1958's "Attack of the Giant Leeches" was a Roger Corman production, younger brother Gene taking the actual on screen credit (as was the case with "Night of the Blood Beast" and "Beast from Haunted Cave"). In the director's chair was relative newcomer Bernard L. Kowalski, who also did "Hot Car Girl," "Night of the Blood Beast" and "Blood and Steel" for the Cormans before confining himself exclusively to television (one major theatrical comeback, 1973's Strother Martin snake entry "Sssssss"). The screenplay was among the first from actor Leo V. Gordon, very prolific in front of the camera with over 200 credits, but pretty much doing most of his movie scripts for Corman - "The Cry Baby Killer" (Jack Nicholson's screen debut), "Hot Car Girl," "The Wasp Woman," "Valley of the Redwoods," "The Cat Burglar," "Tower of London," "The Terror," "Tobruk." "Giant Leeches" was filmed after "Blood Beast" and "Hot Car Girl," utilizing several cast members from both, a rather small scale menace threatening the denizens of a swamp community near Cape Canaveral (filling the bottom half of a double bill with "A Bucket of Blood"). It's really an hour long split between two storylines, the first depicting a love triangle between sultry Yvette Vickers ("Attack of the 50 Foot Woman," and July 1959 Playboy Playmate), her storekeeper husband played by Bruno Ve Sota, and local lothario Michael Emmet (retained from "Blood Beast"), intersecting midway with the titular creatures, who claim the two lovers as victims for their blood as poor Bruno takes his own life after being falsely accused of murder. The emotional center thus eliminated, what remains focuses on handsome yet stolid Ken Clark ("12 to the Moon"), whose job preserving wildlife as game warden is complicated by the fact that the giant leeches have scared away all the larger predators such as alligators. This sluggish second half is enlivened by scenes of the leeches feasting on their captives, the only explanation for their size being radiation from the proximity of the rocket base. With as mean looking a countenance as Leo Gordon, Bruno Ve Sota turned in some of his best screen work for Corman, even more affecting here than he was in "The Undead." Gene Roth ("Zombies of Mora Tau," "She Demons") was almost as familiar to 50s sci-fi enthusiasts as Morris Ankrum, here repeating his skeptical sheriff role from "Earth vs the Spider." The monsters pretty much look exactly like what they were, extras in elaborate trash bags with octopus-like suckers attached, but the underwater photography does hold up on such a low budget, and the cave scenes (even the eerie music) were replicated for another blood sucking terror in "Beast from Haunted Cave." The backwoods drama reminded me of the 1964 ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR "The Jar," a classic Ray Bradbury story of hidden passions that culminates in a surprising finale.
Review of Attack of the Giant Leeches
