Monstro Marinho

I suppose people turned out to see an early talkie which not only had lots of outdoor footage but also underwater photography. THE SEA BAT is a good film but I think it would have been better had they made it about 5 years earlier as a silent as the characterisations and plot complications come directly from the silent days. The giant manta ray (a Sea Bat) is making life rough for the sponge divers on the island of Portuga (where everyone claims to be of Spanish descent but talks with French accents). This would have been enough for a plot but throw in a minister (Charles Bickford) who won't preach any sermons and stumbles through a funeral service picking passages from the Bible at random. It is not revealing too much to say that this fellow is an eccaped convict who stole a ministers outfit to get off Devil's Island. Now about this being a silent style film? Well the idea that a former pirate who broke jail and is hiding behind a ministers collar reforming just because he reads a few verses from the Old Testament is something you'd expect from D.W. Griffith, circa 1920, yet that is just what happens. Also the scene where the latest victim of the Manta (Nils Asther, best remembered from OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS, 1928) is brought back to port is staged exactly as if this were a silent film. The cast is a joy to see. Watch for Gibson Gowland (GREED) as a Cockney seaman, former Charlie Chaplin comic foil Mack Swain as a bartender, and look fast for a still-unknown Boris Karloff in 3 scenes as a sailor referred to as "The Corsican". The damsel in distress is Raquel Torres, best remembered from F.W. Murnau's docu-drama WHITE SHADOWS IN THE SOUTH SEAS (1928). The scenes of the giant manta are well done and convincing.

Silly bit of hokum about the goings-on with people on a tropical island, including a woman who says she'll give herself (wink wink) to any man who can kill a giant stingray that killed her brother. Enter an escaped convict posing as a minister, who sees the woman writhing around during a voodoo ritual and promptly falls in lust with her. I'd imagine all those fishermen out risking their lives for booty (literally) aren't too happy about that. Raquel Torres plays the woman and, for those in desperate need of titillation, she's prancing about half-naked throughout and even has the 1930 equivalent of a wet t-shirt scene. Charles Bickford plays the convict and, judging by his hair and eyebrows, Louis B. Mayer's car must have been short two quarts of oil during the filming of this picture. Boris Karloff also appears in a minor role but nothing worth his fans getting excited about. The best parts of the picture are the water scenes and the "sea bat" itself, a nice bit of special effects for the time. Unfortunately there aren't enough of these scenes. I had no idea that stingrays were thought of as mysterious monsters less than a century ago or that sponge diving was a "weird industry." These are things I learned from watching this movie. It's worth a look if you have no prejudices against early talkies. Just don't expect anything impressive.

After scoring well in Cecil B. DeMille's first talking picture Dynamite and opposite Greta Garbo in Anna Christie, Charles Bickford's career might well have taken a bath with Sea Bat. For those who don't know, The Sea Bat is a jumbo size stingray which can grow to the size of a great white shark. They're the terror of the sponge divers in the West Indies.

Into this tropic paradise otherwise than for the present of those giant creatures in the water comes Charles Bickford pretending to be a man of the cloth, but who is actually a Devil's Island escapee. If he were really a man of the cloth we would have had yet another version of Rain as Bickford fends off the amorous advances of Raquel Torres. But he's not a real minister and in fact has other things on his mind besides a little with nookie with Torres. He wants to get out of the area where he's been in disguise for a few years now.

Raquel Torres has made going after the giant stingray a personal crusade after her brother Nils Asther is killed during a sponge dive. With what she has to offer to the guy who gets the giant a lot of the men are ready and willing.

Bickford also has to worry about a pair of sponge fisherman who recognize him and want to claim the reward from the French. And it's not easy to keep up the pretense when folks are looking for you to preach a sermon or offer up some spiritual guidance like Raquel's father George Marion.

The Sea Bat which probably for its location shooting and special effects wizardry for its time in creating the giant stingray and its encounters with man was really something. It really hasn't aged well and now is one camp hoot.

The lives of sponge divers are disrupted by the arrival of a tough cleric and the deprivations of THE SEA BAT.

It is unfortunate that this splendid little film from MGM has become so obscure as it has much to offer in the way of ambiance and good acting from an interesting cast. The production values are high and the location shooting (on Mexico's Mazatlán coast) with its glimpses of pseudo West Indies island culture add to the film's atmosphere. Director Lionel Barrymore keeps the action moving right along, with just enough requisite romance, suspenseful encounters with the hideous sea bat and a dandy fist fight near the end to keep the viewers happy.

Mexican actress Raquel Torres plays the fiery island miss who wants to escape the tragedy which has attacked her family. Silent screen star Nils Asther is her gentle, loving brother, a sponge diver. His departure from the story early on is poignant & regrettable. Disheveled George F. Marion steals most of his scenes as their disreputable father. Sturdy Charles Bickford is the no-nonsense pastor with a secret who arrives on the Island of Portuga and is quickly confronted by danger. All four give excellent performances.

Other crew members of the sponge boat are played by lecherous John Miljan, who acted the villain in many early MGM talkies; blustering Gibson Gowland, who only five years earlier had starred in von Stroheim's masterpiece GREED; and, in a tiny role, pre-celeb Boris Karloff. Silent movie comic Mack Swain portrays the owner of the island grog shop.

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The giant Atlantic manta (Manta birostris), sometimes called a sea bat, is a type of devilfish and is characterized by its large flapping fins and two horny protrusions near its mouth, giving it a diabolic appearance. It lives in the warmer waters near both islands and coastlines, where it eats small fish & plankton. The Atlantic manta can grow to 23' from fin tip to fin tip and weigh up to 2,200 pounds. Despite its sinister aspect it is known -contrary to legend- to be gentle and does not attack divers.

This movie is SOOOOOO boring!

The Seabat only has around 3-2 minutes of screen time and disappears for a good 40 minutes. I think it's false advertising.

Bad acting from most of the supporting cast, unlikable characters, outdated depictions of native tribes, and probably Boris Karloff's worst movie.

But there is a couple good things about the movie!

The cinematography is dang good for the time, the underwater scenes look good too! At the end of the film when the Seabat gets shot with a harpoon it cuts to this beautiful shot of the Seabat jumping out of the water while the sun rises and the camera is placed on a high shot while on a 60 degree angle! It's one of the best shots in early sound films!

If you wanna watch this one, skip to the last five minutes.