Girls, Have You Seen "The Crater Lake Monster?"

                              This is a movie that is not necessarily seen, so much as it is discovered, as I did on YouTube last week.  This was a movie, made in 1977, written and directed by William R. Stromberg, with cinematography by Paul Gentry.  Of course, no one from it went anywhere, but it was clear to me that the film personnel mentioned have clearly seen and know their fifties sci-fi movies, for this seems to be an amalgamation of both "The Giant Behemoth," and "The Blob."

                                Except missing the artistry that even these two had, and that Roger Corman, who made a masterpiece out of "It Conquered The World," and managed to make Cucumbo an actual star, also had to accomplish what he did!!!!!!!!  And Cucumbo  was so cute!

                                   When I watched,  "The Crater Lake Monster," and saw the actual creature, I was struck by its unmistakable resemblance to "The Giant Behemoth". So much so that I thought they just spliced colored images of said creature onto their film, but I am not really sure that could have been possible in 1977, letting alone getting the rights from the 1959 film.  Today, I am sure it could.
Nevertheless, I am convinced the creature was constructed to resemble, as closely as possible, "The Giant Behemoth."

                                   The trouble starts off, just like "The Blob."  A meteor is seen falling to earth,
crashes into the lake, and soon after, the monster emerges.  But there is nothing here to equal the suspenseful tension of "The Giant Behemoth," or the still terrifying and disturbing (to me) ferryboat sequence in the film, where victims--an older woman, a happy young couple, and a little girl with her doll, are cinematically personified for us, before the terror is unleashed, to make the viewer empathize with them.  And the sequence ends with the now abandoned doll floating on the water.  I cannot watch this scene to this very day.

                                     The film could NOT have cost more than fifteen thousand.  And it looks it.  The actors have these seventies hairstyles, and moustaches, making them resemble retired porn stars of the era, and some of the girls, especially the town's busty waitress, has her hair done in the era's wannabe Farrah style!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                       However, cinematographer, Paul Gentry, is on an altogether different plane, because, while the film is clearly shot with a single camera, like some ersatz home movie, the lushness of the Tenchnicolor resembles the 1945 Gene Tierney classic, "Leave Her To Heaven," where she played Ellen Berent Harland, the Alex Forest of her day! Who can forget the scene when she allows her beau, Cornel Wilde's, criipled kid brother, Danny, played by Darryl Hickman, to drown, while she sits in the boat, doing nothing?  And this was in the 1940's??????????????

                                           I am telling you, it would seem Gentry is channeling the cinematographic style of Leon Shamroy, who shot Jennifer Jones' screen test for "The Song Of Bernadette."  But "The Crater Lake Monster" is nowhere near the level of these aforementioned films, though maybe they had hoped it would be.

                                            At best, this is a cheap homage to fifties sci-fi. It supposedly played theaters, in 1977, but how the hell did I miss it?????????????????????????????

                                              Don't you miss this piece of trash, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                               "The Giant Behemoth" is having the last laugh on this one!

                                                As is "The Giant Gila Monster," and "The Beast Of Hollow Mountain," whom, I believe, all inspired this film.

                                                  The question is, were the film personnel really that astute, when they shot it?????????????????