The Monster - BLU-RAY [Standard]

Cartoon Network: Classic Ben 10 Omniver

Bela Lugosi gives one of his finest portraits of evil in this adaptation of Edgar Wallace's terror-thriller-mystery THE DARK EYES OF LONDON. A series of 'drownings' have Scotland Yard baffled. One common denominator; the dead men were heavily insured through a particular brokerage firm... and all the policies were paid off. Larry Hold, a Scotland Yard detective, and a visiting American cop from Chicago get on the trail and, with the help of the daughter of one of the dead men, discover a horrifying cause to the so-called 'accidents/suicides.' Behind it all is a human monster, a doctor who is using a home for blind men as a front for his nightmarish activities. His main tool is a gargoyle-like brute who eventually becomes the madman's downfall. The tension mounts as the plot develops in the best thriller tradition with danger lurking at every turn and a hairs-breath escape or two thrown in to season the recipe. Filmed in England, this one reeks with atmosphere, with the proceedings dominated by Bela Lugosi as the fiend more diabolical than any criminal the Scotland Yard has encountered.

The sleepy little lighthouse community of Piedras Blancas has a big problem when bodies begin piling up (thankfully there's the ice room at Kochek's Store for meats and groceries) and a scale from a thought-to-be-extinct prehistoric amphibian is found nearby. Could this be the work of... The Monster of Piedras Blancas? For a town photographed in black & white, Piedras Blancas is teeming with colorful characters. There's Sturges (John Harmon, Monsieur Verdoux), the lighthouse keeper who makes it a ritual to leave food out near a secluded beach cave for, well, something; Lucy (Jeanne Carmen, Born Reckless), Sturges' zaftig daughter, a free thinker who clearly doesn't pay attention to daddy's warnings about skinny dipping near the cave; Lucy's boyfriend Fred (Don Sullivan, The Giant Gila Monster), a young man more than willing to keep an eye on Lucy; and the dedicated man of science Dr. Sam Jorgensen (Les Tremayne, The Fortune Cookie) who's out to solve the mysterious murders. It will become painfully obvious to Sturges (and the unfortunate inhabitants of Piedras Blancas) never miss a feeding! The Monster of Piedras Blancas, directed by Irvin Berwick (Malibu High), co-stars Forrest Lewis (All That Heaven Allows), Frank Arvidson (The 7th Commandment) and Wayne Berwick (The Naked Monster) and is photographed by Philip Lathrop, two-time Academy Award nominee for Best Cinematography (The Americanization of Emily, Earthquake).