Tentacles

Italian film producer Ovidio G. Assonitis was known in the ’70s for specializing in “mockbusters”: low-budgeted versions of more popular and expensive genre movies. His breakthrough was 1974’s Beyond the Door, rushed into production after the success of The Exorcist (Warner Bros. filed suit against the production company, and won damages in court).

Tentacles, an Italian/US production, was created to take advantage of the success of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws and the plot mimics Spielberg’s film in many ways. It’s also completely ridiculous (though strangely entertaining). And, it features Hollywood stars who outstrip Jaws‘ cast: John Huston, Shelley Winters, Henry Fonda, Bo Hopkins, and Claude Akins. The distinguished actor John Houseman was also scheduled to appear, but withdrew, probably to his acute relief.

Henry Fonda, who had recently had a pacemaker fitted, shot his scenes in one day, in what looks like his backyard villa. He plays the head of a company constructing an underwater tunnel (we’re never shown the tunnel). His right-hand man, played by Cesare Danova, has been using “unauthorized radio signals,” which may help explain the gruesome deaths happening at the Solana Beach tourist resort, by what appears to be a large octopus.

I don’t try to guess what a million people will like. It’s hard enough to know what I like. ~John HustonThe octopus shot for the film is, for the most part, just an octopus, shot with a macro lens. Rarely is the octopus shot in relation to people or other objects, in order to gauge its size. The audience who paid ticket money surely felt cheated. Balancing this out is seeing John Huston playing a (too old) reporter. Like Fonda, he plays his role straight, and he’s the same irascible coot here that he played in Polanski’s Chinatown a few years before. In fact, what ’70s movie wouldn’t be better with John Huston wandering in and poking around, with his cigar and trench coat, asking questions and trying to get to the bottom of things? I’d watch the codger in anything.

Bo Hopkins gets assigned the role of fish trainer and marine expert Will Gleason, friends with two killer whales (Winter and Summer), who come in handy in the film’s flesh-tearing denouement. Incongruously playing Huston’s older sister, Shelley Winters’ dialogue is disturbingly autobiographical, as if much of it was made up on the fly. They’re surrounded by Italian actors, their dialogue badly dubbed.

In what’s probably Tentacles‘ oddest scene, the editing cuts among a yacht race involving children, about thirty boats and the octopus attack, Shelley Winters desperately trying to reach one of the kids by walkie-talkie, and a “comedian” dressed up as Uncle Sam entertaining a crowd with jokes completely inappropriate for a family outing. The scene is the Italian screenwriter’s conception of an American day at the beach but instead is just bizarre. You may find equally strange Bo Hopkins’ pep talk to his killer whales before they’re sent on their mission:

“I remember the times when I was trainin’ ya. People used ta call you killers. They used to call me that on the streets. Doesn’t mean nothin’. You have more love in your heart, more affection than any human being I ever met. So, I’m askin’ you to help me kill this octopus … If you feel anything, you talk to me. Make some noises. I know people’ll think we’re crazy. Maybe we are … maybe we are …”

Equally off-putting is Stelvio Cipriani’s music score which, for the first third of the film, announces the octopus with a five note, jarring harpsichord motif. Later, when Octo starts charging through the water for the kill, an exciting, disco-tinged theme is used, merging undersea horror with the The Love Unlimited Orchestra.

—Michael R. Neno, 2018 Mar 27
 

Tentacles is available on MGM DVD, paired with Joan Collins in Empire of the Ants, also from 1977, and on Blu-ray, paired with the 1961 Reptilicus.