Monster from the Ocean Floor’s a low-budget creature feature; tourist Anne Kimbell becomes convinced there’s an irradiated sea monster off the coast of her Mexican vacation village. Her pseudo-beau, Stuart Wade, is convinced she’s wrong. He’s a marine biologist.
His boss, played by Dick Pinner in an (eventually) absolutely delightful turn, thinks Wade ought to listen to Kimbell.
Now, Kimbell’s only interested in the sea monster to help the people in the village. Monster opens with some narration about the cooperation of these fine vacation villages (seriously). Wade can’t understand why Kimbell would want to help anyone; she responds maybe the world’s in the bad state it’s in because no one ever wants to do anything to help.
Monster will have numerous delights, such as director Ordung pulling double duty as the local witch’s reluctant hitman, constantly messing up his murder attempts, and then the actually good undersea photography, but Kimbell continually turning down Wade for being a bland flake might be the best. Kimbell doesn’t have any character development other than listening to people, caring about them, and painting.
And not falling for Wade’s bull.
Now, Monster has some terrible ADR. It’s so bad it’s unclear which voices belong to Kimbell and Wade. One of Kimbell’s performances (or performers) is better than the other, ditto Wade, though it doesn’t matter much with Wade. He’s a wet towel either way.
Kimbell’s quest for information will first lead her to Jonathan Haze, a white guy in brownface as a Mexican; the accent is something. Haze will get Kimbell looking for Ordung. Ordung’s the village… layabout? It’s unclear. But everyone knows him, including Inez Palange, who needs him to kill Kimbell as a sacrifice to the Monster.
The Monster only started showing up in the late 1940s, directly tied to the Bikini nuclear tests, so how many people have Palange sacrificed over the eight years? Unclear. Is Ordung doing the killing? Unclear.
Probably not because every time he tries to kill Kimbell it goes wrong, usually because of her competence. Monster is an incredibly slow-moving picture—especially for just over an hour—and much of the film is Kimbell listening to people or waiting for people to respond after listening to her. It’s talky, and it’s slow.
But she’s always ready to go when she’s up. What makes it even more fascinating is how matter-of-factly the film presents her agency; sure, it’s not playing Wade as a doofus, but it’s not pretending anyone finds him any more charming than they should. He seems like a jackass, and Kimbell’s too good for him.
There’s an action-packed finale with miniatures, lots of undersea photography—often involving a really cool personal submarine—and (apparently) Kimbell doing her own underwater stunts.
Monster’s sometimes tedious, but it’s a quirky little picture. Ordung unintentionally gets some rather interesting shots, the budgetary limitations leading to some creative success. And Kimbell’s always a likable lead.
It’s surprisingly solid, given all the constraints.
The Stop Button 