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(1930) Charles Bickford, Raquel Torres, Nils Asther, George Marion, John Miljan, Boris Karloff. This is basically an early-talkie sea monster movie involving a larger-than-life manta ray that preys on the divers of a West Indies island. The plot features Bickford as an escaped convict from Devil’s Island (though he’s really a good guy) posing as a minister. There’s a lot of island intrigue revolving around the beautiful Torres, who is lusted after by many of the islanders. Asther, 12 years before his appearance as Agor Singh in Night Monster, plays her protective brother who ends up getting chomped by the monster—which is made to appear even larger than the largest of manta rays. Miljan is great as a scalawag and Karloff has a small but visible role as one of this thuggish pals. The sequences with the sea monster are pretty well done, using a mixture of stock footage and real life shots. The scene where it drags the sponge boat after being harpooned is great fun and a precursor to a similar scene in Jaws, decades later. Torres’ physical beauty is a thing to behold, especially as she writhes about in the film’s big native voodoo ritual scene. Cool. From a nice 16mm original print.
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