She Gods of Shark Reef (1958)

Directed by Roger Corman. Starring Bill Cord, Don Durant, Lisa Montell, and Jeanne Gerson. USA, Color, 63 minutes.

Two brothers, Chris and Jim (Bill Cord, Don Durant), shipwreck on an island inhabited entirely by women who worship an Easter Island-type head on the ocean floor, in the nearby "Shark Reef". They also give regular virgin sacrifices to a shark they named "Mootoobloo" (that's what it sounded like). So, basically, they're all a little crazy, especially controlling Queen Pua (Jeanne Gerson). When Chris falls in love with beautiful "She God" Mahia (Lisa Montell), Pua is angered, and tries to chase the two brothers off the island and sacrifice Mahia to the shark. Naturally, these things don't happen, evil Jim dies, and Chris and Mahia live happily ever after.

As much as I like Roger Corman and his films, this one is another obvious attempt to get two movies filmed for the price of one, along with Naked Paradise. Both of these films were shot in beautiful Hawaii for about 3 bucks and used many of the same actors. And both were probably finished in about a week. So it's no surprise that She Gods reeked.

The Hero and His Girl.

The first half of the film is actually promising. Jim and Chris find the island of women strange, and learn many of their customs through trial and error. Even Mahia and Chris' relationship was cute and mostly believable. It's when Jim and Chris attempt to escape the island that the film becomes an amazing bore.

Corman had a great location, but no attention at all was given to continuity or plausibility. Most of the performances, especially Gerson's, were wooden and sometimes pretty awful. And, hey, where were the She Gods? The women in the film were all ordinary pearl divers, and a few of them were quite old and overweight. Not at all what I was expecting - I mean, look at that great poster!

By the end of the film, nothing has really happened. The hero and his girl were pretty much still in danger, even though they had successfully left the island. It seems that Corman ran out of film while the camera was running, and this is the ending we got. I thought the film was only half over and it just died on me. What a friggin' gyp!

The Basement Says: The "She Gods" turned out to be a number of older women wearing one-piece bathing suits, and the hero of the film is a pasty-faced pushover. An hour would be better spent diddling yourself with a broom handle.

The Bad Guy.