Mares Sangrentos

Roddy McDowell plays Ted White, who joins his estranged father for a summer while in college. His father Jeffery White (Roland Winters) has held up his fishing boat to wait for his son to arrive missing prime prices and with his crew chomping at the bit to make money.

They eventually cast off with Ted on board to catch shark, whose livers have been determined to be high in Vitamin A. Ted has to borrow clothes from another crew mate, Ramon and takes a bit of hazing from some other crew members...but the real story begins when Ted's inexperienced gets both Ramon and his father Jeffery bitten and badly hurt by sharks. He makes the call for the ship to go into port without a catch in order to get medical attention for the two...something the good doctor tells Maria probably saved their lives.

Desperate to make up for the damages and earn back the lost money, Ted hires a sketchy crew who take him for the works...drugged, beaten and stolen from Ted has finally had enough. He intends to confront the miscreants on his own but is waylaid and joined by his father's crew and friends in my favorite scene of the film..."the party".

This might be a great family friendly film that can be enjoyed by all and it has some great shots of the shark catching process...particularly the hauling in and the packing of the livers in tins. Not a film that I would rewatch but kind of fun for "shark week" on TCM.

I am not surprised that Budd Boetticher made this interesting little adventure drama, starring Roddy McDowall. Anyway this is a movie that any director could have made too. It is a bit flat and predictable but still interesting to watch. Useless to say that this movie is not my all time favorite from Boetticher, even from his early career, but it remains agreeable, not that lousy, just a bit flat. Just because it is from the COMANCHE STATION director; if it had been another unknown film maker, I guess such a plot would have never interested me. This film belongs to the ones that you see because of their director, only curiosity.

Taking a break from college, snobby Roddy McDowall (as Ted White) goes down to Mexico and reconnects with his shark-hunting father, wizened Roland Winters (as Jeff). After not seeing each other for a dozen years, the two have a major culture clash. When his father is injured, young McDowall takes control of the "Sunrays". This angers the crew, who decide to jump ship. Out to prove his mettle, McDowall assembles another crew, but they take advantage of their inexperienced young boss...

After his successful child star years, McDowall found himself a Monogram Pictures player for a couple of these low budget films, before moving on to television appearances. Interestingly, you can spot white-capped Dickie Moore (as Jonesy) in the bar and on the second crew. McDowall and Moore were on the same career trajectory. Note, there is no "Killer Shark" in the story; instead, footage of some men fishing for small sharks is inserted. The cast and crew do their best with the time and money.

**** Killer Shark (3/19/50) Budd Boetticher ~ Roddy McDowall, Roland Winters, Dickie Moore, Douglas Fowley

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.