Beast From Haunted Cave

(1959)**1/2
A professional gang of robbers plans a heist from a safe in a small gold mine located near a ski resort in South Dakota. The complicated plan involves setting off a bomb for a distraction, stealing the gold, cross-country skiing to an airplane, and hightailing it to Canada. The robbers all kind of suck at skiing, however, so they hire button-down, ski-resort owning Gil Jackson to be their guide through the snowy wonderland to take them to his cabin where the robbers will hole up until their escape plane arrives. Things are go as planned initially, but a burlap bag filled with leaves with stick arms, I mean, a monster residing in a nearby cave has other plans for the hooligans.

The Beast does bad stuff to people

This is another fun film I found on one of my movie 50-packs. The idyllic snowy setting, and interesting characters, offsets the low budget. The infighting among the thieves is every bit as fun as the creature attacks. Also, Gil is just the funniest character. It’s almost as if someone looked up the definition of a “perfect person” and created Gil from that definition. I mean, just look at him (in ridiculous-looking, oversized white sweater),

Gil is serious about things

Gil is just so damn serious. He has the Protestant work ethic thing going on and he never misses an opportunity to declare that he loves his life. He appears to adhere to a strict morality code and all is well with Gil. In fact, he even convinces Gypsy, the “bad” girl among the robbers, to change her dastardly ways. Near the end of the film she declares that she wishes to remain in South Dakota with Gil so she can get some clean livin’ in.

As a final thought, I hate that it’s called Beast From Haunted Cave and not “The Beast From the Haunted Cave”. To this day it still annoys me that it’s Edie Brickell & New Bohemians rather than “Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians”. What the hell?