This is the last of the "Puerto Rico trilogy" – as the story goes, Roger Corman realized he could sneak in one more film while in Puerto Rico, so a previous script was rewritten and the actors for Last Woman on Earth were recruited for one more.
The first time I saw this movie, I hated it. That was before I learned that there actually was a genre, back in those days, for "silly horror" movies. Not just comedy horror, but really stupidly funny horror. When you get the genre, the movie is not that bad.
The premise is that during the Cuban Revolution, a Cuban general and a few chosen soldiers want to escape to freedom with gold bars stolen from the government. They hire a small-boat captain to take them and their money away.
Antony Carbone plays Captain Renzo Capetto, in a very Bogart-esque performance (though he says it wasn't deliberate). Betsy Jones-Moreland is his girlfriend, Mary-Belle Monahan. Robert Towne plays the role of an American spy (Sparks Moran) among the boat's crew, determined to save Betsy's character from her criminal fate; he's also the film's narrator.
Robert Bean plays Marry-Belle's brother, another crew member. Beech Dickerson is yet another crew member.
Edmundo Rivera Alvarez plays General Tostada.
Renzo's game is to convince the superstitious Cubans that there is a sea monster, then to kill off the Cubans one by one and blame the "monster" for it and keep the gold.
And that's basically the plot: A lot of silliness as people on this overcrowded boat die one by one, and then along the way you meet the lovely Mango and her mother, as well as Carmelita!
The special effects are supposed to look as dumb as they are.
The movie poster shows a woman clutched in a sea monster's claw while a boat sinks… but that's not in this low-budget movie.
The CD version I have includes actor's commentary from Antone Carbone and Betsy Jones-Moreland (with Fred Olen Ray).
Now that I "get" the type of movie this is, I rather enjoy it. Then again, I have a huge crush on Betsy.
This is an early Corman film, so no graphic violence, no nudity.
Could you game this? I've run similar plots as roleplaying games, but I think you'd want a much larger vessel. Could work as a Pulp plotline, too. The problem is that there is more intrigue than violence; in a game, there would be a tendency to just have a big shoot-out and adventure's over!