CURUCU, BEAST OF THE AMAZON (1956)
Tagline: Like nothing your eyes have ever seen before!
(Adventure, Horror, Scooby-Doo!) [PG]
Note – This movie did not originally have an MPAA rating, but I am pretty sure it would have been a PG. PETA would probably say it’s NC-17 because a few animals are killed on screen.
A beast with claws like that of a giant bird.
In this one Rock Dean and Dr. Andrea Romar decide to go up the Amazon river to investigate complaints of a Curucu creature attacking plantation workers. Dr. Romar gets told this freakin place is too dangerous for women, but she doesn’t care. She just goes anyway and ends up screaming for 75% of the trip. Can Rock and Dr. Romar defeat the creature before it kills again?
First off, this movie got a lot of flak for a few plot twists and turns. I honestly didn’t mind it. The creature looks so goofy it’s almost a relief. No, I am not going to say exactly what happens. Check this one out yourself if you can handle a few jungle animals getting killed on screen. Part of the problem is that they filmed this movie in the actual Amazon. Director Curt Siodmak even said he never fully recovered physically and to top that off, they actually shot another movie after this in the same place called LOVE SLAVES OF THE AMAZONS. Siodmak by the way was the super famous writer of THE WOLFMAN, THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS, SON OF DRACULA, and others.
This movie doesn’t waste any time getting to its main plot points and we do get bits of adventure throughout. Having said that, the final act drags on a bit after the climax of the movie and it does feel unnecessary by that point. The score and production overall are pretty good.
The main actress in this one is Beverly Garland who plays Dr. Andrea Romar. Garland is famous for several sci-fi flicks in the ’50s, including IT CONQUERED THE WORLD and THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE. The male lead “Rock Dean” is played by John Bromfield who was an accomplished actor himself. His other big sci-fi/creature feature appearance was in REVENGE OF THE CREATURE.
Overall this movie flirts with the sci-fi, horror, creature feature genre, but really kind of ends up being more of a straight-up adventure movie. I don’t want to say it’s INDIANA JONES or anything but the pacing is pretty solid and there are lots of cool things introduced.
Having said all that, I do get the complaints that some people had, and unfortunately the ending kind of takes me out of the running for wanting to watch this over and over. Someday I can see myself re-visiting it though, it is one of the more twisty movies in this genre of the 50s, but probably more to those like myself that don’t pick up on the obvious right way.
For me, this lands at a 4 out of 7, but don’t expect a straightforward storyline.
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