Omoo-Omoo the Shark God (1949)

Am I Missing Something?

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The first must-see film of the year.

More masochistic movie musings, because this is an effort almost hardly worth entering a review as there is little of note to keep your attention; EXCEPT, that is, for the fact that this stars what seems to be the only film that sultry, dark eyed, full (bottom) lipped (á la A. Jolie style) forgotten starlet beauty Devera Burton appeared in: unfortunately the copy I saw seemed to be mostly shot too darkly in shadow and many of her appearances profile or mid distance; but about three quarters of the way through (c.45 / 6 min. mark) having come into possession (from gone mad dead dad, captain of the ship) - and thus been possessed herself - by the titular Omoo Omoo Shark God's black pearl eyes curse, she's given a full frame, lit face shot in which to emote almost in a M. Monroe style c. 'Don't Bother to Knock' era. And for that alone, it was worth the price of the time given to watch entry.So, if you do decide she is worth catching (she deserves it; she's gorgeous!), you can also savour the scene where she staring out from the top deck of the eighteenth century schooner, over the ocean, joined by the obviously far more educated doctor, he warns her not to go for a swim (she's 'decked' out in eighteenth century attire: did such womenfolk really leap off the poop deck for a dip in those days?), since directs her attention to a battle between denizens of the deep below (Octopus and Moray eel) all of which is shown that as from their vantage point, they can see through the ocean down to the seabed in pristine (aquarium!*) detail. (PLOT SPOILER?: "For as long as that octopus lives - there can be no peace." - um, for the shoals of fish that is, which are then soundtracked to what seems to be the music usually used for attacking Indians in Westerns. - And to its music, there's also some occasional nice 'weirdy' theremin use, too.) Having got that far, there's also one or two more daft delivery lines to listen out for: check the quotes sidebar.* another reviewer already noted how the Octopus tentacles clearly come up against some clear obstruction .. but which, if you like Octopi, provides good views of them, though - so credit due to presumably (possibly), from the title card credits, "Optical effects: Consolidated Film Industries".Oh, by the way: yes, it's based (mashed up?) on a Herman Melville book=double bill it with Greg Peck's 'Moby Dick'!

Saturday afternoon matinées were filled with Z grade bunk like this, and with a temporary end to the Tarzan series, Jungle Jim and Bomba would take their place. But, there are 52 Saturdays in a year, so there had to be more than those films, the Bowery Boys and various Z grade westerns to get the young juvenile crowd in. So Abbott and Costello, Ma and Pa Kettle and Francis the Talking Mule had a predecessor to their screening along with the last of the comedy shorts and serials, these otherwise un-bookable third tier films would never have seen the light of day.Made with a low budget that couldn't have topped $50,000, this comes from a poverty row studio that I had never even heard of up until now yet starring actors I was fairly familiar with, this is silliness taken to the max, the often "uh oh, there goes the neighborhood" theme of greedy civilized explorers out to hunt pearls and wild life without regards to the islanders whose lives they turn upside down. This was done so much better and on higher budgets (in color) featuring such lovelies as Dorothy Lamour, Maria Montez and Yvonne de Carlo, who while not acting school graduates, offered sincere (or at least campy) performances. The same cannot be said for vixen Devera Burton who has the drama education equivalence of Acquanetta.Plenty of stock jungle footage as old as Trader Horn is used to show the wildlife of the jungle, so if the kids weren't being entertained, at least they got a crash course in biology. I've seen a ton worse than this among the Z programmers and it gave me a few laughs. So an hour was worth it, and in coming from public domain DVD king Alpha Video, the price was right as well.

Oomo-Oomo, The Shark God (1949) ** (out of 4) This year I'm trying to track down some of the rarer horror movies and I'm not going to lie when I say I've seen a lot of horror films. However, I believe this little rarity is perhaps the lowest budgeted film I've ever seen. I'm not sure what the actual budget was but I'd be shocked if it were over a couple grand. A ship full of men head to an unknown Pacific island so that they can steal the diamond eyes of a sacred shark god. This god is protected by voodoo folks and you know what happens when the diamonds are stolen. I'm giving this thing two stars simply because I just watched it in amazement at how many corners the producer's took to keep the budget down. All the "horror" items are kept pretty much off screen and we're only told about them through narration. The sound effects are cheap as hell as you can tell it just seems like a record being played in the background. The only good moment is some nice stock footage of underwater scenes including an octopus being killed and eventually eaten by thousands of fish.

Oh, Man, talk about the effect of advertising. Apparently, all that you have to do to enjoy box office succes is title your movie after a revered 19th century novel. Horrendous acting, directing, and cinematography in this sham of an effort.