Bofsensai More masochistic movie musings, because this is an effort almost hardly worth entering a review as there is little of note to keep your attention; EXCEPT, that is, for the fact that this stars what seems to be the only film that sultry, dark eyed, full (bottom) lipped (á la A. Jolie style) forgotten starlet beauty Devera Burton appeared in: unfortunately the copy I saw seemed to be mostly shot too darkly in shadow and many of her appearances profile or mid distance; but about three quarters of the way through (c.45 / 6 min. mark) having come into possession (from gone mad dead dad, captain of the ship) - and thus been possessed herself - by the titular Omoo Omoo Shark God's black pearl eyes curse, she's given a full frame, lit face shot in which to emote almost in a M. Monroe style c. 'Don't Bother to Knock' era. And for that alone, it was worth the price of the time given to watch entry.So, if you do decide she is worth catching (she deserves it; she's gorgeous!), you can also savour the scene where she staring out from the top deck of the eighteenth century schooner, over the ocean, joined by the obviously far more educated doctor, he warns her not to go for a swim (she's 'decked' out in eighteenth century attire: did such womenfolk really leap off the poop deck for a dip in those days?), since directs her attention to a battle between denizens of the deep below (Octopus and Moray eel) all of which is shown that as from their vantage point, they can see through the ocean down to the seabed in pristine (aquarium!*) detail. (PLOT SPOILER?: "For as long as that octopus lives - there can be no peace." - um, for the shoals of fish that is, which are then soundtracked to what seems to be the music usually used for attacking Indians in Westerns. - And to its music, there's also some occasional nice 'weirdy' theremin use, too.) Having got that far, there's also one or two more daft delivery lines to listen out for: check the quotes sidebar.* another reviewer already noted how the Octopus tentacles clearly come up against some clear obstruction .. but which, if you like Octopi, provides good views of them, though - so credit due to presumably (possibly), from the title card credits, "Optical effects: Consolidated Film Industries".Oh, by the way: yes, it's based (mashed up?) on a Herman Melville book=double bill it with Greg Peck's 'Moby Dick'!

mark.waltz Saturday afternoon matinées were filled with Z grade bunk like this, and with a temporary end to the Tarzan series, Jungle Jim and Bomba would take their place. But, there are 52 Saturdays in a year, so there had to be more than those films, the Bowery Boys and various Z grade westerns to get the young juvenile crowd in. So Abbott and Costello, Ma and Pa Kettle and Francis the Talking Mule had a predecessor to their screening along with the last of the comedy shorts and serials, these otherwise un-bookable third tier films would never have seen the light of day.Made with a low budget that couldn't have topped $50,000, this comes from a poverty row studio that I had never even heard of up until now yet starring actors I was fairly familiar with, this is silliness taken to the max, the often "uh oh, there goes the neighborhood" theme of greedy civilized explorers out to hunt pearls and wild life without regards to the islanders whose lives they turn upside down. This was done so much better and on higher budgets (in color) featuring such lovelies as Dorothy Lamour, Maria Montez and Yvonne de Carlo, who while not acting school graduates, offered sincere (or at least campy) performances. The same cannot be said for vixen Devera Burton who has the drama education equivalence of Acquanetta.Plenty of stock jungle footage as old as Trader Horn is used to show the wildlife of the jungle, so if the kids weren't being entertained, at least they got a crash course in biology. I've seen a ton worse than this among the Z programmers and it gave me a few laughs. So an hour was worth it, and in coming from public domain DVD king Alpha Video, the price was right as well.

dbborroughs A ship heads to Tahiti in order to recover some hidden pearls. The captain of the ship is sick, a native stowaway insisting that the illness is tied to the captains stealing of two huge black pearls that were the eyes of the natives' shark god statue. Its greed, romance and spliced in nature footage as some of the crew seek to make things right while others are looking for the treasure. Nominally based on a Herman Melville story this is mostly a concoction of Hollywood story telling with a Bengal tiger figuring prominently into the story (wasn't this about a shark god?).Creaky set bound film best known for its unique title rather than for any quality or lack there of. Neither good nor bad the film just sort of is. It's the type of thing that one used to run across at 3am on the Late and then half remember in the daylight. In this case it's the sort of thing that you remember the title of because it sounds so silly. Worth a look only if you need to know what is hidden behind the legendary title of the film. All others are advised to look elsewhere. (and if you do pick this up with the intention of doing so make sure its part of one of the numerous multi-film packs that it appears in so you get maximum bang for your buck)

dwpollar 1st watched 2/18/2007 - 4 out of 10(Dir-Leon Leonard): Fair adventure movie based on a novel by the author of Moby Dick fame, Herman Melville. This movie is about the captain of a ship who had stolen the eyes(that were extremely rare black pearls) from a native tribe's God sculpture and hidden them somewhere that only he knew about before leaving the Island of Tivi. He got very sick and was on a secret voyage to go back to the island to retrieve the pearls for himself while others(like his daughter) thought that he was going back to be treated by the local medicine man. Others didn't know the reason for the voyage. A stowaway actually knew the real reason for the trip -- to return the eyes to their God. The silly part is that the pearls were hidden very close to the statue and all this time the natives ran their tribe without their God having eyes(causing them all kinds of problems). Along the way, we are treated(for some reason) to a short underwater nature show with an electric eel fighting a local octopus(I guess only Herman Melville knows what this was all about). Once they get to the island, the Captain dies but passes the whereabouts of the pearls to his daughter but she also gets the sickness curse as well. One of the bad guys finds out where the God is housed and convinces the daughter to go there and steal back the pearls but at this point the good guys find out what's going on and a fight ensues. I won't tell you the results of the fight or the ending, I'll leave that up to you to find out if you want. As I said earlier, the movie was OK, but some very silly things that I've already mentioned lessened it's impact. I wonder if that new "Pirates of the Caribbean" got some of it's plot from this one ---hmm… black pearls, a curse( I wonder…) Well, it doesn't matter, those elements didn't make for a very good movie in this case or the other. It seems they would learn they're lesson, but with the money rolling in on that newer movie I'm sure they won't. Oh well.