi. Don Sullivan plays Lucy's boyfriend, Fred, and veteran b-movie actor Les Tremayne is a local doctor. John Harmon turns in a surprisingly effective performance as Lucy's father Sturges, the local lighthouse keeper, a man with many secrets and who knows more about the Monster than anyone suspects. The townsfolk of Piedras Blancas are developed with some attention to detail, and it means something when one of them dies. The only real weaknesses of the film are its obvious low budget and a somewhat lagging pace that does make the movie feel a bit longer than its short run time of 71 minutes. But overall, this is a pretty good monster movie that meets most of the genre requirements. Unfortunately, this is a difficult movie to find, but if you can track it down, the Monster From Piedras Blancas is a surprisingly effective chiller.

"The Monster of Piedras Blancas" was an independent production from Jack Kevan who was former makeup artist at Universal and was responsible for designing and building the Gill Man suit in "Creature from the Black Lagoon", as well as the alien Xenomorph from "It Came from Outer Space", and the Metaluna Mutant of "This Island, Earth".

The suit for the film's "diplovertebron" monster consisted of existing molds for the feet that were cast from those of the Metaluna Mutant from "This Island, Earth" along with over-sized hands originally designed for "The Mole People".

There's no mistaking the fact that the "Monster of Piedras Blancas," is somewhat of a knock-off of the "Creature from the Black Lagoon".

It is obvious that some thought had gone into the plot which was fairly consistent and had some logic to it such as the monster's origins and the reasons behind its murderous rampage. The theme of loneliness and of being an outcast and the kind of desperation it can produce are touched on quite nicely as well.

A couple of quite gruesome scenes for the time included the monster bursting in on the scene carrying a bloody severed human head and a shot of the same head with a crab crawling across the face. Even cute pooches and little girls are not spared from the murderous wrath of the monster!

The film was shot not at the actual Point Piedras Blancas, which is north of San Simeon on the California coast. The lighthouse locations were shot at the Point Conception lighthouse near Lompoc, and the film's "town" was in fact the seaside city of Cayucos, about 30 miles south of the real Piedras Blancas.

Don Sullivan who plays Fred we remember from his role as Chase in "The Giant Gila Monster". In this film, however we can breathe a sigh of relief as he refrains from singing! His girlfriend Lucy is played by pin-up girl Jeanne Carmen who is certainly easy on the eye in just a simple floral dress or blouse and skirt and sensible flat shoes. No need for clown make-up, outfits that leave nothing to the imagination or stiletto posture torturers!

To conclude, I must admit that I geared myself up to hate this movie. I really, really wanted to hate this movie but I found that I just couldn't, no matter how much I tried! I'm really not sure why? I even mildly enjoyed watching this low-budget affair. The acting was pretty ordinary but at least the actors were earnest enough and the pace of the story was OK right up to and including the thrilling and at the same time, quite funny climax.

I insisted on seeing this movie when it came out in the 1950's, I was 7 years old. I got to the theatre late and the movie had already started. As I opened the doors to enter the screening room a strange feeling came over me, could it have been that the room was pitch black and 500 people were screaming at the top of their lungs? Somehow I found my way to a seat trying not to look at the screen. In a few minutes the monster comes waltzing out of some industrial size refridgerator carrying some guys head in his hand.....that was all it took....as the blood rushed to my head I did the 50 yard dash to the doors in world record time and never looked back. Decades later (1990's) I had the chance to watch the movie again on cable. This time my girlfriend was with me so I was able to get through it........