|
It moves swiftly from a fulminating volcano to a Mayan grotto for an irresistible picture of the jungles of Tikal by way of a Roman studio. ("Based on an ancient Mexican legend," pledge the opening credits.) The archeologists' tents at night are illuminated with torches and an eye for the Everglades picnic sequence in Citizen Kane, deep in the underground lagoon await skeletons and riches: "The jewels of the pre-Columbians, half a million people lost to history," an explorer dives in and emerges with his skull half-dissolved. Back in Mexico City, the spelunker whose arm was nearly melted off (Gérard Herter) mutates into a delirious killer while the eponymous creature dilates from antediluvian sponge to humongous, marauding bowl of pudding. "This case has no precedence in the history of medicine," the square-jawed scientist (John Merivale) is on it, his wife (Didi Perego) cowers in her nightie, "this was supposed to be a second honeymoon!" Riccardo Freda reportedly walked off the project early on so that his assistant could showcase his gifts, and indeed Mario Bava's signature is obvious as soon as the camera pans over the placid surface of a pond to reveal a grinning corpse. (His zoom makes its debut appearance a few scenes later during a native dance.) A radioactive comet slashing across the night sky dissolves to a darkened basement where the gelatinous fiend pulses out of its glass cage, every bit the equal of the poetic rampages of Nathan Juran and Eugène Lourié. Quite the delectable vision of viscous mayhem, building on Yeaworth's The Blob and Guest's The Quatermass Xperiment to arrive at the dense surrealism of the gated garden surrounded by tanks and flamethrowers. With Daniela Rocca, Daniele Vargas, and Giacomo Rossi-Stuart. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |