User Reviews

There are some genuine frights in what could basically be called a rip off of that famous Universal sci-fi classic. A mysterious creature haunts an ocean front town, resulting in some extremely horrific deaths where victims are decapitated and their blood literally sucked out of the remains of their body. The local doctor and sheriff can't quite figure out where it came from, and only an old, crotchety light house worker seems to be aware of the truth, but he isn't saying anything. A Gothic feel aids in making this more intriguing than the usual low-budget drive-in fare, with some great character performances including Les Tremayne as the doctor and John Harmon as the light house keeper. A slight romantic subplot doesn't get in the way, keeping the focus on the mystery of what the creature is and how the authorities deal with it.

It is truly remarkable how a cinematic image can make a lasting imprint on a young and impressionable mind. Take, for example, the 3-year-old me, who witnessed, in a movie theatre, the image of a man falling on a dynamite plunger and causing a bridge to blow up, resulting in a devastating train wreck. It is an image that I have never forgotten, despite all these intervening decades; one of the final scenes, of course, from the great David Lean film "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957), which I have since verified my folks did take me to see, although why my parents deemed a 2 ½-hour war movie appropriate fare for such a young child is another matter. Flash forward five years or so, and we have another lasting cinematic image from my childhood, this one of a bit more grisly nature: a hideous monster advancing toward the camera, clutching in its mitt the dangling head of its latest victim. For an 8-year-old kid, such a proceeding might be truly unforgettable, as it would indeed turn out to be for me and all my fellow baby boomers who thrilled to the film in question, the 1959 wonder known as "The Monster of Piedras Blancas." Back in the early to mid-'60s, this film was shown quite often here in NYC on the wonderful program known as "Chiller Theatre," although it would eventually become virtually impossible to see. But the memory of it has persisted over the decades for this viewer - at least, that one scene has, as well as the memory of a lighthouse of some kind - and I have wanted to refresh my memory of it ever since. Happily, in this modern digital era, the movie is now a snap to experience, thanks to Olive Films' fine-looking DVDs of it, in both standard and Blu-ray editions. Originally released in April 1959 as part of a double bill, along with the long-forgotten "Okefenokee," the film reveals itself to be, all these decades later, a surprisingly decent entertainment, if with some problematic elements. Still, I had a blast watching it for the first time in 50-something years, just the other night.



In the film, a rash of killings has broken out in the quaint California coastal town of Piedras Blancas. Two fishermen, the Rinaldi brothers, have been found, their necks ripped apart, and the local grocer, Kochek (Frank Arvidson), blames the murders on the legend of a local monster. The town's lighthouse keeper, Sturges (John Harmon, an actor whose name you might not recognize despite his 287 IMDb credits!), pooh-poohs such claims, despite the fact that we viewers have already seen him suspiciously leaving dishes of fish near the coastal caves for ... something. When Kockek himself is found dead, his head completely torn off, the town's doctor, Sam Jorgenson (Les Tremayne, perhaps the biggest "name" in this film, who had previously appeared in 1953's "The War of the Worlds" and 1957's "The Monolith Monsters," and who would go on to appear in 1963's, uh, "The Slime People"), and the local constable, George Matson (Forrest Lewis, who had just appeared in 1958's "The Thing That Couldn't Die"), do a little sleuthing around, and find the scale of a strange whatzit in the grocer's store. Aided by young Fred, a budding scientist (and played by Don Sullivan, who that same year would appear in "The Giant Gila Monster" AND "Teenage Zombies"), the team discovers that the scale belongs to a creature known as a "diplovertebron," a prehistoric amphibious reptile that had supposedly gone extinct over 300 million years ago! As the killings continue, including the murder of a little girl, the town's crisis comes to a head, until the monster itself appears to the viewer, a full 50+ minutes into this scant 71-minute affair, when Sturges' daughter Lucy, who has recently been dating Fred (and played by Jeanne Carmen, a former model, pin-up girl, trick-shot golfer, and, supposedly, best friend of Marilyn Monroe), opens the door of her lighthouse home and sees the horrible creature goggling at her in the rubbery flesh....



Though only produced with a budget of under $30,000, "The Monster of Piedras Blancas" looks just fine, and makes good use of its outdoor seaside locales, well shot here in B&W by cinematographer Philip Lathrop. Strangely enough, the town of Cayucos, CA stood in for the town of Piedras Blancas here, and the Point Conception Lighthouse was used in the film, not the Piedras Blancas Light Station itself; don't ask me why. Director Irvin Berwick and producer Jack Kevan, both of whom had worked at Universal Studios, make every dollar pay off here in this, their self-made first of two independent efforts. As for the creature costume itself, reportedly, Kevan salvaged the feet of the Metalunan mutant from the sci-fi wonder "This Island Earth" (1955), as well as the never-used hands for "The Mole People" (1956). The net result is a monster that is somewhat suggestive of Millicent Patrick's legendary Creature From the Black Lagoon, as well as the monstrosities in "The She-Creature" (1956), "It! The Terror From Beyond Space" (1958) and "The Hideous Sun Demon" (1959). The fearsome mug of the Piedras Blancas monster is indeed a nasty one, although the head part of its costume looks somewhat detached from its body ... appropriately enough, I suppose, considering that all of its victims soon wind up in a similar state! Pete Dunn, the man in the monster costume here, lumbers about and beats his chest in ferocious gorilla fashion, making for still another great '50s sci-fi creation.



