The Monster of Piedras Blanca (1959)
If you’re into 50’s horror, this film is noted as the gorier, nastier step-brother to Creature from the Black Lagoon. Similarities are expected 
because Jack Kevan who worked on The Creature costume also worked on this costume. Most notable in this film is pin-up model/actress Jeanne Carmen, who was also famous as a ‘trick shot’ expert golfer (beauty and talent, eh). This is your basic 50’s horror: a budding romance, a man with a secret and night time attacks by a hideous creature. Small details make this movie stand out, like the creature drooling when he sees Lucy and the severed head being picked at by crabs in a sea cave. There is one jarring scene where the police are investigating the death of a shop owner and are mulling over his headless corpse, thinking the monster is long gone. It’s not. I can say this scene must have been frightening for the 1950’s and it even gave me a jolt the first time I had watched it. The summary goes like this: Sturgis is the lighthouse keeper who goes to the butcher shop often to collect scraps. He complains that the butcher is not giving him enough and the butcher gets mad. Sturgis was secretly leaving the meat scraps for a legendary monster. Now that he is not leaving anything the monster begins to attack people. His daughter, Lucy Sturgis has a habit of skinny dipping at dusk. The Monster apparently enjoys this because when he captures Lucy, he doesn’t kill her, he kidnaps her. So Lucy’s love interest, Fred, arrives with a posse and battles with the monster on the Lighthouse exterior. If you’re a fan of 50’s horror and haven’t seen this you should. It’s one of those lesser known monster film gems that have gone under the radar for far too long.
Trivia tid-bits:
The hands of this monster are the same hands used in The Mole People.
The feet of the monster are the same one’s used for the Metalunan creatures in This Planet Earth (1955)
Piedras Blancas is a real place in California and exterior shots of the lighthouse were filmed there. The name means White Rocks.
————————————-
parlor of horror 
Where did you see it? It hasn’t gotten an official release has it?
I watched the whole movie on youtube. I don’t usually like to watch movies on a computer screen, but with help from my daughter, I figured out how to watch youtube movies on my TV by sending it thru the Wii game system 🙂
I actually knew this monster from it being on the cover of the Angry Samoans-Back from Samoa album long before I knew what movie it was from.
check out this recent commercial for American Standard featuring a clip of The Monster of Piedras Blancas embedded in the commercial
LOL, that was great! 🙂
A friend of mine sent me a dvd r rip of this movie and I never got around to watching it. I think I packed all of my ripped dvd r’s so it will have to wait until after the move. I recall seeing this movie on so many sci fi “must see” lists of the the 1950’s. Nice work bro!
Pingback: Sharknado 3 Premier – it wouldn’t be summer! | parlor of horror