''Curucu, Beast of the Amazon'' is a 1956 American

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme ...

monster film A monster movie, monster film, creature feature or giant monster film is a film that focuses on one or more characters struggling to survive attacks by one or more antagonistic monsters, often abnormally large ones. The film may also fall und ...

, directed and written by

Curt Siodmak Curt Siodmak (August 10, 1902 – September 2, 2000) was a German-American novelist and screenwriter. He is known for his work in the horror and science fiction film genres, with such films as '' The Wolf Man'' and '' Donovan's Brain'' (the l ...

and starring

John Bromfield John Bromfield (born Farron Bromfield; June 11, 1922 – September 19, 2005) was an American actor and commercial fisherman. Early years Farron Bromfield was born in South Bend, Indiana. He played football and was a boxing champion at Saint Mar ...

Beverly Garland Beverly Lucy Garland (née Fessenden; October 17, 1926 – December 5, 2008) was an American actress. Her work in feature films primarily consisted of small parts in a few major productions or leads in low-budget action or science-fiction movie ...

and Tom Payne. The title creature is pronounced "Koo-Ruh-SOO" ( pt, Curuçu). The film was distributed in the United States as a double feature with ''

The Mole People ''The Mole People'' is a 1956 American science fiction adventure film distributed by Universal International, which was produced by William Alland, directed by Virgil W. Vogel, and stars John Agar, Hugh Beaumont, and Cynthia Patrick. The st ...

''.McGee, Mark Thomas; Robertson, R.J. (2013). "You Won't Believe Your Eyes". Bear Manor Media. . Page 254

Plot

Plantation owner Rock Dean (Bromfield) travels up the Amazon River to investigate why the workers have left in panic. Dean's guide, Tupanico (Payne) warns him of Curucu, a birdlike monster who is said to live up the river where no white man has ever been. Accompanying him is Dr. Andrea Romar (Garland), in search of a drug which (in this story) the natives use to shrink heads. She hopes this drug will be effective in reducing cancerous tissue. Tupanico guides the couple through the jungle, where they see a strange shimmering form in the river which drives the bearers away. After Rock shoots an animal, Tupanico offers to clean his rifle for him. Rock reluctantly agrees. Later, Curucu attacks. Rock shoots at it, with no effect. The monster is revealed to be Tupanico, who is trying to drive "his" people away from the plantations, where he can lead them in the old ways, before white men brought civilization and disease. Tupanico used the excuse of cleaning Rock's rifle to load it with blanks. Before they can be killed, Rock and Andrea are rescued by natives friendly to the local missionary. After wandering lost in the jungle in the commotion, Andrea wakens to find herself and Rock at the mission. A grateful native, whom she treated earlier, gives her some gifts: the shrinking drug she was searching for, and the

shrunken head A shrunken head is a severed and specially prepared human head that is used for trophy, ritual, or trade purposes. Headhunting has occurred in many regions of the world, but the practice of headshrinking has only been documented in the northwes ...

of Tupanico.

Cast

as Rock Dean *

as Dr. Andrea Romar * Tom Payne as Tupanico * Harvey Chalk as Father Flaviano * Larri Thomas as Vivian, the Dancer * Sergio de Oliveria as Captain of Police * Wilson Viana as Tico * Andrea Bayard *

Luz Del Fuego Luz del Fuego (née, Dora Vivacqua; early stage name, Luz Divina; February 21, 1917 – July 19, 1967) was a Brazilian feminist, ballerina, naturist, and striptease artist who performed with live snakes. Comfortable with nudity, she wrapped pyt ...

Production

''Curucu, Beast of the Amazon'' was shot in

Eastmancolor Eastmancolor is a trade name used by Eastman Kodak for a number of related film and processing technologies associated with color motion picture production and referring to George Eastman, founder of Kodak. Eastmancolor, introduced in 1950, was on ...

, on location at the Amazon River in rural

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, with an estimated budget of $155,000. Rudolph Icey handled cinematography,

Raoul Kraushaar Raoul Kraushaar (August 20, 1908, Paris, France – October 13, 2001, Pompano Beach, Florida) was an American composer who worked on Hollywood feature films in the 1940s and 1950s. He continued working on low-budget films through the 1960s and ...

composed the score and Terry Morse served as editor. After filming, Siodmak had 10,000 feet of color film left over that he could not export. '' Love Slaves of the Amazons'' was the result, and used some of the same cast members.

Reynold Brown William Reynold Brown (October 18, 1917 – August 24, 1991) was an American realist artist who painted many Hollywood film posters. He was also briefly active as a comics artist. Biography He attended Alhambra High School and refined his dra ...

, painter of numerous iconic Hollywood

film poster A film poster is a poster used to promote and advertise a film primarily to persuade paying customers into a theater to see it. Studios often print several posters that vary in size and content for various domestic and international markets. Th ...

s, designed a poster for the film depicting a giant claw and a creature's glowering eye.

Release

''Curucu, Beast of the Amazon'' was released to theaters by

Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

in December 1956, with ''The Mole People''. The film is now extremely rare, since it has never been officially released on either VHS or

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

. On January 6, 2023, film restoration and distribution company Vinegar Syndrome announced they would be releasing a limited edition blu-ray of the film.

Reception

Author and film critic

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fi ...

awarded the film 1.5 out of 4 stars, calling it "one of the most infamous disappointments for monster-loving kids of the 1950s". On his website ''Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings'', Dave Sindelar gave the film a negative review, criticizing the film for using too much talking and exploring scenes just to fill its running time. Sindelar also noted that the only thing the film had going for it was Garland's "tough girl" character, but also wrote, "Unfortunately, the movie decides to punish her for her toughness; the last 30 minutes of the movie seems designed solely to frighten this woman into realizing that it'’s arrogant of her to think of herself as being as tough as a man". ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news. The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008. Corpora ...

'' awarded the film 1 out of 5 stars, calling it "a moderately amusing jungle adventure".

References

External links

* * * * {{Curt Siodmak 1956 films American adventure films Jungle adventure films Films set in Brazil Films shot in Belém Films shot in Brazil Films shot in Argentina 1956 adventure films Films directed by Curt Siodmak Universal Pictures films Films scored by Raoul Kraushaar 1950s English-language films 1950s American films English-language adventure films American monster movies 1950s monster movies