Only suave ladies man and eternal B-movie actor John Bromfield could get away with this role, that of plantation owner Rock Dean, who is investigating a series of attacks on workers along the Amazon River. Rock Dean isn't one to believe in legends (and with that name, you wouldn't either!), but it is said that a strange bird-like creature named Curucu lives near the river where no white man has ever tread. Along for the journey is a shapely female doctor in search of a drug that might be effective in shrinking cancerous tissue (it is currently in use by the resident headhunters, who need it to shrink something else!). Low-budget co-feature has some jungle adventure and humor, though it was misleadingly advertised by Universal as a horror movie. The credit "filmed entirely in Brazil" is also misleading, as a good portion of the running time is padded with wildlife and travelogue footage from stock. Fans of Bromfield and scream queen Beverly Garland might give this a pass. *1/2 from ****

For those of You who speak Spanish.... As I do!.... Knowing that this movie was filmed in South America in 1955/56... You can´t help but wonder if that MEGAHIT... Released in 1954, and played incessantly on the Radio in Latin America throughout most of the 50s... inspired the TITLE and even some aspects of the BIRD-BEAST Referred to in the TITLE itself!?!¿!¿!?!

Several of the cast members are locals! (Brazilians were much cheaper to contract... I am sure!) Andrea Bayard also appeared in several Brazilian TELENOVELAS made in the 50s and 60s!)

This production absolutely cannot be watched from start to finish without a good number of unintended Belly laughs! Sure looks as though Cast and Crew had one Hell of a good time making this! But still...During the last 20 minutes, or so, of its 75 Minute TOTAL... I pretty much was hoping it would END...And put me out of my MISERY!!!

Gave it 6****** because I did get a lot of those unintended belly laughs mentioned earlier!!!

"Curucu, Beast of the Amazon" is pretty much what you expect from a movie by this title! Yes, it's cheap, cheesy and pretty silly stuff...and is best for folks who like seeing terrible films.

The story begins with one of the silliest looking monsters in film history killing some woman in the Amazonian region. Soon, a burly he-man (John Bromfield) is recruited to find and destroy the monster...and he ends up getting paired up with a head-strong doctor...you know, the feminist sort in the 1950s that talks a good talk but ends up falling for the lunk-head leading man! Along the way, there are a few nice jungle scenes...and some total crap scenes as well where it's obvious they are using old and badly made stock footage. The buffalo charge, in particular, is terrible...and what you'd expect from an ultra-cheapo film like this. The only real surprise is the monster itself....when you learn more about it, it turns out to be a bit of a shocker! But even this isn't enough to make me recommend the film to anyone but masochists like myself who occasionally enjoy a laughably bad movie.

By the way, despite what you see in the picture, tarantulas are NOT deadly nor are they particularly poisonous.