A waste of 90 minutes of my life

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Rock Dean (John Bromfield) travels to the Amazon jungles to see why plantation workers are running away from their jobs. On this same dangerous trip is the pretty Dr. Andrea Romar (Beverly Garland); she is in search of medicinal herbs used in the process of shrinking heads. The doctor thinks those same herbs may contain an ingredient that could treat terminal cancers. Their guide, Tupanico (Tom Payne), warns the two that they are wanting to travel way too far up the river where no white man has shown his face before. Plus it is said to be the home of the frightening monster Curucu that has been terrorizing the plantation workers.This feature is directed and written by Curt Siodmak and uses tons of stock footage of jungle creatures. Other players: Harvey Chalk, Wilson Viana, Sergio de Oliveira and dancer Larri Thomas.

Curucu, Beast of the Amazon (1956) ** (out of 4) John Bromfield and Beverly Garland travel up the Amazon to kill the title character, a large parrot like creature. Many older horror fans call this one of the most disappointing monster films of the decade due to a couple twists in the plot. I picked up on those twists pretty early and they were stupid but the real interesting thing is that this really seemed like an early version of the infamous Cannibal Holocaust. The best thing about the film is that it was shot in the Amazon, which means we get all sorts of shots with various animals ranging from pythons to huge spiders. With this comes several animal death scenes that won't make PETA members too happy.

I spend a lot of time trying to add lesser known 50's sci-fi titles to my ever growing collection. Unfortunately I came to this title. Cool title and stars Beverly Garland made by Universal - how could I miss? Although the poster looks great on this flick, find the strength to resist. The Brazilian locations are great and acting was acceptable but whoever wrote the script was a loser. This played out more like an episode of Scooby Doo(old man Smithers and all). The part that really killed me was that after they ruin the whole movie after 45 minutes, it goes on for another 35 minutes!! Seriously, for lesser known movies, check out Giant from the Unknown or Monster from Green Hell before you ever touch this garbage.

I have not seen this film for quite some years, but remember -- the 1940-50's HORROR/SCI-FI films were mostly targeted for the juvenile audience and were intended as FUN and "Saturday Matinee" ESCAPISM. I actually have quite a fond rememberance of this film and it was not really a bad film at all. Produced by UNIVERSAL [in my opinion, one of the studio "leaders" of classic "B-Films" from that period [Adventure, Horror, Westerns] and starring the wonderful "1950'S scream-queen" BEVERLY GARLAND and strong, veteran B-stock actor JOHN BROMFIELD [the workable squre-chinned, buff hero]. WARNING - SPOILER: This film's "Monster" was the typical "red-herring" [only ever seen briefly throughout] and was not revealed until the finale. The beast was actually quite intriguing - attacking through the foliage with a large visible slashing claw, and offering an occasional glimpse of it's savage partially seen face [with strange feather-like features protruding from its head]. It was an elaborate hoax staged by an Amazonian local as a territorial offensive maneuver. Lots of great CINE-COLOR with lush, jungle scenery, a piranah attack, and the film plays more like a "DIME-MYSTERY PULP" adventure than a true actual HORROR film. Overall, I enjoyed it - pure, clean, non-offensive FUN!