She Gods of Shark Reef (1958)

Cast:

Bill Cord is Chris, alias Christy Johnston
Don Durant is Jim, alias Lee Johnston
Lisa Montell is Mahia
Jeanne Gerson is Queen Pua

What the box says:

Filmed in Hawaii, this tale features an escaped prisoner and his brother who become shipwrecked on an island paradise. The land is filled with delectable native women who fill their time enacting strange rituals, and diving in the ocean for pearls. When one of the women is selected by her peers to be sacrificed to the sharks the good broither, who has fallen for her charms, rescues her and they escape to civilization. The convict brother stays behind and attempts to steal the pearls.

Plot:

Under a pier, a couple of guys swim up and attack aand kill a guard to break into a warehouse. Afterwards, the guys, Jim and Lee, swim off to Chris's boat, Lee's younger brother, but a storm knocks them off course. During the storm, Jim is tossed off and drowned.

Some diving women rescue, Lee and Chris. Puba, the chief, doens't like having men on the island. The guys will have to wait for 10 days until the next ship comes. A company finances the women who pearl dive.

Lee still wants to get to his meeting. The brothers scavenge what's left of the boat. Mahe' meets them. Lwet the hula dancing ensue. Bad juju occurrs when the women run off from the men. Mahe' explains Shark Gods to Chris.

Lee takes Chris toa boat he found. Puba wants the men to leave Mahe' alone. Apparently, all bad luck is brought by men.

Puba and the women call for the evil to be taken away. Later, Mahe' tells Chris that he must go appease Kangaroha. She has been chosen to be sacrificed to the sharks.

The women swim out in the lagoon. Chris rescues Mahe' and tends to her. She accepts his offer to leave with the them. Lee and Chris fix the boat they found.

Puba tries to take Mahe' away. The guys rescue her and tie Puba up. Lee doesn't want Mahe' to go with them . He snuck off to steal the pearls.

Lee, Chris, Mahe', and Puba head out to sea. They kept Puba so she wouldn't warn the tribe.

Puba frees herself and gets back to the tribe. She finds one of the women were knocked out and the pearls are gone.

Lee returns, and Chris finds the stolen pearls. They start fighting. Lee manages to get to the boat and heads out. However, he falls out. The shark is heading for Chris when Mahe' stabs the shark. Getting back to the boat, the pearls fall back into the ocean. The shark gets Lee, and Chris and Mahe' head away from the island.

What I say:

With the summer heat plaguing us, beaches have to make their appearances. Yes, beaches besides as in the 1960s Gidget and Frankie/Annette style beach movies. The 1970s started the revision of the beach movie with the inclusion of sharks in those movies. Nowadays, most shark movies are the Jaws kind of movies like Night of the Sharks. After all, we've seen how many CG shark movies the Scyyyy-Faiiiiiiii channel shows.

In the pantheon of B-Movie directors, Roger Corman stands tall alone. Most of his movies will never be thought of great movies. If the movie is sitting on a shelf for more than a year waiting to be released and is barely over 60 minutes, She Gods of Shark Reef doesn't have much of a story in it.

Can't help but think of Gilligan's Island. Granted, Chris isn't quite as dense as Gilligan. However, Gilligan would realize his own brother was a criminal a lot sooner than Chris. Guy trapped into his nefarious brother scheme and winds up in a strange place. That various vague plot has been done a numerous times in Westerns, sci-fi, horror, etc...Think it's safe to say that Corman wouldn't mind recycling that kind of plot. 2 brothers wind up stranded on an island that is populated with women pearl divers.

Sharks aren't in this movie enough to actually be included in the title. A couple of stock footage shots aren't enough to excuse it. A low budget shark movie isn't expected to a lot of sharks. The movie couldn't afford to buy even an inflatable shark for a monster to attack a character. How many alligator and crocdile movies had an inflatable alligator attack someone? At least, a couple of scenes where somebody is trying to fight a shark with a knife.

Quotable Dialogue
"Kangaroha hungry..."
"Bring Lava-lava for these men."
"You're gonna louse things up because of some dame."
"She won't be stopping anyone for a long, long time."
Morals of the Story
Gun-running is not good for business.
Bad luck is in your own family.
Bad luck is contagious.