Omoo-Omoo the Shark God

There is only one thing noticeable about this movie. No, it's not the b-movie chic, the exotica, the dramatic musical score, the thin love story, the wild animals or the clumsy fighting scenes. It's not the lousy acting, the fake English-speaking natives, the mysterious pearls or the childish storyline. No, the special scene to look out for is the one in which two of the characters look out from the ship into the sea. Next we just see fish and octopuses going after each other, minutes long, while one of the characters gives a description of what happens there in the depth of the sea (which is clearly visible as an aquarium).

How on earth...

1st watched 2/18/2007 - 4 out of 10(Dir-Leon Leonard): Fair adventure movie based on a novel by the author of Moby Dick fame, Herman Melville. This movie is about the captain of a ship who had stolen the eyes(that were extremely rare black pearls) from a native tribe's God sculpture and hidden them somewhere that only he knew about before leaving the Island of Tivi. He got very sick and was on a secret voyage to go back to the island to retrieve the pearls for himself while others(like his daughter) thought that he was going back to be treated by the local medicine man. Others didn't know the reason for the voyage. A stowaway actually knew the real reason for the trip -- to return the eyes to their God. The silly part is that the pearls were hidden very close to the statue and all this time the natives ran their tribe without their God having eyes(causing them all kinds of problems). Along the way, we are treated(for some reason) to a short underwater nature show with an electric eel fighting a local octopus(I guess only Herman Melville knows what this was all about). Once they get to the island, the Captain dies but passes the whereabouts of the pearls to his daughter but she also gets the sickness curse as well. One of the bad guys finds out where the God is housed and convinces the daughter to go there and steal back the pearls but at this point the good guys find out what's going on and a fight ensues. I won't tell you the results of the fight or the ending, I'll leave that up to you to find out if you want. As I said earlier, the movie was OK, but some very silly things that I've already mentioned lessened it's impact. I wonder if that new "Pirates of the Caribbean" got some of it's plot from this one ---hmm… black pearls, a curse( I wonder…) Well, it doesn't matter, those elements didn't make for a very good movie in this case or the other. It seems they would learn they're lesson, but with the money rolling in on that newer movie I'm sure they won't. Oh well.

Imagine my shock to learn that this film was based on a Herman Melville novel. I checked into Wikipedia and learned that Omoo-Omoo The Shark God was a sequel novel to Melville's first published work Typee. The film adaption of Typee was nothing to write home about. But next to this it is Citizen Kane. I'm sure the book was nothing like what we get here.

Now if you said this was an Edgar Allan Poe story I might believe it better. A schooner bound for the South Seas is on a mission to recover two stolen black pearls that Captain Trevor Bardette stashed before he could get away. Those black babies were the eyes of the native Shark God, Omoo-Omoo. And Omoo-Omoo has tossed some mighty bad karma in the direction of Bardette and later his daughter Devera Burton.

Ron Randell one of the crew of Bardette's schooner has made friends with Chief Pedro DeCordoba and he's working to recover the pearls without a finder's fee, just a chance to get away alive and with Ms. Burton. But the rest of that crew wants those pearls.

I can only imagine what Herman Melville would have thought of this. This one is cheap all around. No color which would have been a must for a story set in the South Seas. The players looked pained delivering the dialog probably because it was so bad and because they were worried their salary checks might not clear. Lots of stock footage from various jungle films used and some shots from an aquarium no doubt.

Probably they had no shark footage so a tiger which we all know is native to the Pacific Islands is brought in to do the shark god's dirty work.

Don't criticize Ed Wood for making bad films before you see this.

I am a B movie whore and this film has it all! Let me tell you what it's done right. Drunken overly long explanations about 15 minute octopus fights brought to you by Mutual of Omaha and some guys fish tank. Old white guys pretending to be South Pacific Chiefs who talk like Tonto, burlesque inspired dances in front of hilariously innacurate stone idols. Bad acting from 1940's eye candy who obviously slept Ruth the dye tie yo get the role . Akwardly uncomfortable love scenes, lions, tigers and monkeys oh my! Campy wham, bam, gazzam fights with pirouetting gun slingers. Screamy weak willed women gone Smeagle under the influence of cursed pearls and a little mutiny. It's completely terrible and that what makes it so delicious. You find your self rooting for Omoo Omoo Shark God.

First thing you need to know is that there a scene where a man runs out of ammo in his revolver so he just chucks the unloaded weapon at his enemy. Fascinating.

All these people are rating 1 star acting like it should've been a masterpiece. It's a 57 minute movie from 1949 about a shark god, it's gonna be cheesy. Go in expecting a cheesy old adventure movie and you'll come out having enjoyed it.