The Monster of Piedras Blancas ** (1959, Les Tremayne, Forrest Lewis, John Harmon) – Classic Movie Review 8093

Director Irvin Berwick’s 1959 horror movie The Monster of Piedras Blancas stars Les Tremayne, Forrest Lewis and John Harmon.

In writer H Haile Chace’s screenplay, a newly widowed lighthouse keeper called Sturges (Harmon) puts out food at night for a legendary blood-sucking monster (enacted, possibly in a spirit of irony, by the film’s producer Jack Kevan), who then starts to feed off the locals.

It is the kind of endearingly daft and unconvincing Fifties creature feature horror movie in which a man dresses up in a horny rubber monster suit costume that resembles the one in the Creature from the Black Lagoon – unsurprisingly since the monster suit was created by Jack Kevan who also devised the similar Gill-Man creature makeup and monster suit for Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).

The Monster of Piedras Blancas is amusing, entertaining and good for a laugh, but it fails to have the charm and allure of the iconic Creature from the Black Lagoon as it is so filled with clichés that it is funny rather than eerie or scary.

Also in the cast are Frank Arvidson, Jeanne Carmen, Don Sullivan, Wayne Berwick, Joseph LaCava and Pete Dunn.

The Monster of Piedras Blancas is directed by Irvin Berwick, runs 72 minutes, is made by Vanwick Productions, is released by Filmservice Distributors Corporation (US) and Grand National Pictures (UK), is written by H Haile Chance, is shot in black and white by Philip H Lathrop, and is produced by Jack Kevan.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8093

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