Curusú, el terror del Amazonas

Curucu, Beast of the Amazon (1956)

** (out of 4)

John Bromfield and Beverly Garland travel up the Amazon to kill the title character, a large parrot like creature. Many older horror fans call this one of the most disappointing monster films of the decade due to a couple twists in the plot. I picked up on those twists pretty early and they were stupid but the real interesting thing is that this really seemed like an early version of the infamous Cannibal Holocaust. The best thing about the film is that it was shot in the Amazon, which means we get all sorts of shots with various animals ranging from pythons to huge spiders. With this comes several animal death scenes that won't make PETA members too happy.

Any movie that has a scene of the hero smoking while the doctor is giving him his annual medical check up has to be a classic.

There is validity to every single negative review of this picture, but who cares? Look, I love Ingmar Bergman films, but am I going to kick back with beer and nacho cheese Doritos on a summer Saturday afternoon watching "Cries And Whispers?" I didn't spend all morning cutting the grass to then crash the couch and drown myself in Swedish angst. That's for cold bleak winter nights. For summer I want a jungle, a tight pants adventuress and a hero who can spend an entire week lost in the Amazon and still not have a single day's facial hair. Yes, as everyone agrees without a doubt the movie rips you off and leaves you a chump for ever believing such a thing as truth in advertising exists. But stop crybaby'ing about it already. Get over your disappointment like a big boy and just enjoy the mustard we got. To hell with your Grey Poupon!

For those of You who speak Spanish.... As I do!.... Knowing that this movie was filmed in South America in 1955/56... You can´t help but wonder if that MEGAHIT... Released in 1954, and played incessantly on the Radio in Latin America throughout most of the 50s... inspired the TITLE and even some aspects of the BIRD-BEAST Referred to in the TITLE itself!?!¿!¿!?!

Several of the cast members are locals! (Brazilians were much cheaper to contract... I am sure!) Andrea Bayard also appeared in several Brazilian TELENOVELAS made in the 50s and 60s!)

This production absolutely cannot be watched from start to finish without a good number of unintended Belly laughs! Sure looks as though Cast and Crew had one Hell of a good time making this! But still...During the last 20 minutes, or so, of its 75 Minute TOTAL... I pretty much was hoping it would END...And put me out of my MISERY!!!

Gave it 6****** because I did get a lot of those unintended belly laughs mentioned earlier!!!

Universal, which brought us massive hits like E.T. and the Jurassic Park movies, were responsible for this.

It is the worst of the Universal monster movies of the 1950's, but I loved it. It is one of the better so-bad-it's-good movies and the thing that surprised me the most was that it was shot in colour, despite the low budget.

The 'monster' has to be seen to be believed. The main female lead in this, Beverly Garland, is used to fighting out of this world monsters as she fought the 'carrot' in It Conquered the World.

See this if you get the chance. It is worth watching just to see the 'monster'.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed and Written by Curt Siodmak; Produced by Richard Kay and Harry Rybnick for Universal-International release. Photography by Rudolf Icsey; Edited by Terry Morse; Music by Raoul Kraushaar. Starring: John Bromfield, Beverly Garland, Tom Payne, Harvey Chalk, Larri Thomas, Wilson Viana, Frank Bevan, Sergio de Oliveira, Robert Aurel and Andrea Bayard.

The natives' mythical monster causes trouble until his true identity is ferreted out. Having John Bromfield and Beverly Garland head up the otherwise no-name cast spells B-movie heaven.