CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA (1961) *** Roger Corman has contemplated the Cuban revolution: the hardship, the deception, the exploitation, the mafiosi and the girls in swimsuits. He has something to say! It's not clear what it is, but whatever it is, is absolutely brilliant. Something about a quarter of the Cuban treasury on the run, with Generals Tostada and Cabeza Grande hot on its heels. Charles B. Griffith cleverly frontloads the script with all but a few of the many, many brilliant lines. Therefore the first half of the film is spent in almost unbearable hysterics, the second half giggling in the expectation that it might somehow happen again. Which it occasionally does, to great effect, the lines about dusk and generals. Anyway, the cast looks like they're having a great time, which is obviously very important. Antony Carbone and Betsy Jones-Moreland do an astounding Bogey and Bacall act, and the monster is one of the greatest ever. If there really is one. And if there is, then it's not the very scariest one, but has more than competitive flippers. A lot of people think that it's easy to make a movie like this, and a lot of people don't check the ingredients in their bologna. An absolutely brilliant film, without questions. Greatest cinematic use ever of the word "whatever."
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