The She Creature 1956 Review

From the posters: Hypnotised! Reincarnated as a monster from hell! It can and did happen!

During the 1950s one of the most popular fads was psychic prediction, hypnosis and past life regression. Psychic to the stars Criswell had a popular television show and wrote a syndicated column (he would later appear in Ed Wood Jr.'s' PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE and ORGY OF THE DEAD). Way before Shirley MacLaine ever went "Out On a Limb" there was the 1950s best seller ‘The Search for Bridey Murphy' involving a case where under hypnosis a Colorado woman revealed she might have lived 100s of years ago. This was a very big story talked about in the newspapers, on radio, on the still new medium of television and became the subject of church sermons. Eventually a low budget movie about it was produced and released.

Producer Alex Gordon, Director Edward L. Cahn and the AIP boys saw a perfect opportunity to quickly create a movie. Within a couple months the movie was done and released to theaters.

1956's SHE CREATURE was originally going to star John Carradine but instead former ‘Boston Blackie" star Chester Morris assayed the role of Dr. Lombardi the humorless, evil hypnotist. Dr Lombardi's popular act has him predicting the death of a local citizen regressing his assistant Andrea (Marla English) back through her previous lives of a seventeeth century English woman to the days when she was pre-historic sea-creature. When he takes her back, a monster comes out of the seat and kills. The locals of the Southern California beach community become more and more suspicious of just how the hypnotist's predictions are coming true. Who's doing the killing? Is there really a monster on the loose?

Chester Morris as the hypnotist plays the role far too seriously with limited charisma. A little Carradine or Vincent Price flair would have been welcome. Pin-up ready girl  Marla English isn't given much to do but look busty. B movie lead, Tom Conway is here too, but unfortunately the extremely wooden Lance Fuller, as the male lead, takes up a lot of the screen time. The film's slow pace, works against enjoying its silly premise. The reason to see the movie is because it features one of the best Paul Blaisdel monster suit creations ever seen. The prehistoric She Creature costume Blaisdel designed and wears in the movie is one of the most memorable creatures of the 1950s. The few times we see the creature in profile and low light, it is a very eerie apparition indeed.

Later we see the creature full on and it's clear the monster moves so slow almost anyone should have been able to get away from it. (NOTE: A bad blonde wig was added to the costume and it became 1957'S VOODOO WOMAN. You can also see the head of the creature in 1958's HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER. All of these films were directed by one of the most prolific directors of the era, Edward I Cahn. Cahn began directing movies in the 1920s and is credited with approximately 120 movies).

Producer Alex Gordon and Director Edward L. Cahn get the job done fast, offering little mood or atmosphere and not taking advantage of their locations that include the fun fair on the pier, the beaches etc. Most of the movie is shot in day for night style which keeps the actors faces too dark except in the close-ups. Too much time is spent on sub-plots, attempts at humor and concentrating on the dull performance of Lance Fuller. Gordon by the way worked with Ed Wood Jr and has story credit on Wood's Bride of the Monster and Jail Bait.

Paul Blaisdel's creature, and the interesting concept even though it is not handled well raise this well above the average creature-feature or giant bug movie of the 1950s. The psychological themes are dark and fascinating (if you force yourself to enjoy the movie at face value-instead of as a campy kind of film) and it is easy to imagine how better production values and a better director could have created something quite worthwhile from this material.

Yes, I remain a big fan of this one, but am not blind to its considerable faults.

She Creature was part of a Lionsgate's Samuel Z. Arkoff Collection Cult Classics presentation in 2005/ 2006 released on DVD with Roger Corman's The Day the World Ended. A similar series was released in England back in 2003. The English version also included a fairly worthwhile 50 minute interview with AIP founder Samuel Z Arkoff from 1991. The Lionsgate release offers no such extras or supplements.

BACKGROUND

In the early 1950s, television was having a huge impact on the movie business and the movie moguls were very worried. The studio system of contract players was ending and making matters worse was the fact the studios had to sell the movie theaters they owned to independent exhibitors.

This meant that producers no longer were forced to work with a certain studio to guarantee their movies would play in theaters.

New movie independent movie companies were rising out of the dust of the b-movie producers of the past Allied Artists, Lippert, Woolner Brothers, Howco, AIP, and others were the new ‘poverty row' movie companies. But they were embracing the changing movie business and television, seizing opportunities to produce movies and make money.

One of the best and brightest of these entrepreneurs was Sam Arkoff.

Samuel Z. Arkoff was born in Iowa 1918, the son of Russian and Latvian immigrants. After serving the in Air force during World War 2 he became a lawyer. By 1948 several of his clients wee I the motion picture industry. He eventually got a big break by becoming the executive producer of The Hank McCune Show.

In 1954 Arkoff teamed with James Nicholson. They borrowed 3000 dollars and started the American Releasing Corporation. They saw an opportunity to serve the post war youth market of the 1950s, a large audience demographic that was being ignored by the major film companies. They would make movies that would appeal to teenagers. Often the parents would be appalled by the movies that would feature rebellious youths, rock and roll music, monsters and violence and loose women.

Up and coming movie-makers like Roger Corman, could learn their craft, and make movies, albeit very cheap movies for AIP. Hard working b-movie directors like Cahn who found themselves begging for work, were now in demand to crank out low budget movies quickly and cheaply. Arkoff explained in interviews that in the beginning they would often figure out a title and a poster for a movie and then if it looked good, go ahead with a script and shoot the movie. The AIP movies became DRIVE IN movie staples throughout the 1950s and early 60s.

How does it look and sound on DVD?

The SHE CREATURE is a full-frame transfer and it is believed to be the same one made of the film back in the mid-1990s for VHS. Even when picture quality is improved slightly, the DVD displays exaggerate flaws from earlier film to tape telecine transfers. There's hue and pattern related shifts that can be seen.

The audio is mono and there are problems but usually you can hear the dialogue clearly.

There is technology today that would greatly enhance and improve the quality of these films. However, only a few video distributors insist on top quality before making the products available to the public. The people who own the copyrights on the films, are not interested in spending extra money on the films since they would make more profits but simply getting them out on the market. The distributors who lease the movies know they will only sell a certain amount of copies. Let's face it, most people don't pay close enough attention to quality issues, particularly on low budget, dated, cheesy 1950s drive in horror movies. Too bad.

I would love to see many titles released in special editions presenting them in the highest quality possible that would include commentaries from people who talk with some appreciation for the films and offer some details about the people who made and starred in them. Some documentaries could be produced as added supplements as well.