By: Mordicai

 

Peter Graves has two emotions: serious… and serious about Bigfoot. He is so convinced of this fact that he is willing to throw his career to the wind just to prove it to you. The 70’s was the heyday of the “In Search of…” documentary, luring many such credible TV personalities as Leonard Nimoy and Rod Serling on wild goose chases of the paranormal variety.  Many a formerly-respectable celebrity was lured into that Bermuda Triangle, only to find himself lost in pseudo-science malarkey and completely off track of future legitimate roles. In The Mysterious Monsters, Peter Graves has undertaken the impossible mission of solving one of one of late night television’s greatest mysteries.

 

The production company Schick Sunn Classics brought the world some of the best “documentaries” of the 70’s. Everything from UFO’s , to Lincoln assassination conspiracies, and near-death experiences were given dutiful and thorough exploitation. A world reeling from the Watergate Scandal and the OPEC embargo needed a panacea – and as generations before had done, it turned its eyes to Bigfoot. So who better than venerable film and TV personality Peter Graves to lend his investigative talents to one of the most exploited topics of the decade? Just for good measure (read pad the film length,) the producers tack on a couple of segments about the Abominable Snowman and the Loch Ness Monster, leaving our sagely narrator to comment that today’s scientists finally believe in a Loch Ness dinosaurs, yet remain skeptical about the existence of Bigfoot. Who really believes “scientists” anyway?

 

Watch as Graves pretends to fly in a plane, peer knowledgably into a microscope and wander into a “field investigation” of extras pouring plaster into Bigfoot tracks. Stroke your chin as “experts’ expound on such topics as Sasquatch droppings, the length of the creature’s vocal chords and what Bigfoot’s boobs look like. The astounding “evidence” culminates in an exciting visit to noted “psychic detective” Peter Hurkos with a briefcase containing a mystery item. You will marvel as Hurkos attempts to “psychomotrize” the contents - you will also marvel as Graves pronounces “psychomotrize” with a straight face. Graves, with his coat thrown casually over his shoulder and standing in front of really sciency-looking sets, musters the most brow-furrowed of looks, trying his hardest to convince the audience that he actually gives a damn about Bigfoot and is not just in it for the paycheck.

 

Along the way we meet several Sasquatch “experts” – you can spot them easily because they look like they haven’t bathed recently, while the eye-witnesses interviewed have combed their hair and seem to be wearing clean shirts. One thing I learned is that you have to have facial hair in spades to be a Bigfoot researcher. The Sasquatch costume, however, is top-notch for this type of outing, and is far more convincing than the budget-rate reenactors and some of the “scientists.” The only credential you need is a lab coat to be an authority in this film. Reel at how all liberties are taken with logic and how Graves attempts to establish the existence of Bigfoot through amateur legal conjecture.

 

The proof is in the plaster as Schick-Sunn serves up another pseudo-classic. All in all, a better-than-your-average Bigfoot outing; the relatively high production value and unintentional silliness make this one a must-see for lovers of the “crypto-documentary.” To my knowledge, The Mysterious Monsters never had a wide video release, so you’ll have to seek out bootlegs of this fun waste of time. Sure, it’s no Legend of Boggy Creek, but fans of the genre will enjoy seeing Peter Graves in flannel, blankly uttering hilarious dialogue.

 

 

 

 

 

Rating: 3/5 Sasquatch Scat Samples

 

 

 

 

 

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