BLACK ZOO

BLACK ZOO (1963). Director: Robert Gordon. 

This long-unseen horror thriller is one of three films producer Herman Cohen did with star Michael Gough (the other two are Konga and Horrors of the Black Museum). Like the others, Black Zoo is lurid, somewhat campy fun. Gough is owner of a zoo as well as member of a weird cult of animal worshipers. Threatened with losing the zoo and his beloved tigers and lions -- who lie around his living room like treasured and pampered guests -- Gough sics his pets on anyone who dares to get in his way. His wife Edna (Jeanne Cooper) has a trained chimp act and wishes that hubby were kinder to the handsome mute boy Carl (Rod Lauren) who helps him with the murders. Gough is florid and easily enraged, but as an actor he puts on a lively, energetic show, and Cooper is excellent and equally energetic. The interesting cast also includes Virginia Grey as a booking agent, Jerome Cowan as an entrepreneur, Elisha Cook, Jr. as a zoo worker, and even Ed Platt ("the chief" on Get Smart) as a detective. One of the most interesting scenes is an funeral for the dead tiger Baron that takes place in a misty forest by night. Cooper and Gough have a great, lively dinner scene that ends in an hysterical (in more ways than one) fight. Cooper played Katherine Chancellor on The Young and the Restless; one of her co-stars on that show was Jerry Douglas, who plays a police lab man in Black Zoo. (He's not very good at his job, however, as he thinks a gorilla is "a member of the chimp family!") What's most surprising about this entertaining picture isn't the final revelation as much as how moving it is. Rod Lauren (of The Young Swingers) hasn't a word of dialogue but his expressive face says volumes. (Ironically, the actor-singer was accused years later of hiring someone to murder his wife.) Script by Herman Cohen and Aben Kandel. Robert Gordon also directed It Came from Beneath the Sea. 

Verdict: Lions and tigers and apes, oh my! ***.

IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA

An absolutely humongous octopus

IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA (1955). Director: Robert Gordon. NOTE: This is a review of the colorized version. 

Cmdr. Pete Mathews (Ken Tobey) and the crew of his atomic submarine have a strange encounter with what turns out to be an unknown marine animal. Dr. John Carter (Donald Curtis) and Professor Lesley Joyce (Faith Domergue of Cult of the Cobra) are called in by the Navy to find out what they can about this beast. Said beast is a stupendously big octopus that has become radioactive from atomic testing, and risen from the Mindanao Deep in search of food. Its normal food supply has been cut off because the fish have built-in Geiger counters that warn them off. The trio institute a search for the monster, but after one scary encounter on the beach, it attacks San Francisco in all its glory. Can even their bombs put paid to the beast?

Octopus versus Golden Gate

It Came from Beneath the Sea has one great selling point, and that's the monster, which is brought vividly to life by the stop-motion artistry of Ray Harryhausen -- even the tentacles of the monster seem to have a sentience of their own, and the shots of those huge appendages hovering over the streets of San Francisco and sweeping away highly unfortunate humans are rather startling and horrifying, as are the shots of the creature trying to pull itself out of the bay. The monster also has an encounter with the Golden Gate Bridge, with the bridge being the loser, as well as a tramp steamer that loses nearly all hands. 

Beach confab: Tobey, Domergue, Curtis

A problem with the movie is that no one ever expresses any sheer awe at the mere existence of this gargantuan animal who can cause havoc and massive death on the shore without even leaving the water. The only fear our heroes display is during the aforementioned scary beach encounter in which a sheriff (Harry Lauter) comes to a bad end. Robert Gordon's direction of the non-monster sequences is flat and prosaic, with no real attempt to create suspense or tension. The romance worked up between Tobey and Domergue is never convincing, and is even comical at times, with the former's character being so aggressive in some instances that his actions border on harassment. 

Domergue, Tobey and Harry Lauter

On the other hand, the movie has a decided feminist slant, with Dr. Carter trying to make the commander understand "the new breed of woman" who doesn't need or like to be coddled or condescended to. The performances of the three leads are competent but they, including the sexy Domergue, can't make much of an impression next to that hungry, roaring octopus. Many of the supporting roles are filled by people who don't even appear to be actors, but may instead be sailors or officials doing double-duty. NOTE: To read more about this and other movies like it, see Creature Features: Nature Turned Nasty in the Movies. 

Verdict: A lively monster and some great Harryhausen effects keep this flick afloat. ***.