Devil Monster
Cast & Crew
S. Edwin Graham
Barry Norton
Blanche Mehaffey
J. Barton
Terry Grey
Jack Del Rio
Film Details
Synopsis
José Francisco has been missing at sea for six years. His mother sees a newspaper story that suggests there may be survivors of the wreck on a distant island. She asks Robert, who has fallen in love with José's girl friend Louise, to check the islands when he is on a tuna fishing expedition with his father. Louise holds out hope that José is still alive. Robert and his father find José on one of the islands, where he has gained the natives' respect as a skilled fisherman. He is in love with the local chief's daughter and unwilling to return to civilization, so Robert, his father and the crew members abduct José. He is assigned to help look for tuna, and he eventually takes them to a productive area, where they encounter the "devil monster," a giant manta ray. Robert is knocked overboard, but José goes to his rescue even though he suspects that Robert wishes to marry Louise. In the rescue, José loses an arm. The boat returns to harbor, and José is reunited with his mother and girl friend.
Director
S. Edwin Graham
Film Details
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was The Great Manta. Scenes were shot on board a boat in San Pedro, CA, and the film used stock footage filmed in Micronesia. A Spanish-language version, El diablo del mar, was produced by Theater Classic Pictures and distributed in the U.S. in 1936. The Spanish-language title was translated in reviews as "The Sea Devil." The actor listed in the English version as Donato Cabrera May have been the same person as Antonio Cabrera, who was in the Spanish-language version. Some sources credit Juan Duval as director of both versions. No reviews or specific release date were located for the English-language version. A July 18, 1935 Hollywood Reporter news item stated that A. Roy Horter had recently opened offices in New York to distribute the film through the state rights market.
The film was shown in Great Britain in 1938 under the title The Sea Fiend, but May not have been exhibited in the U.S. until 1946, when it was copyrighted by Weiss and Landers on 8 July as a seven-reel version of the 1938 film. The credits listed above come from a print of the 1946 version, which included the following additional credits for people who probably were not involved in the 1935 version: Supervisor Adrian Weiss; Film editor Adrian Weiss; Narration written by Tom Hubbard; Sound Recording Glen Glenn .