CALTIKI, THE IMMORTAL MONSTER (1959)
Article #159 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-22-2001
Posting date: 1-5-2002

Archaelogists investigating a Mayan temple discover an ancient bloblike monster known as Caltiki.

The second half of this movie gets somewhat tiresome when it begins concentrating on the bitter psychotic man injured by Caltiki, a grating, unpleasant character that was made even worse bu the harsh voice given to him by the substandard dubbing. However, there is always the great first half of the movie, with some incredibly atmospheric scenes in the Mayan temple, especially the incredible underwater sequence that takes place in the lake in the temple; this scene more than makes up for any of the movie’s flaws. Direction is credited to Robert Hampton, but it seems to be the work of up to three directors according to one source, two of which are Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava (who also handled the cinematography). In many ways, this qualifies as another Blob movie of the fifties, along with X THE UNKNOWN, THE BLOB, and THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT; the amazing thing is how such an unpromising idea as a killer blob has resulted in so many great movies.