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Released by: Olive Films
Released on: September 13th, 2016.
Director: Irvin Berwick
Cast: Jeanne Carmen, Led Tremayne, John Harmon, Don Sullivan, Forrest Lewis
Year: 1959
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The Movie:
The debut feature of the late Irwin Berwick, the same Irwin Berwick who made Malibu High and Hitch Hike To Hell, was 1959's The Monster Of Piedras Blancas. Set in the town for which the picture was named, this low budget black and white quickie lets us in on one thing right from the start: things are not right in Piedras Blancas. Oh sure, it's a nice enough little town, the lighthouse is very scenic and the coast is beautiful, but there's an inordinately high rate of…. DEATHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When what appears to be the scale of a prehistoric monster is found, lighthouse keeper Sturges (John Harmon) knows what is going on. In an attempt to keep his foxy daughter, Lucy (Jeanne Carmen), safe from the creature he knows stalks the townsfolk Sturges leaves food around the cave nearby to keep the beast at bay. He also continually warns Lucy to stay away, to play it safe. But she and her boyfriend Fred (Don Sullivan)? They'd much rather go skinny dipping than listen an old man, and the best spot to go swimming just so happens to be unusually close to the aforementioned cave! Meanwhile, the town's top scientist, science Dr. Sam Jorgensen (Les Tremayne), is out to solve the mystery - but when Sturges forgets to feed the monster…. the beast gets hungry and takes it upon himself to once again start poking around town. If the townsfolk aren't careful, the Monster Of Piedras Blancas is gonna see them tonight for a midnight snack! Thankfully Constable George Matson (Forrest Lewis) is on the case!
At just over seventy-minutes in length, The Monster Of Piedras Blancas doesn't overstay its welcome. The movie is pretty well paced, offering up enough monster mayhem in the last half of its brisk running time to easily hold our attention. The first half is a little slow, it sort of goes into 'whodunnit' territory for a bit, but yeah, once we hit the half way mark the titular monster runs around and gets into trouble and it's kind of great. The monster himself, created by Jack Kevan who not so coincidently worked on a certain Universal movie, bears a pretty strong resemblance to The Creature From The Black Lagoon, but that's not a bad thing if you like The Creature From The Black Lagoon (and if you don't, then just go away and don't come back). He plods around town and eventually the lighthouse like a good monster should, casting ominous shadows on conveniently placed walls thanks to some equally conveniently placed backlighting. He decapitates people. He…. feasts. This monster is well schooled in the art of monstering.
The cast are enjoyable enough. John Harmon does 'quirky weird lighthouse keeper' well, but of course, because he is the quirky old lighthouse keeper a lot of folks who should heed his warnings simply do not. Case in point? His gorgeous daughter, played with an acceptable amount of skill by deliciously curvaceous blonde bombshell Jeanne Carmen. Her range might be limited, but her hubba-hubba factor is through the roof. Les Tremayne embodies the rigid man of science stereotype quite nicely enough and Forrest Lewis is fine as the cop. Really though, you're going to want to watch this more for the monster than for anything else. This may be derivative of other monster films of the era but it hits most of the right notes and delivers pretty solid entertainment value through and through. Definitely a fun watch.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Monster Of Piedras Blancas is debuts on Blu-ray from Olive Films in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition framed at 1.78.1 widescreen. The black and white image is pretty strong, although some softness inherent in the original photography understandably affects detail a bit. There's some minor print damage here and there but overall the image is pretty clean. Aside from those softer looking scenes, detail is about average, easily surpassing DVD and giving you good depth and texture. Contrast looks nice and black levels seem fine. There are no obvious compression artifacts to spot and there's a nice, natural amount of film grain here. Noise reduction and edge enhancement are non-issues and overall the movie looks quite good in high definition.
Audio options are provided in English language DTS-HD Mono with optional subtitles provided in English only. There's some minor hiss in a few spots but otherwise this older single channel mix sounds just fine. Levels are balanced well enough and the dialogue is easy to understand and follow.
Extras? No dice! But we do get a static menu that offers chapter selection.
The Final Word:
The Monster Of Piedras Blancas is pretty entertaining stuff, a well-paced good old fashioned monster movie that, if it doesn't even try to reinvent the wheel, offers viewers plenty of goofy entertainment. Olive Films' Blu-ray release is devoid of extra features but it does look and sound quite good. Fans of 'man in suit runs amuck!' schlock from the fifties, step right up.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
