She-Gods of Shark Reef

Rating:
Summary: 1958 Roger Corman quickie with girls in bathing suits
Review: "She-Gods of Shark Reef" was the 20th film directed by the prolific Roger Corman in 1958, the same year that he made "War of the Satellites," "Teenage Cave Man," "Machine-Gun Kelly," and "I Mobster...The Life of a Gangster." Actually this film was shot in 1957, because whenever Corman traveled to shoot a film on location, like to Hawaii, he would usually shoot two films. So "She-Gods of Shark Reef" was shot on the same location as 1957's "Naked Paradise" and then shelves by American International for a year until it was released on a double-bill with "Night of the Blood Beast."

The plot, which is really just an excuse to shoot beautiful native women on and about beautiful beaches, involves Chris (Bill Cord) and Jim Johnston (Don Durant), who end up shipwrecked on a strange island. There the beautiful women do nothing but dive for pearls and engaging in strange rituals under the glaring eye of old Queen Pua (Jeanne Gerson). Periodically she sacrifices young maidens to the sharks so that they will protect the underwater Tiki god. Chris, who is handsome with blonde hair, falls in love with the lovely Mahia (Lisa Montell) while Jim, who is an ex-con and therefore has dark hair, is interested in making off with some of those pearls. Look at the title and take a wild guess at what is going to happen to him.

This film is just a bit over an hour long and while Corman does a decent job of providing not only cheesecake but two heaping slices of beefcake in "She-Gods of Shark Reef," this is a really bad print. I usually do not pay a lot of attention to print quality, but this one is bad enough that I have to knock off another star. Those who admire Corman's absolute pragmatism when it comes to making films will want to check this out to see yet another example of his celebrated approach to cinema, but this is no where near being a keeper. Final Note: The title song, "Nearer My Love to You," sung by Jack Lawrence and Frances Hall, actually received some airplay. He was the lyricist on "If I Didn't Care," "Tenderly," and "All or Nothing at All."
The song gets this back up to 2.5, but I am still rounding down because of the bad print.

Rating:
Summary: 1958 Roger Corman quickie with girls in bathing suits
Review: "She-Gods of Shark Reef" was the 20th film directed by the prolific Roger Corman in 1958, the same year that he made "War of the Satellites," "Teenage Cave Man," "Machine-Gun Kelly," and "I Mobster...The Life of a Gangster." Actually this film was shot in 1957, because whenever Corman traveled to shoot a film on location, like to Hawaii, he would usually shoot two films. So "She-Gods of Shark Reef" was shot on the same location as 1957's "Naked Paradise" and then shelves by American International for a year until it was released on a double-bill with "Night of the Blood Beast."

The plot, which is really just an excuse to shoot beautiful native women on and about beautiful beaches, involves Chris (Bill Cord) and Jim Johnston (Don Durant), who end up shipwrecked on a strange island. There the beautiful women do nothing but dive for pearls and engaging in strange rituals under the glaring eye of old Queen Pua (Jeanne Gerson). Periodically she sacrifices young maidens to the sharks so that they will protect the underwater Tiki god. Chris, who is handsome with blonde hair, falls in love with the lovely Mahia (Lisa Montell) while Jim, who is an ex-con and therefore has dark hair, is interested in making off with some of those pearls. Look at the title and take a wild guess at what is going to happen to him.

This film is just a bit over an hour long and while Corman does a decent job of providing not only cheesecake but two heaping slices of beefcake in "She-Gods of Shark Reef," this is a really bad print. I usually do not pay a lot of attention to print quality, but this one is bad enough that I have to knock off another star. Those who admire Corman's absolute pragmatism when it comes to making films will want to check this out to see yet another example of his celebrated approach to cinema, but this is no where near being a keeper. Final Note: The title song, "Nearer My Love to You," sung by Jack Lawrence and Frances Hall, actually received some airplay. He was the lyricist on "If I Didn't Care," "Tenderly," and "All or Nothing at All."
The song gets this back up to 2.5, but I am still rounding down because of the bad print.

Rating:
Summary: Bait and switch
Review: Aside from having Roger Corman's name on the cover of this film there is a picture of a wet blond just wearing only a strategically placed lei.
No blonds.
No She Gods.
And the lei is broken.
Looks like Roger was distracted by the other movie he was making at the same time "Thunder Over Hawaii."
The basic story is bad guy (who gets into killing and gunrunning) flees authorities with his brothers help. A storm arises and they get shipwrecked on a mysterious island with native girls, sharks, pearls, and a nasty old woman.
So who gets the native girls, sharks, pearls, or worse yet the nasty old woman?

Rating:
Summary: Best Thing is the Title
Review: Continuing my quest to see everything Roger Corman ever directed, the best thing about this obscurity is its title, opening sequence and location photography. One can appreciate the title without ever seeing the 60 minute movie itself, and the impact of Floyd Crosby's Hawaiian location photography has been greatly diminished by Alpha's poor transfer, which looks to be from a pretty good print but has been transferred to DVD with the brightness up much too high, making the few night scenes easier to watch than the many daytime shots. That leaves only the opening sequence, a suspenseful nighttime dockside robbery, nicely staged and edited with no dialogue. The rest of the film, minus Corman's usual stock company of actors or a script from ever-reliable writers like Charles B. Griffith, R. Wright Campbell, Robert Towne or Richard Matheson, is forgettable.

Rating:
Summary: Best Thing is the Title
Review: Continuing my quest to see everything Roger Corman ever directed, the best thing about this obscurity is its title, opening sequence and location photography. One can appreciate the title without ever seeing the 60 minute movie itself, and the impact of Floyd Crosby's Hawaiian location photography has been greatly diminished by Alpha's poor transfer, which looks to be from a pretty good print but has been transferred to DVD with the brightness up much too high, making the few night scenes easier to watch than the many daytime shots. That leaves only the opening sequence, a suspenseful nighttime dockside robbery, nicely staged and edited with no dialogue. The rest of the film, minus Corman's usual stock company of actors or a script from ever-reliable writers like Charles B. Griffith, R. Wright Campbell, Robert Towne or Richard Matheson, is forgettable.