MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR (1954) (Film Masters Blu-ray Review + Screenshots)

 

MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR (1954) 

Label: Film Masters 

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 64 Minutes 20 Seconds 

Audio: English Dolby Digital or DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: B&W 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.37:1) 

Director: Wyott Ordung

Cast: Stuart Wade, Jonathan Haze, Anne Kimbell

50s creature-feature Monster from the Ocean Floor (1954) was first feature-length film produced by Roger Corman, directed by Wyott Ordung (Walk the Dark Street), who was the writer of schlock-classic Robot Monster. A low-budget monster flick about a nocturnal, man-eating sea creature that rises from the ocean floor near a small Mexican fishing village. Our protagonists are a vacationing American artist Julie Blair (Anne Kimbell, Girls at Sea) and a marine biologist  named Steve Dunning (Stuart Wade, The Thing That Couldn't Die). The pair have a fun meet-cute, romance blossoms between them, and they start to investigate reports of a sea-dwelling creature said to live in the area, a red-eyed monster with a taste for the flesh of locals. Julie believes there could be something to the reports while science-guy Steve is more of a a skeptic, suggesting that “Lovely girls don’t go around worrying about non-existent sea monsters!”. Top-billed Kimball as Julie is quite a lovely presence, and not a helpless damsel either, at one point while diving she defends herself from a marauding shark with a diver's knife! It's nice to see a resourceful young woman in a 50's creature-feature.  

Aftera the mysterious death of an abalone diver, (Jonathan Haze, The Little Shop of Horrors), and Julie’s own terrifying encounter with the creature the skeptical Dunning becomes a believer, and when the creature abducts Julie during one of her dives he takes his one-man peddle-powered mini-sub into the depths to pursue the monstrous sea-predator, culminating in a brief but fun deep sea monster-fighting excursion, with Dunning ramming his mini-sub into the giant cyclopean-octopi eyeball!

Apparently the premise for this flick was inspired by Roger Corman reading an article about a one-man, pedal-powered Mark III mini-submarine manufactured by Aerojet General. While upstart Corman could not pay for the use of the sub he still managed to strike deal after promising that the film would bring some publicity to the manufacturer's product. I don't know if worked in their favor or not, but it's fun to see that Corman's shrewd, money-scraping business sense was intact from the get-go! 

Honestly this one is a bit of snoozer for large swaths of it, but its only an hour long, and once we get to the finale with the cyclopean-octopus creature and what looks to be a miniature toy sub in a bathtub it does at least deliver a semi-satisfying slice of sea-creature schlock. While it's largely quite talky, with Steve talking about the ocean non-stop and even crooning a tune on the beach, the scrappy production is well put together, and the oceanside locations look great, plus we get a monster designed by monster-maker Bob Baker (The Angry Red Planet) that looks hokey, but pretty decent for a no-budget cheapie. 

Audio/Video: Monster from the Ocean Floor (1954) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Film Masters, presented in 1080p HD, frame din the original 1.37:1 aspect ratio, sourced from original 35mm original camera negatives, newly scanned in 4K.. The grain field is intact and looks solid, the black and white pic has been wonderfully restored, looking clean but not scrubbed, which I appreciated. I also was pleased with the dialed-in contrast and grayscale with strong black throughout, and plenty of fine detail and texture in the close-ups. There are some faint vertical lines and a stray scratch or two but generally the restoration looks fantastic. Audio comes by way of both English Dolby Digital and DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles. The tracks are both clean and well-balanced, dialogue sounds terrific, and the score by Andre Brummer (Eegah) fares quite nicely in the mix. 

This is another well-stocked special edition from Film Masters, starting off with an Audio Commentary by Tom Weaver and The Weaver Players, which includes archival audio interview contributions from Roger Corman, Anne Kimball, and Jonathan Haze, as well as readings from pertinent passage from film books and autobiographies. As usual it's a fun listen and Weaver is always entertaining, never a dull moments and plenty of interesting facts and anecdotal stories. 

We also get a pair of handsome Ballyhoo Motion Pictures produced documentaries, the first is the 14-min Bob Baker: From Monsters to Marionettes; which tracks Baker's early career working on George Pal's Puppetoons, to Corman on this flick and The Angry Red Planet, to his later days with Disney on Escape To Witch Mountain and Bedknobs and Broomsticks, the Star Trek episode "Man Trap", and his work in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. 

The second is the 9-min Roger Corman: Becoming a B-Movie Maker wherein the late director talks about his early career making films. We also get a Stills Gallery, courtesy of Mike Barnum, plus the Original 35mm Theatrical Trailer

and a brand new Re-cut 2025 Trailer derived from the restored film elements. 

The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the original illustrated movie poster. Inside there's a 16-Page Illustrated Collector's Booklet with Liner notes by Weaver, which includes vintage images of the Mark III dive-bike submersible, plus a gallery of one-eyed movie monster creatures, and a cool instruction sheet on how to properly advertise the film at movie houses, including setting up an lobby aquarium! 

Special Features: 
- Audio Commentary with Tom Weaver and The Weaver Players, which includes archival audio interviews with Producer Roger Corman, and Actors Anne Kimball and Jonathan Haze
- Ballyhoo Motion Pictures Documentary:  Bob Baker: From Monsters to Marionettes (14:02) 

- Ballyhoo Motion Pictures Documentary: Roger Corman: Becoming a B-Movie Maker (8:43) 
- Stills Gallery, courtesy of Mike Barnum (2:12) (27 Images) 
- Original 35mm Theatrical Trailer (1:52) 
- Re-cut 2025 Trailer

- 16-Page Illustrated Collector's Booklet with Liner notes by Weaver

Monster from the Ocean Floor (1954) is not a great monster flick but it is a fun early Roger Corman production that should have tons of appeal for monster kids both new and old. I appreciate the work that Film Masters have been doing, bringing these schlocky b-pictures to Blu-ray with gorgeous new restorations and terrific extras, keeping them alive and reinvigorating them for future generations of movie fans and monster kids of all ages.  

Screenshots from the Film Masters Blu-ray: 

Extras: 

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