"The Monster of Piedras Blancas" features a number of truly gripping scenes, including the one in which Lucy opens that door and sees our creature in close-up, with seawater gurgling from its gaping maw, and the one in which Sturges combats the monster high up in the lighthouse. The film offers up some pleasing bits of grossness (at least, they seemed gross when I was a kiddy), including that unforgettable shot of the dangling head, and that same head found in a cave later on, a crab scurrying about on top of it. And it gives us one of the enduring tropes of '50s sci-fi: the sequence in which the monster carries away a screaming young woman (Lucy, in this case), although what it intends to do with her is anybody's guess. The film is, surprisingly, decently acted by its small cast, moves along briskly, and keeps its moments of unintentional risibility to a minimum. It even manages to throw in an homage of sorts to the great 1953 classic "From Here to Eternity," as Fred and Lucy lay in the surf and make out as the waves crash over them. And speaking of Lucy, it is interesting that Jeanne Carmen, who was such a glamour girl in the '50s, is presented in this film as a realistically average-looking character. Lucy is an attractive woman, yes, but her outfits here are surely nothing to draw special notice, and the character strikes the viewer as something of a plain Jane. Yes, she is shown stripping down to do a little nighttime skinny-dipping in the surf, and is later seen standing at her window wearing a brassiere, but for a sexpot performer of Carmen's fame, her character here is surprisingly tame. Carmen, by the way, has a very interesting history/biography that I urge you to look into, and her online comments vis-à-vis Marilyn Monroe and the Kennedys, and her exploits with them, will surely fascinate. Anyway, so yes, the film does have many positive aspects that might surprise a modern-day viewer. Still, as might be expected, there remain some problems to be had.



For one thing, the film's script, by one H. Haile Chace, is a lazy one, and fails to explain just where the monster originated to begin with, and why the monster in question loves to rip the heads off of its victims. Okay, the monster has been draining away the blood from its kills, but still, the head ripping strikes one as being a bit ... gratuitous. For that matter, why does the monster not eat its victims whole, as it has been shown to have a liking for the fish and meat scraps that Sturges had been feeding it, sight unseen, over the years? And then there is that conclusion to the film. Can we assume that the monster has been killed or not? And oh ... it appears that the diploverterbron is an actual extinct species, but one that only existed in the swamps of what is now the Czech Republic in central Europe. So how did this one wind up in central California, of all places? But these are minor matters, of course. "The Monster of Piedras Blancas" still remains a nice little entertainment - one of the capper films coming at the tail end of a classic decade for science fiction on the big screen - and one that is of course perfect fare to watch with your favorite 8-year-old. He or she might be grossed out a little by the proceedings therein, but trust me, if my experience with the film is any indication, your little one will never forget it!

A rather charming B-movie from 1959 with a decent looking monster terrorising a small town by the sea. It's not a classic but has interesting characters and reasonable dialogue. The locations are well chosen particularly the lighthouse where the grizzled keeper knows more than he lets on. The acting is good enough from reliable Les Tremayne as the doctor to cute Jeanne Carmen as Lucille' her swimming scene arousing the romantic interest of the monster who also has an interest in severed heads. The cinematography is not spectacular though I saw it in a good clear print which enhanced the atmosphere, especially the scenes by the sea. The director of photography Philip Lathrop went on to much bigger assignments. A better film than I expected certainly.

It's kind of interesting to see which members of the cast can act and which can't. The two young leads aren't bad, as a matter of fact. Jeanne Carman, the hefty, young college girl, is passable. She went on to become a kind of groupie of Sinatra's Rat Pack. Her sex life must have been beyond imagining.

John Harmon, as her suitor and (maybe) an oceanographer -- the plot doesn't make it clear -- gives probably the best performance in the movie, right up there with Les Tremayne as the local doctor who is puzzled over the mutilated bodies that turn up at the beach from time to time. You can tell Tremayne is an experienced actor because his sonorous, seasoned voice, "speaking lines", marks him as one. Harmon, on the other hand, sounds almost believable, and doesn't look like a dork either but rather some kind of uncanny triangulation involving Mark Stevens, David Schwimmer, and Peter Gallagher.

It's a small seaside town on the California coast, Piedras Blancas, with a nice lighthouse run by the heroine's embittered and mysterious father. The actual light house is at Point Conception, where the coast takes a sudden eastern bend, and at the time of filming would have been run by the U. S. Coast Guard.

