J Paul Johnson
For its first special edition physical media release of 2025, Film Masters returns to its favorite subject: Roger Corman, king of pop cinema, and here the very first film he ever produced, more than seven decades ago: Monster from the Ocean Floor. Inspired by a news story about some newfangled undersea gadgetry, the film brings to life everything his fans came to love about a Corman production: stilted acting, a wobbly script featuring a damsel in distress, no-budget effects, and a weirdly wonky monster, all somehow coming together to birth a lively B-movie creature feature.
Film Masters’ restored version of the film is packaged in a special edition Blu-ray or DVD set, replete with their usual special features provided by their usual cast of contributors. It joins several other Corman-produced films in the growing Film Masters’ collection, all of these released as a double-bill two-disc Blu-ray upgrade with a new 4K scan and a bouquet of supplements: Beast from Haunted Cave and Ski Troop Attack; The Terror and Little Shop of Horrors; and The Devil’s Partner and Creature from the Haunted Sea; and Night of the Blood Beast and Attack of the Giant Leeches. Those titles alone should make for a perfectly accurate descriptor of the Corman ethos: nightmare fuel brought to life on a budget.
Interestingly, Monster from the Ocean Floor is the first Film Masters release of a Corman film that does not provide a second-billed film as a double feature, and it is thus the first of these presented on a single disc. Part of the fun of each of the company’s prior releases was the pairing of films, ones which sometimes ended up together in drive-in double features in the late ’50s and early ’60s, and that’s something that is missed here in the packaging of Monster from the Ocean Floor.
Corman fans love the innovative producer for his devil-may-care approach to production, and Monster from the Ocean Floor makes for an inspiring story. It was the early 1950s and B-movie sci-fi pics were just hitting the screens, many of them nuclear-age inspired tales of galactic aliens, spooky sea creatures, and malformed mutants. Corman, having made a little money from his script for 1953’s Highway Dragnet, had seen in The Los Angeles Times a story touting a couple of diving inventions: a one-man submarine and a diving bike. Quick to make a deal, he contacted the makers and got both on loan, promising them publicity but no payment, then quicky jerry-rigged the fragile scaffold of a plot around them. Assembling friends and relatives in what would become his trademarked modus operandi, he knocked out the picture in short order—for about $18,000, and it came to gross $300,000. That was enough to convince him it was a business worth pursuing.
Almost everyone involved in the project was new to the industry. Writer William Danch, director Wyott Ordung (who also has a small acting part), and cast members Stuart Wade and (soon to be a regular Corman player), Jonathan Haze all made their first credited appearances. (Corman himself has a small cameo.) Veteran D.P. Floyd Crosby lent the crew a degree of experience, and the underwater scenes look surprisingly good for a budget film. An actress named Anne Kimbell happened to be the niece of a talent agent with an office in the same building as Corman’s so she got the lead as Julie Blair, an American artist with an adventurous streak who, while vacationing at a seaside village in Mexico, hears rumors about a man-eating creature dwelling in the cove.
As it happens, a marine biologist, Steve Dunning (Wade) is conducting research in the area using his fancy-schmancy one-man submarine. As a man of science, it’s his job to pooh-pooh Julie’s superstitions. Opposites attract and a romance buds as Steve woos Julie with some acoustic guitar noodling on the rocky shore, but nothing will stop Julie’s determination to learn what lurks in the mysterious depths of the ocean—not even the mysterious death of a local diver (Haze) and her own terrifying underwater encounter.
Granted, Monster from the Ocean Floor isn’t exactly groundbreaking cinema. But it does have, like so many a Corman feature, its charms. And it is surprisingly prescient, an early sci-fi film with a female lead—and one with agency at that. Like many other later science fictions that would follow later in the decade, its monster is an atomic mutation, and it is certainly one of the first films with a plot predicated on fears of overpopulation and a potential solution in aquafarming. You might even look at Corman as an early eco-feminist filmmaker!
Like would prove the case in many a subsequent Corman picture, the creature itself proves the big challenge. A test screening was underwhelming, so he and puppeteer Bob Baker set out to improve matters. A few juju beads, sponges, and light bulbs later—not to mention a few long nights in Baker’s garage, where the footage was shot “wet for dry”—and the final version emerged with just enough panache to persuade audiences its threat was sufficiently real. It wasn’t great cinema, by any stretch, but audiences showed up and the film enjoyed a long run on late-night television, where its cheeky effects looked a little less unspectacular than they had on the big screen. More importantly, it set Corman on a career path that would lead to his directing or producing some 500-odd films until his death at age 98 just last year.
Scanned in 4k from an original 35mm camera negative, Film Masters’ restoration of Monster From the Ocean Floor is presented with an aspect ratio of 1.37:1. Discs are region free and include English SDH. Audio is DTS-HD/Dolby AC3s and crisply produced. The picture quality is excellent in the scenes set above ground if a little uneven in those set underwater. Some of the undersea scenes look spectacular, such as when Julie espies a threatening octopus; others suffer a bit from some excessive grain. But overall, it’s a fine restoration of a film entirely deserving of a special edition.
Special Features
Audio Commentary. Tom Weaver, who has done several of these tracks for Film Masters, lends his typically affable, avuncular, and thoroughly researched perspective to the commentary. As always, his work is delightful. Mixing the scholarly and the anecdotal in equal parts, Weaver, with his “Weaver Players” co-credited, intermingles audio from Corman himself and others involved in the shoot, making for an exceptionally lively, informative special feature. I wish all commentary tracks were this good!
Film Masters deserves credit also for providing subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing, not only for the main feature but for the commentary track and all featurettes. That’s something few of its industry peers manage to do. The Criterion Collection, for instance, and for all its esteemed reputation, never provides SDH for commentary or for English-language featurettes, as if its patrons’ hearing magically improves when watching something other than their main programming.
Bob Baker: From Monsters to Marionettes, a new 14-minute mini-documentary from Ballyhoo Motion Pictures hosted by author and historian Justin Humphreys, provides a detailed overview of Baker’s career, from his early work as a puppeteer to his later effects and animation work. Supported with film clips from Monsters from the Ocean Floor and a wide array of other films, the mini-documentary is a pleasant and informative overview of the often overlooked (Baker does not even have his own Wikipedia page!) effects artist’s career.
Roger Corman: Becoming a B-Movie Maker is a nine-minute interview with the filmmaker, also produced by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures, featuring Corman reminiscing about his entry into the industry. I’m not sure exactly when the interview was filmed—the credits don’t say—but it appears to be within the last decade or so, likely pre-Covid, given its high definition and quality, and Corman is his typically articulate and congenial self. Like the featurette on Baker, this too is a sprightly, informative, and well-produced mini-doc.
Other features include a two-minute stills gallery slideshow, courtesy of Mike Barnum; both the original 35mm theatrical trailer and a re-cut 2025 trailer; and, ensconced in the blue jewel case, a 16-page color booklet insert with liner notes by Weaver alongside relevant contextual and promotional images.
Monster from the Ocean Floor is Film Masters’ only single-disc Roger Corman feature, following three prior double-disc double-feature special editions. The Blu-ray version is listed at $24.95, $5 less than their double disc editions; the DVD is listed at the same $19.95 as those. This release features a bit less content than those but it’s nonetheless an excellent package. Any fan of Corman’s will certainly find time spent with his first full production and all of Film Masters’ special features both engaging and informative.
