She Gods of Shark Reef (1958)

Two brothers, one wanted for murder, are shipwrecked on an island inhabited by nubile young women who have amassed a valuable cache of pearls.

Director:

Roger Corman

Writers:

Robert Hill (screenplay), Victor Stoloff (screenplay)

Stars:

Bill Cord, Don Durant, Lisa Montell

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Bill Cord	...	Christy 'Chris' Johnston
Don Durant	...	James 'Jim' Johnston
Lisa Montell	...	Mahia
Jeanne Gerson	...	Queen Pua
Carol Lindsay	...	Hula Dancer

Storyline

Two men escaping the police by ship are blown off course by a typhoon and shipwrecked on an uncharted island populated by women who make a living diving for pearls. What the men don't know is that the women are also part of a shark cult that sacrifices young virgins to the sharks in the surrounding ocean in order to appease the shark gods.

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Plot Keywords:

island | shark | pearls | murder | sacrifice | 

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Taglines:

Beautiful maidens in a Lush Tropical Paradise ruled by a Hideous Stone God!

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Genres:

Adventure

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

August 1958 (USA)

Also Known As:

Shark Reef

Filming Locations:

Kaua'i, Hawaii, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$50,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

American International Pictures (AIP)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

63 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Pathécolor)

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Roger Corman needed to travel to shoot a film on location, he would put together a second feature that could be shot at the same location. This film was shot on the same location as Naked Paradise. American International put this on the shelf for a year and a half before using it as part of one of their pre-packaged double features with Night of the Blood Beast.

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Goofs

In the room when the woman is laying on the bed. The blond guy stands up quickly and the boom mic is slow to go up.

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Quotes

Chris, alias Christy Johnston: We can't go on running forever, Lee.
Jim, alias Lee Johnston: I can.

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Connections

Referenced in Dinocroc vs. Supergator (2010)

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Soundtracks

"Nearer My Love to You"
Written by Jack Lawrence and Frances Hall
Sung by Sylvia Syms

User Reviews

Silly Gits drowning in Schlock Fest - typical Corman fare.

Since the early 1950s, Roger Corman has been directing and releasing films at a break-neck pace. Typically, he tosses four or five into the arena per year. This explosive productivity, of course, limits the range of quality (and budgets) for his productions. However, Corman has only occasionally released really truly bad films. This is an example.

Corman used the lovely islands of the Hawaiian Archipelago as a setting for this early color flatliner. If you have seen a few of his films, you know how important setting is to Corman. First - he never seems to have an adequate budget for his most ambitious projects, so he makes sure he films in visually interesting settings. Second - Corman often uses over-long and somewhat tedious pans ("Corman pans"). With nice scenery in the background, or a well designed set, the tedium factor for these shots is reduced. Corman's films are loaded with people moving from place to place, and "She Gods" is no exception.

The film is about a pair of vaguely likable brothers. Chris (Bill Cord) is a fairly normal, if not particularly bright, young man. Lee (Don Durant) is his evil, and only slightly less intelligent, brother. Lee is a fugitive from the law. They find themselves shipwrecked on an island inhabited by a tribe of Polynesian Amazons lead by the not-very-creepy but still rather annoying Queen Pua (Jeanne Gerson). Lisa Montell plays Mahia (Lisa Montell), who fairly quickly becomes romantically entangled with Chris, but the gods of the shark reef have apparently made it clear that both men are taboo. Chris and Lee plot to escape, and decide to take Mahia along with them, but the shark gods have other plans.

The acting is OK (with mediocre camera-work occasionally making the actors appear to be over-acting), the pace is as good as some of Corman's better works, the script is thankfully spartan, and the plot is as thin as a fish scale. The Hawaiian dancing and singing, underwater swimming scenes, shark-fight action and lovely costumes don't really succeed in making up for the virtually nonexistent story-line, middling cinematography and weakly developed main characters. Plus, some of the shark scenes (I believe one is repeated twice in the film) are laughable.

Can't really recommend this.