In any case, the whole area around Estero Bay is scenic and the weather benign, and Morro Bay has a splendid pizzeria. You don't get to see much of the town: one church, one house, one store front. Nearby California Polytechnic Institute is a magnificent institute of higher learning. I applaud Cal Poly because it has one of my books in its library, plus a raw manuscript of an article. If you want to see Morro Bay in excelsis, see "Personal Best."

I know. It's a divagation. But it many ways it's at least as interesting as the movie. So Carman, Harmon, and Tremayne can act. And who can't? Well -- nobody else, really. But the standout is Frank Arvidson as Kolchek, the store keeper and rumor monger. We have to presume he's Slavic, yet when he shouts his lines they come across as Swedish. Fortunately, about at the half way point, he winds up as a decerebrate preparation.

The story makes little sense. The monster looks like a close relative of the creature from the Black Lagoon only more ridiculous. The movie isn't really worth commenting on any further. Some of these 50s science-fiction movies are entertaining and some are unspeakable garbage. This one is somewhere in the gray area between, barely tolerable.

I recently obtained a VHS copy of The Monster Of Pidras Blancas off E-Bay and was pleased I did, I had been after this movie for several years but could not get it anywhere.

After several headless bodies are found washed up on the shore of Pidras Blancas, locals are baffled by these horrible deaths. There turn out to be the responsibility of a legendary monster, which lives in a nearby cave and is fed by the local lighthouse keeper. After the monster kills more people, there is a confrontation on top of the lighthouse at the end...

The cast includes 50's sci-fi regular Les Tremayne (The War Of The Worlds, The Monolith Monsters), Forrest Lewis and John Harmon.

The monster in this movie looks very similar to the Gill Man from Creature From The Black Lagoon.

Although a little slow moving in parts, I certainly enjoyed The Monster Of Pidras Blancas and is rather creepy at times too. Quite good.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

This story takes place in Piedras Blancas, a point located along the California coast.

Killing by unknown assailant starts to happen in the town near the light house of Piedras Blancas. The victim is decapitated and the blood from their bodies are missing. Little do the people of the town know, the cause of this incident started when the owner of the butcher shop refused the sale of scrap meat to the light house attendant. The light house attendant is keeping a secret that the whole town will soon find out.

Piedras Blancas exists in California coast along the part of Pacific Coast Highway, called Cabrillo Highway about 60 miles north west of San Luis Obispo, and 90 miles south of Monterey Peninsula. It's a picturesque part of the state where you can see endless expanse of the Pacific ocean, and sparsely forested hills of California. There's an actual light house there where presumably this movie was shot. There's no town as such that's depicted in this movie near this point.

There is a monster in this movie as the title suggests. It looks very much like the creature that appeared on the movie "It ! The Terror from Outer Space" with some modifications. The story is rather thin, but because the monster has a good presence, this movie is entertaining.

At just over an hour, the movie is short, but it's just the right length to tell this story. Not a big budget movie, but it has decent story and good acting.

Recommended for '50s sci-fi movie fans.

Idyllic coastal setting, and I'm a sucker for lighthouses, is the setting for this "monster on the beach" outing that owes a bit to Creature from the Black Lagoon (the monster is basically a stripped down Gillman without the distinctive detail to the costume that made it so memorable and special). California coastal community of Piedras Blancas is suffering a string of beheadings to the locals (it literally goes for the jugular), and it's possible the lighthouse keeper (John Harmon) has known about its existence, living in a cavern nearby, and kept it secret. Forrest Lewis is the constable out to find the killer and stop it, and Lee Tremayne is the doctor/scientist lending his expertise to help identify what it is. Jeanne Carmen is Harmon's daughter, and Don Sullivan is Carmen's beau. Sullivan is studying with Tremayne in a mentor/pupil dynamic. Not enough monster, some rough acting (clear indication some of the actors were struggling with their lines, and the long dialogues seemed to be a chore for some of them to endure), and pacing issues hinder the entertainment value. There is some dead space that just seems to devour the running time. Even at 71 minutes, it feels long. Severed heads (including one scene where the Reptiliman is carrying a bloody head, another where there's a crab crawling on a discarded head in the cavernous home of the monster) add shock value, some description of the monster's handiwork is grisly even if not shown, and there's a haunting scene where the father of a victim carries his child with the locals behind him as he marches up a sidewalk to the constable. I guess I would have boosted my rating had we seen some extra skin from Carmen, but what we do have is rather a slog that kind of drags and energy in the direction is lacking. The face of the monster, when revealed, is disappointing, to say the least. The right move was ending the film using the lighthouse. I think what is definitely missing is a key B-movie actor, like a Denning, Marshall Thompson, or Carlson, to anchor the film as far as a charismatic presence. At their best, the cast is serviceable, if no one is exactly extraordinary. This kind of film was begging for a Universal Studios budget and a helmer like Jack Arnold to move the plot along more effectively. As a creature feature, this is no better or worse than those cheesy Corman/Blaisdel efforts (which had some fun casts and a sense of humor).