THE SHE-CREATURE (1956)
Tagline: It can and did happen! Based on the authentic FACTS you've been reading about!
(Horror, Fantasy, Romance) [PG]
Note: This movie has an “approved” status. Like a lot of movies from the 50’s it doesn’t have a rating, but this one I would say would fall under the PG rating just due to the concepts. We also have deaths and a monster. This movie was remade in color in 1968 and renamed CREATURE OF DESTRUCTION.
I could have brought her to you in the flesh, just as she was 300 years ago…
In this one, Dr. Carlo Lombardi demonstrates to his skeptics that he can bring memories from his assistant Andrea’s past life to their conscience using hypnosis. The idea is that he can prove that reincarnation exists and he begins to gain quite a bit of fame doing shows and books around the nation. The consequence of his actions is that the “past life” of his assistance is a sea creature bent on death and destruction, a death and destruction that Dr. Carlo can predict. Meanwhile, Dr. Ted Erickson seeks to prove that Carlo is a fraud and has fallen in love with Andrea, and wants to free her from Lombardi’s control.
First off this movie is just 77 minutes long. We actually get to see the creature 25 minutes in which is pretty good for a lot of these types of movies that typically involve “slow burn” type storytelling. Having said that, in spite of the fact that they came up with a pretty cool creature design for this movie and you would think they would want to show it off, we hardly see the creature at all. So yes, we see it earlier than usual, just not that much.
Acting-wise this is a pretty strong outing for everyone that was involved. Dorothy is played by Cathy Downs (best known for THE PHANTOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES) and this is a bit of a secondary role. She is basically pining after Dr. Erickson, but Downs is really good in the screen time she gets. I mention that just to show that even the actors and actresses that didn’t get much screen time were good in this. Andrea the assistant of Dr. Lombardi is played by Marla English. She was also in a movie 1 year later “Voodoo Woman”, but then quit acting altogether after marrying Allen Paul Sutherland. I liked Lance Fuller in this one as Dr. Erickson. Fuller was a mainstay in Hollywood and was involved in over 58 projects. He was most famous for THIS ISLAND EARTH. Dr. Carlo is played by Chester Morris. Morris was a good actor, but if there was any role in this movie that might have been a little too much it was his, but he got the job done.
Storyline wise I pretty much hated this thing. Generally considered one of the bottom-of-the-barrel 1950’s horror flicks, this one was probably mostly plagued by its confusing and overblown storyline. We have a little bit of reincarnation, soul jumping, wildly poor interpretations of what sea life would have looked like 300 years earlier, it’s just all pretty damn nuts. However, if you take this thing with a grain of salt it’s actually fairly intriguing, the performances keep it moving, and props to Paul Blaisdell who came up with that costume.
Overall this one has a small peek into elitist society and the fascination with mysticism that seemed to be associated with certain individuals in that group. I am not down with any of that crap, but if you sidestep all that nonsense and just focus on the main characters this is far from terrible but I still give THE SHE-CREATURE a 3 out of 7. Cool creature, but the action sequences are terrible and again, the storyline could have been a million times better. All of the taglines for this freakin thing are also lackluster.
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