THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS

The monster with a victim's head

THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS (1959). Director: Irwin Berwick. 

A lighthouse keeper named Sturgis (John Harmon) lives alone with his grown daughter, Lucille (Jeanne Carmen). Unbeknownst to her he has been surreptitiously feeding a creature in a cavern that he has come to think of as a kind of pet or companion. Unfortunately this creature is becoming increasingly hungry for more meat, and bodies begin turning up that are missing their heads and have been "completely transected" and drained of blood. Constable Matson (Forrest Lewis), Dr. Jorgenson (Les Tremayne) and Lucy's boyfriend, Fred (Don Sullivan), decide to track down the seven-foot-tall monster before it can claim more victims. 

Forrest Lewis, Jeanne Carmen, Don Sullivan

One thing The Monster has going for it is a lot of low-budget atmosphere and location filming. Although there were other fifties creature features that could get pretty gruesome and somewhat graphic -- The Crawling Eye/Trollenberg Terror comes to mind -- Monster is sometimes pretty raw for the time period, not only showing more than one ripped-off head but showing us a close-up of a little girl's head being fed upon by a crab; the pic was obviously going in for shock value! John Harmon was a busy actor with over 200 film and TV credits, but his performance in this is only acceptable.

Forrest Lewis and Les Tremayne

Les Tremayne is the best-known member of the cast and is as professional as ever. Forrest Lewis also had quite a few credits, although Jeanne Carmen was better-known for the company she kept -- mobsters and Frank Sinatra -- than for her few film roles. Don Sullivan is best-known for another low-budget monster flick, The Giant Gila Monster. The monster is built along the lines of The Creature from the Black Lagoon -- a kind of hulking, stalking reptilian creature -- but not nearly as well-designed. Much about how this mutant kills and feeds and why it beheads its victims is left unexplained. Long-time bit player Pete Dunn not only plays the monster but one of the victims, carrying a mock-up of his own head in the film's most exciting sequence. An unknown actor has an affecting moment as Will, the devastated father of the little girl. 

Verdict: Creepy, at times ghoulish, horror flick has some effective moments. **1/2.