Devil Monster

And I've seen a lot of them. There is more stock footage in this thing than any movie I know except "Jungle Hell" (1956). The only difference is that "Jungle Hell" was all elephants. This one's all sea lions. On and on and on about the stupid sea lions while the stupid crew in their stupid boat looks for stupid Juan Francisco.

Much of the stock footage that isn't sea lions is native women of the South Pacific. I don't know if the editors were blind or what, but whoever was in charge of splicing the stock footage together didn't seem to mind that the women were mongoloid one minute, negroid the next, and caucasoid the next. They change races with surprising speed.

There is another prominent stock footage scene. An octopus in an aquarium (you can see him stick to the glass, and you can see the reflection of lights on the glass) battles a moray eel. The eel is defending all his little fish buddies from the mean old octopus. I'm not making this up. This is presented as if it were happening in the ocean for crying out loud. Who wins? Watch and find out!

Lots of stock footage of men fishing provides for some humor as the overdubbed voices say things like, "Watch out for my face." But it gets tiring after several minutes of the same stupid footage of the same stupid men catching the same stupid fish.

Alas, there is one more big stock footage scene. This one's of the devil monster. It's not a devil, and it's not really a monster. What is it? Let's just say it's not the kind of monster you were hoping for. Juan, who they did find at the end of all those sea lions, battles the "monster". Again, you'll have to watch to find out what happens.

What really surprises me is that the IMDB says this was edited down from a longer, older movie. That tells me that (1) someone thought the original was worth redoing, (2) someone thought this version was better, and (3) the original must've been worse. I can't imagine.

Devil Monster (1946)

1/2 (out of 4)

Robert (Barry Norton) is in love with Louise (Blanche Mehaffey) but she's in love with Jose (Jack Del Rio). The only problem is that he is lost at sea so Robert has to know whether or not he's alive so that Louise might pick him. Soon Robert is at sea battling a large monster (actually a manta ray).

THE SEA FIEND is also known as DEVIL MONSTER but whatever you call it doesn't take away the fact that it has to be one of the laziest and cheapest films ever made. I didn't actually time everything out but this 63-minute movie is probably 90% stock footage. If you thought what Edward D. Wood, Jr. did in GLEN OR GLENDA? was cheap then you haven't seen anything yet.

The amazing thing is that there's so little "new" footage shot. The majority of the film is narration as we get the story told by Robert who is usually just talking about the various stock footage that we're looking at. This stock footage has some pretty unique stuff including various sea life but at the same time you can't really give this film too much credit for that. There are some native women that are shown topless so this here might please some people but I doubt it.

From what I've read, the 1946 version under the title DEVIL MONSTER is a different edit that the 1936 film under THE SEA FIEND. I hope to view that version at some point but this film is pretty pointless.

DEVIL MONSTER opens with dramatic music, followed by explanatory narration. Next, we're introduced to the crew of a tuna boat, who are in search of someone named Jose.

More narration.

Cue the endless nature stock footage. Check out those seals!

Even more narration.

Here come the playful island natives! Enter the topless native dancers!

Still, more narration.

Underwater stock footage. Swimming natives. Shark attack. An octopus battles a moray eel in an aquarium.

The narrator drones on and on. And on.

More half-naked native girls. Jose enters the picture. And on and on.

After 95% of the movie is taken up by pointless swill, the "monster" of the title emerges for the most unsatisfying finale ever filmed.

What the hell is this nonsense?...

DEVIL MONSTER is a cheap and non-cheerful effort to make a giant monster movie on a non-existent budget. The whole film seems to be more of a travelogue documentary than a real movie, featuring lame actors interacting with various footage of wildlife. At first the viewer is treated to numerous sea birds such as cormorants and the like before the action moves below the waves. We get staged 'treats' such as an octopus attempting to eat a fish and plenty more besides.

The story is virtually non-existent and about the hunt for a shipwrecked man, but the thrust of the tale is in reality a bunch of people vs. a giant manta ray. The aquarium special effects are less than convincing and the film as a whole makes the likes of PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE look like a carefully-construed Oscar contender.

Except for the oddity of being taken from three previous films and edited together - all much older than the 1946 release date of this film, Devil Monster is one heck of a bad film with bad acting, bad special effects, a terrible script, and virtually nothing going for it. A third is almost nothing but stock footage of seals,dolphins, and various tribes that look nothing alike in different scenes. I was yawning after two minutes of seeing seals wash up on rocks and having inane dialog try and justify its presence. The original films could not have much better though because a couple of these actors - okay, most of these actors are just downright awful from the lead Barry Norton to the excessiveness of Jack Del Rio looking like a psychopath at the ship's steering wheel to the laughable persona of Jack Barty as the captain to the even more ludicrous native chief with a New York accent. Only the fellow playing Tiny the cook held any of my interest - and that really says just how bad this film is if you saw his performance! I really cannot add much more to this then to say that the film is very, very bad and devoid of any merit whatsoever except if you enjoy watching people pour out their hearts only ending in cinematic misery for the viewer built by the foundation of their lack of talent and competence. Sometimes I do. I did laugh several times at how bad - really bad - thing were.