Creature from the Haunted Sea appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. At the film’s start, a disclaimer tells us that although Film Masters located a 35mm print of Sea, parts of it were so far gone that they needed to use a 16mm print for some sections.
Expectations of picture quality suitably lowered, I indeed found a visual mixed bag. Nonetheless, the film looked reasonably good most of the time.
Sharpness varied. The 35mm shots offered pretty solid delineation, but inevitably, the 16mm elements seemed mushier, though not horribly soft.
No issues with jaggies or moiré effects occurred, and edge haloes remained absent. Grain varied and I suspect the transfer used a fair amount of noise reduction to bring the 16mm shots into line with the 35mm material.
Print flaws stayed modest. Occasional instances of lines cropped up but the image lacked anything intrusive.
The black and white photography also depended on the source. 35mm shots felt well-rendered, with deep blacks and largely concise shadows – outside of the inevitable murkiness of “day for night” images.
16mm footage showed somewhat inky blacks and tended to feel too bright. All of this left us with an inconsistent image but one that seemed much more watchable than expected given the opening disclaimer.
I thought the movie’s DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack seemed dated but adequate. In terms of dialogue, the lines remained intelligible and offered reasonable clarity, without much edginess. Some dodgy looping occurred, and speech from the 16mm became a bit muted, but these issues didn’t seem truly problematic.
Neither music nor effects boasted much range or dimensionality, but both appeared clean and accurate enough, without distortion or problems. Some hiss crept in at times. This mix felt acceptable for its vintage and origins.
The disc includes both the film’s theatrical (1:00:04) and Television (1:14:53) versions. Note that the theatrical actually fills 1:00:26, but the opening disclaimer about the nature of the scan takes up 22 seconds.
In the case of sibling release Devil’s Partner, both its theatrical and TV editions were identical except for aspect ratio. However, obviously that doesn’t become the case here, as the television cut runs almost 15 minutes longer.
The added length comes from three shots filmed explicitly for the TV cut. Much of the extra material relates to XK150’s colleague Agent XK120, and we see a bit more of Mary-Belle as well.
Does any of this make the movie better? No. Sea already lacks content sufficient to flesh out its mere 60-minute theatrical time, so another 15 minutes created just to pad the length doesn’t help.
Alongside the theatrical film, we get an audio commentary from film historian Tom Weaver – partly. In addition, it comes with sound bites from filmmaker Roger Corman as well as his executive secretary Kinta Zertuche.
Weaver also intersperses “re-enacted” quotes from director of photography Jack Marquette, filmmaker Larry Blamire, and actors Betsy Jones-Moreland, Richard Devon, and Anthony Carbone. Weaver gets in his own remarks – and calls BS on memories that seem embellished – but the notes from these others dominate the track.
Much of the commentary looks at Corman’s “Puerto Rico Trilogy”, a run that includes Battle of Blood Island, Last Woman on Earth and Sea. Though this means we learn less about Sea in particular than I might expect, we get so many good stories and insights that I don’t mind.
In addition to two trailers, the disc concludes with a two-minute, 36-second Restoration Video. It shows before/after shots to demonstrate the work put into the film and becomes a decent illustration.
The package concludes with a booklet that presents art and essays from author Mark McGee (about Partner) and Tom Weaver (about Creature from the Haunted Sea). It finishes matters on a good note.
A spoof of both horror and spy flicks, Creature from the Haunted Sea comes with some wacky potential. However, the final result seems so dopey and disconnected that it flops. The Blu-ray comes with erratic but adequate picture and audio along with a few bonus materials. Sea occasionally threatens to turn clever but it never gets there.
Note that this Blu-ray for Creature from the Haunted Sea comes packaged with another 1961 release: Devil’s Partner. Though the set treats Sea as a “bonus”, I thought it deserved its own review.