THE
SWAMP OF THE LOST MONSTER (1957/1965)
Directed by Rafael Baledón/Stim
Segar
Genesis Home Video, Inc. VHS
Reviewed 05.25.05
Review by Joseph A. Ziemba
THE FILM
It’s funny how the passage
of time can affect a film...like
this one, for instance. Ridiculous?
An absolute bore? To seasoned minds
of earlier decades, perhaps those
descriptions are apt. However, for
today’s modern devotee of
vintage strange/bad cinema, The
Swamp Of The Lost Monster doesn’t
lend itself to such an easy dismissal.
First, the facts. From 1962 to 1969,
showman/producer K. Gordon Murray
imported nearly thirty Mexican horror
films, dubbed ‘em up, and
unleashed the results to TV sets
and double-billed theaters around
the U.S. The films ranged from atmospheric
to comedic to downright artsy, ensuring
endless hours of delectation for
lovers of odd monster films. You
can read all about K.G.M.'s legacy
at the amazing website The
Wonder World Of K. Gordon Murray. Swamp
hails from 1965, a dubbed version
of the earlier El Pantano De
Las Animas from 1957. It’s
a horror-western-comedy, filled
with awkward dubbing, strange cowboy
cliches, and a genius lo-fi monster.
Translation: off-the-cuff incompetence
ages gracefully into absurdist art,
bearing 75 minutes of dreamy disconnection.
Our setting is a dusty backwoods
river, complete with chocolate stained
water and breezy cattails. As a
funeral procession (by river) arrives
at the burial site, a flip of the
coffin lid reveals a vanished corpse!
Here’s where things get confusing.
The authorities proclaim that the
missing guy’s body may contain
a virus that must be stopped within
24 hours. About five minutes later,
that plot line is semi-dropped,
as Gaston the cowboy-detective (Gaston
Santos, with his horse, Moonlight!)
is called in to tackle the mystery,
along with his portly comedic sidekick,
Squirrel Eyes. Concurrently, a jaw-dropping
red monster (looking similar to
the Gilman rip-off from La
Mujer Murcielago) begins
attacking the locals. This beastie
also yields a crossbow and sends
messages via morse code. Hmmm. Inbetween
scenes of family stress (the missing
body’s) and western fisticuffs,
random occurrences breeze through
the film like so much sagebrush
in the wind; rodeo stock footage,
horse dancing tricks, insurance
fraud, Squirrel Eyes singing to
the fishies, and a frequent reliance
on morse code communication scenes.
I didn’t really understand
the film’s outcome, but I
sure did admire that underwater
rubber knife fight.
Co-directed by Rafael Baledón
and Stim Segar (both of whom were
responsible for several films in
the Murray catalog), Swamp
is by far the loopiest of all the
60s Mexi-imports. The random placement
of scenes, awkward dialogue (“That
martian! That fishy-eyed ghost!”)
and general lack of cohesiveness
place the film in an elite league,
sharing the table with other surreal
mind-melts like The
Mummy & The Curse Of The Jackal
and Graveyard
Of Horror. If you're tuned
into that novelty of disconnection,
a viewing can obviously yield interesting
results. The haphazard mix of various
pop culture elements is so ineptly
constructed that the finished product
appears almost Warhol-ian during
its more surreal moments. Insignificant
events garner as much screentime
as “plot” formation.
Characters spontaneously burst into
warbly song. The monster frequently
adjusts his mask and gloves mid-battle
(turns out there’s a reason
for it...I think). It’s all
positively dreamy: I even dozed
off for a second, only to find myself
waking to...another morse code scene.
Now that I think about it, Swamp
might just be another boring, misunderstood
monster movie with no reason to
exist whatsoever. So which is it?
Ah, I think you’re catching
on...
AUDIO AND VIDEO
Was this film projected onto a wall
in someone’s basement, then
taped for prosperity? I’d
like to think so, because it only
adds to the scissors and glue feel.
In reality, the washed out print
and shaky frame are probably just
victims of VHS-era crudeness. The
picture also appears a bit soft,
with frequent damage and film noise.
The mono sound was tinny, but never
hard to catch.
EXTRAS
This was my first Genesis tape,
so I was hoping for a few trailers...or
at least one. Scoffed again.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The years have been kind to Swamp
Of The Lost Monster, elevating
its once-incompetence into a flawed
relic of pop-art long forgotten.
Most people might moan in disapproval,
but beauty is truly in the eye of
the beholder. You make the call. |
Gastos 'n' Moonlight
Ol' Skull River
Stiff one
There goes the aquarium
|
