Sure, it ain't no contender for an Oscar, but damn if it doesn't have a somewhat interesting and unusual plot. Its main problem is the same one that plagues a lot of cheap genre movies from this decade: dialogue, dialogue, and more dialogue! It takes quite a bit of time in between its horror moments, which are actually fairly atmospheric. The monster isn't exactly convincing, but that's no surprise. (Famed monster maker of the period, Paul Blaisdell, designed this beast and played it as well.) The acting is variable - some of it is quite entertaining, some of it woefully bad. (Lance Fuller has the dubious distinction of being the worst actor in this thing; talk about a stiff!) B director Edward L. Cahn certainly did better during this period; after all, he guided "It! The Terror from Beyond Space", generally considered to be the inspiration for "Alien".

The movie isn't without its merits. Chester Morris is a delightfully sinister villain as Dr. Carlo Lombardi, a hypnotist who deals in matters of transmigration, age regression, and reincarnation. His unwilling assistant is young Andrea Talbott (the strikingly attractive Marla English); every time after he "puts her under", a prehistoric monster that was supposedly HER in a long ago past life emerges from the ocean and kills somebody. The inept police, led by the stubbornly skeptical Lt. James (Ron Randell),and Dr. Erickson (Mr. Fuller) think Lombardi's a big fat phony but still see him as dangerous; naturally, by the end of this picture their minds have opened a bit more.

"The She-Creature" ain't high quality stuff, to be sure, and it's ultimately too dull too much of the time to get rated very high, but it *is* at least amusing enough to have appeal for schlock devotees.

Seven out of 10.

Oh no, not another rubber monster coming out of the ocean! Yes, another rubber monster coming out of the ocean, and boy does she have female troubles! Complete with breasts, this scaly creature with crab claws appears to be some ancient ghost, reincarnated as the living human beauty Mara English who ends up under the thumb of the psychotic Chester Morris. "Beauty like yours must not be destroyed. It belongs to me", he tells her, utilizing her in a sort of traveling freak show that claims that she has led many lives and that the she-creature that escapes the ocean to kill was one of those lives. Veteran Hollywood actors from the 1930's make an embarrassing return to the screen in what ranks as one of the worst science fiction/horror movies of the late 1950's. "I can make you grovel in the dirt" is just an example of the truly hideous dialog that veteran actor Morris ("The Big House") must say which also includes, "No one can take you from me. I live only for you. You're the light that shines out of my darkness!" If your eyes haven't started rolling by the time he says this gem of dialog, you must have fallen asleep!

Also involved in this poster child for Elvira/Mystery Science Theater favorite is the former Falcon, Tom Conway, once one of the most dashing "B" leading men and now an aging shell of himself desperately trying to keep his sophisticated wit but barely able to contain his disgust over what he's involved in. El Brendel, who annoyed me with his fake Swedish accent in movies of the early 1930's, is here again, given equally bad dialog to annoyingly spout. Freida Inescort, one of the underrated gems of the 1930's, gets a somewhat showy character part as a patron of the mystical, and escapes unscathed. As for English, all she is required to do is look lovely. She basically poses, not acts, and her retorts to the ridiculous dialog veteran actor Morris must say is delivered blandly. Dark, gloomy photography makes this look extremely cheap, and when the creature and its descendant finally meet each other, it is not a reunion to be remembered. Basically, the film can't even succeed on a camp level without someone spouting wisecracks at the screen because it really ranks as ultra-boring and something that could definitely induce sleep should insomnia hit.

If you take a look at the credits of Chester Morris's career, you'll note he did a lot of television in the Fifties and Sixties after his Boston Blackie series came to an end. Morris was one of those players who found a lot of work in the new medium as their screen careers dried up. One of his few unfortunate ventures back to the big screen was The She-Creature.

Morris is in a cast with a whole lot of players like Cathy Downs, Tom Conway, El Brendel, and Frieda Inescourt whose careers had evaporated in film, due to blacklist and other problems. It's sad, but this sometimes was the best work they could get.

Morris is a Svengali like hypnotist who's gone beyond anything that Messmer ever dreamed possible. His Trilby is Marla English whose bosoms excited many a pubescent male in the drive-ins. Most of the film she's in a trance and at a certain point in the trance, she dreams up from her past life a long extinct sea creature who looks like The Creature from the Black Lagoon's bride. You can tell by the rack the makeup people provide so we know it's the dreaming Marla.

This She-Creature is Morrris's personal hit squad, killing both skeptics of his hypnotic abilities to bring out past lives and anyone else who looks longingly at English. In Lance Fuller's case he's both a rival and a skeptic.

What's scary about this movie is not the content which today could be released as a comedy. The scary part is that the players I named all were in quality A films at one point in their career. Fortunately Morris got to appear in The Great White Hope before he died as a farewell performance. And I do remember him from the Fifties and Sixties showing a lot of quality acting in various television series.

Maybe the guy from The Black Lagoon might like this film.