It just dawned on me, reading this page, that award-winning screenwriter Robert Towne is the main actor in this film: the goofy "spy" who narrates the action. He got off to a rough start in the 60s but by the 70s he was on a roll with his writing! My son and I agree that this is one of the worst movies we've ever seen, but we laughed all the way through because of all the tongue-in-cheek humor.
shareIf Robert Towne was playing the main "Bogie" type character, then I give him props for doing a damn good impression of Bogie! Every once in a while I'd forget that it was someone else *lol*
Maybe I'm in a stupid minority, but I like to think of this movie as Corman's take on a Bogie flick...from a silly (and cheap) perspective, of course!
No, Robert Towne played "Sparks Moran." But Antony Carbone, the Bogie-type character, was very good. I agree that this seems like Corman's spoof of a Bogie flick; in fact, when Betsy Jones-Moreland sang her song (a very wryly funny scene), it reminded me of the scene in KEY LARGO which features Claire Trevor's impromptu musical number. And that movie also had a sequence on a similar boat.
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Charles B.Griffith supposedly rewrote the Corman film "Naked Paradise" as monster movies "Beast from Haunted Cave" and "Creature from the Haunted Sea." They all deal with crooks trying to recover lost loot,but I also believe that Antony Carbone's Bogie angle seems to be an accurate assessment.The "Beast" gets my vote over the "Creature," which appears for less than 20 seconds until the last reel,and doesn't look scary at all,unlike Chris Robinson's very creepy,spider-like creation for the cave.For me,the only chuckles come from the narration("the most trustworthy man ever to be deported from Sicily").Robert Towne wasn't a bad actor,but really wasn't required to do much.Betsy Jones-Moreland provided excellent eye candy,and it goes by painlessly,but for those hoping for more amusement following "A Bucket of Blood" and "The Little Shop of Horrors," it's easily the weakest of the trilogy.
shareI thought Towne looked like Bogie circa 1930 and Carbone looked like Bogie circa 1950.
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