Tue 4 May 2010
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: THE SHE-CREATURE (1956).
Posted by Steve under Horror movies , Reviews[3] Comments
THE SHE-CREATURE. American International, 1956. Chester Morris, Marla English, Tom Conway, Cathy Downs, Lance Fuller, Frank Jenks, Kenneth MacDonald. Director: Edward L. Cahn.
Speaking of Cheap Thrills, The She-Creature was on recently, a film I’ve been looking for over the last several years and one I found pleasantly not-disappointing.
This was produced by Alex Gordon, a movie-maker and film buff who also turned out a few memorable B-Westerns in the 60s, films that utilized the talents of some stalwart old western stars without the tired fustiness of the A.C. Lyles efforts over at Paramount. Gordon’s Sci-Fi films are less memorable than his Westerns, but still worth a look.
This was probably his best Horror Film, a fast-moving, unsubtle, mildly erotic tale of Mind Control and Reincarnation, with Marla English in the unwilling thrall of Chester Morris as a Carnival Hypnotist who can regress her back to some vaguely prehistoric sea-monster state, with scales, claws, stringy hair and massive headlights.
In this condition, she walks out of the Sea and kills people, then vanishes into the mist while Morris thrills audiences in his tawdry show with predictions of more “Monster Murders.”
Tom Conway comes on about then, as a wealthy publisher who gets wealthier by promoting Morris, and whose swelling ego heads all concerned to a predictable ending.
Yeah, it’s not much, but what there is has some marginal virtues, including Paul Blaisdell’s impressive She-Creature makeup and a remarkably vigorous performance by Chester Morris, whose career by this time was at its obvious nadir.
Somehow, he’s perfect for the part, with his sagging features and cheap hair dye, looking poignantly just like the sleazy showman he plays.
And to his credit, he acts his heart out here, ignoring the cardboard sets (which also look poignantly like Carnival Cheapery) and giving his obsessive part a quiet intensity that never lets up but never goes over the top, either.
Incidentally, Marla English, parts of the She-Creature outfit, and all of Tom Conway (playing a White Witch Doctor with what looks like a porcupine on his head) returned the very next year in Voodoo Woman, another Alex Gordon effort that makes She Creature look sumptuous by comparison.
May 4th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
This was certainly a low point for Morris, but he returned to the theater and made a minor come back, going out in style in THE GREAT WHITE HOPE. He’s good here, chewing scenery in a role that calls for scenery to be chewed.
And anytime he got to do a bit of his amateur magic act he was happy — which is why he resorted to it so often in the Boston Blackie films.
Not really a good movie, but so much better than it should have been, and as Dan says a few things even elevate it a bit — one of them Morris performance.
May 5th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
The in-name-only remake is rather a good time, as well.
May 5th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Thanks for the reminder about that, Todd. I had to go scrambling to look up something about it, and “in name only” is right.
Check out this review at http://moria.co.nz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3323&Itemid=1