Killer Shark

Ted White (Roddy McDowall) joins his fisherman father's crew. He's terribly green and wimpy. His accident send his father to the hospital and the crew has left them. He has to find a new crew.

This has a young Roddy McDowall in the lead. That's it. That is all there is here. It's a low budget indie. The story has a questionable turn. McDowall is playing another weirdo. I would be more intrigued if he did that with the initial crew. It would lead to a final confrontation with his father. That's a better story.

Roddy McDowell (who was also a co-producer, so he has no one to blame but himself) stars in this blah quickie from Monogram about a college student who goes to sea with his father, the captain of a shark-hunting boat, and the troubles that ensue. McDowell is, frankly, not very good in the role; his character comes across as naive, dense and rather stupid. The supporting cast is, for the most part, weak, the script is convoluted and trite, and the only remotely "exciting" thing that happens in the picture is some poorly integrated stock footage of a real shark boat hauling several large sharks--and one VERY large shark-- aboard as part of their catch. There are some phony dramatics involving villain Douglas Fowley, as a shady crew member mixed up with smugglers, and some painfully unfunny comic relief from rotund Nacho Galindo as a cook named "Maestro" who giggles and laughs uncontrollably throughout the picture.

Director Budd Boetticher--billed here as Oscar Boetticher--has done much better (much, MUCH better) work. This film isn't really worth wasting your time on; it's talky, boring and the "fight" scene that occurs near the end of the film is very poorly done. Overall, a real snoozer. Skip it.

In case you ever wonder, like I did, if Steven Spielberg's landmark "Jaws" really was the first movie ever to entirely revolve on sharks on a killing spree, you can rest assured ... it is! Samuel Fuller's interesting failure "Shark!" from 1969 features two brief attacks, but furthermore deals with human greed, smuggling and double-crossing. In 1932 already, the legendary Edward G. Robinson starred in a film called "Tiger Shark". I haven't seen it yet, but the plot synopsis makes me doubt that it contains a lot of virulent shark action. My final hope to come across a predecessor for "Jaws" was this 1950 action/adventure movie with the promising title "Killer Shark".

Alas, predictably but alas, "Killer Shark" is hardly an adventure film, let alone a thriller with worthwhile attack footage. Moreover, it's a typical product of its time, which basically means that it features a lot of stock footage of defenseless sharks getting caught in fishing nets, dying painfully, and being cut up for their valuable livers. Apart from being a fan of shark horror-movies, I'm primarily a huge admirer of the beautiful animal species, so this was actually an agonizing sight. The very young and baby-faced Roddy McDowell joins his father, whom he hasn't seen in twelve years, for a summer of hunting for sharks at sea in the Mexican Gulf. His ignorance, however, causes an accident in which his father and another crew member badly get injured. To avoid a financial catastrophe for his old man, he takes the fishing boat out to sea himself, but scouted for a crew in the wrong part of town. "Killer Shark" is okay to watch once (minus the shark-killing footage, though) for some of the supportive performances, including Dickie Moore, and the misplaced slapstick-finale.

This little cheapo used to turn up regularly on late night LA TV, much to McDowell's chagrin, I expect. After all, from glossy MGM to miserly Monogram represents quite a tumble. Actually, the movie's not so bad, except for some of the acting that appears at times by the numbers. I just wish someone had put a cork in Galindo's (Maestro) mouth since he appears to confuse shrill giggling with acting.

Young Ted (McDowell) strives manfully to redeem himself after causing a fishing boat mishap injuring his dad and a deck hand. You know he's in trouble when he hires veteran bad guy Fowley (Bracado) to boss a new crew of cutthroats. At the same time, Laurette Luez, of the notorious Prehistoric Women (1950), drifts around the edges as eye candy.

What the production does best is approximate a seedy Mexican waterfront. It must have been done in LA since I can't imagine Monogram actually popping for location filming. The shipboard and shark scenes are occasionally interesting, causing me to wonder whether old movie freak Steven Spielberg saw A-picture possibilities in this little Monogram programmer. After all, stranger things have happened.

There is little about Killer Shark that is any way recommendable .It was made on a shoestring budget and it shows .

The theme is a variation on the classic Captains Courageous .A young College student spends the Summer working on his fathers rusting old shark fishing boat and is responsible for a serious accident which sees two men-including his father-severely injured.This places at risk his fathers ability to repay the loan on his vessel and so he resolves to put a crew together and go out in search of shark himself.Unfortunately he hooks up with a crew of robbers who plan to make away with the cargo themselves.

Poorly acted ,flat and ugly in its lighting and with a crude anti intellectual message this is a tedious experience that makes then same directors brilliant Randolph Scott Westerns from the same era all the more remarkable by contrast.

Give it a miss.