Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961) on Netflix
NR19611h 15m
Renzo Capetto's yacht carries General Tostada and his loyalists out of Cuba with part of the treasury, gold Capetto intends to keep. Secret agent XK150 is along, posing as Sparks Moran.
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- Netflix1.8/5
- IMDb3.5/103,615 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
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Plot summary
Deported American racketeer Renzo Capetto puts his yacht at the service of General Tostada and his loyalists, carrying them and part of the national treasury out of Cuba after the revolution. The general intends to fund a counter-revolution with the gold; Capetto intends to keep it. Aboard is secret agent XK150, working under the alias Sparks Moran and posing as a burglar from Chicago. The gang includes Capetto's girlfriend Mary-Belle Monahan, her brother Happy Jack, and Pete Peterson Jr., a henchman who mimics animal noises. To cover the theft, Capetto plans to murder the loyalists and blame the deaths on the legendary Creature from the Haunted Sea, a story he feeds the frightened general as the yacht changes course.
Cast
- Robert Beanas Happy Jack Monahan
- Esther Sandovalas Rosina Perez
- Sonia Noemí Gonzálezas Mango Perez
- Blanquita Romeroas Carmelita Rodriguez
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Screenwriter Charles B. Griffith, feeling underpaid, punished director Roger Corman by writing him the part of Happy Jack Monahan, a role requiring hysterical laughter in one scene and baby-like crying in the next; Corman called it too big and gave it to Robert Bean.
- The creature was built from a wetsuit, moss, Brillo pads, tennis balls for eyes, ping-pong balls for pupils and pipe cleaners for claws, then covered in black oilcloth to look slimy, according to Beach Dickerson, who played it.
- When the cast and crew had trouble leaving Puerto Rico, the cinematographer hid the finished film from Roger Corman until everyone had been paid for the production.
SPOILER
Roger Corman phoned Charles B. Griffith from Puerto Rico with the ending he had invented on a whim: the monster wins, sitting on the chest of gold at the bottom of the ocean, picking its teeth among the skeletons.- Fred Katz wrote the score for Creature from the Haunted Sea, but it had first been written for A Bucket of Blood. Mark Thomas McGee said Katz sold Roger Corman the same score as new each time he was hired.
- The marketing campaign sold the comedy as a serious thriller, with a poster asking "What was the unspeakable secret of the sea of lost ships?" and telling audiences not to give away the answer; many found the advertising misleading, harming the film's success.
- In March 1963, Corman reassembled the cast in Santa Monica for new scenes directed by Monte Hellman to expand the film to 74 minutes for television, and Hellman added a title song sung by Betsy Jones-Moreland.
- Creature from the Haunted Sea was the final entry in an unofficial trilogy of black comedies by Griffith and Corman. The other two films were A Bucket of Blood (1959) and The Little Shop of Horrors (1960).
