Roger Corman's debut monster movie more guilty than guilty pleasure

By Jim Bray
March 19, 2025

Before there was an Audrey II, before there was the Raven and before there was a Wasp Woman there was the Monster from the Ocean Floor, Roger Corman's first foray into what became his signature style of cheap and/or exploitative popcorn movies.

Since then, Corman's name has become legendary, so perhaps this particular flick can be forgiven for its comparatively lackluster story and looked at as a forerunner to Corman's famed run of motion pictures.

I mean, I looked at the Monster and thought immediately of Ray Harryhausen and how much he could have benefitted the production. He'd probably have priced it out of Corman's range, though, so I guess there's that.

Besides, what's a classic Corman movie without a tad of schlock?

The new release comes courtesy of Film Masters, and as usual it isn't on 4K disc but they have done a nice job of dragging this 1954 outing into the 21st century, thanks to a 4K scan from an original 35 mm camera negative. Oh, it's still cheap black and white, and not widescreen, but it looks about as good as I imagine it could – and, to channel Han Solo, "I can imagine quite a lot".

As the PR blurb says, Monster from the Ocean Floor is the "first feature-length film produced by the iconic king of pop cinema, Roger Corman." It goes on to say that the project was inspired by a story in the Los Angeles Times about a one-man submarine manufactured by Aerojet General. Apparently, Corman couldn't pay for the use of the sub in his move, but he promised plenty of publicity in return. And the rest is history.

Actually, that sub is kind of neat but it appeared to me to be kind of pointless, too. I mean, the guy in the sub still wore scuba equipment and when he got to the sea floor, he had to leave the sub anyway to go a-scuba-ing, so why not just dive from the ship and not bother with the little, pedal-powered micro sub?

Well, it was kind of neat….

Corman, who also has a short cameo, hired newcomers William Danch to write what screenplay there is, and Wyott Ordung to direct. Other new faces included actor Stuart Wade and Jonathan Haze, the latter of whom would become a regular Corman player.

The story sees Julie Blair (Anne Kimbell) as an American artist vacationing at a seaside Mexican village, a place where legend has it that there's a man-eating creature living in the cove. That piques her interest, of course, and she enlists Steve Dunning (Wade), a marine biologist doing research in the area in that silly little sub. Julie believes there may be some truth behind the legend, but Dunning thinks she may be mistaken.

Still, she's a woman and he's a man, so the first thing you know they're falling in love. Alas, after an abalone diver dies mysteriously Julie has her own monster encounter, one that proved to her that the creature really exists. So, to showcase his macho appeal, and show off his sub, Dunning takes a dive to find and fight the big blub-blub beastie.

That beastie is really rather lame – er, physically challenged. It's a puppet and an obvious one, though at least one other shot uses really cheap optical effects (apparently) to harm our suspension of disbelief even more.

At least the movie is short! Monster from the Ocean Floor clocks in at a running time of 64 minutes, so it's easy to give it a chance without ruining your whole evening.

The full frame (1.37:1) picture looks darn good, all things considered. Blacks are decent, as is detail, and the audio, which is both DTS HD and AC3, monaural of course, is about as good as you can expect from a cheap old low budget thingy.

And, as is Film Masters' usual strategy, there's a reasonable set of extras, though even here I think they fell down compared to some of their earlier offerings (maybe there just wasn't a lot to talk about!).

You get a running commentary track, featuring Tom Weaver, with some old comments by Corman thrown in as well. Weaver also contributed a pretty interesting but reasonably sparse liner booklet. You also get two new documentaries from Ballyhoo Motion Pictures. Neither is great but "Roger Corman: Becoming a B-Movie Maker" is quite interesting, though far too short. "Bob Baker: From Monsters to Marionettes" is the longer of the two and as you can tell it showcases the career and talents of the guy who pulled the strings on the monster (and who wasn't Roger Corman!). His career spanned decades, including his work on one of the least believable aliens in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

There's also a stills gallery, the original 35mm theatrical trailer and a re-edited new one.

Film Masters, the gang behind this release and others, claims to be a consortium of historians and enthusiasts "who seek to celebrate the preservation and restoration of films. We are archivists, committed to storing film elements for future generations and reviving films that have been sitting dormant for decades. By scanning in 2K and 4K, we give these lesser-known films the red-carpet treatment they deserve. Leveraging modern means of distribution to release forgotten films back into the world, we also produce original bonus materials, including feature-length documentaries, which aid audiences in contextualizing and celebrating these works of art as they were meant to be."

If you're interested in learning more, you can visit Film Masters online: www.FilmMasters.com.

I've reviewed a few of Film Masters' earlier releases, most of which feature nearly forgotten movies such as this, though I've enjoyed the others more. Still, you have to give credit to an organization that's dedicated to saving old features that may be falling by the wayside so far as being part of memory lane are concerned.

They can't all be home runs. And while Monster from the Ocean Floor may not clear the bases, it's worth seeing at least once.

Anyone know of a video rental store that's still open?