hurrengoa
double session II: mermaids of tiburon    In the 1960s, the big Hollywood studios produced second-level entertainment films in order to meet the wide demand from picture houses at that time. All the lolly they carelessly splurged on mainstream stars’ pay packets, flash parties and blockbuster productions they would make back by exploiting unknown actors and workers. Many people call it the “American Miracle. Some of those “slaves” working for the big boys soon realised that they could make their very own independent productions once free on the big studios.

House of Usher (1960), produced by the independent studio American International Pictures and directed by Roger Corman, was the first crack to appear in the big studios’ dam. What followed soon became a Tsunami; a huge number of films were produced with very little means but a lot of imagination. Like Corman, underwater cameraman John M. Lamb, having worked for the major studios for many years, decided it was time to make his dream come true. He named, wrote, directed, produced and filmed that dream: The mermaids of Tiburon (1961).

Filmed on the Mexican islands of Tiburon, this crazy adventure features a Californian marine biologist, evil Mexican pearl-divers and beautiful mermaids. You can also see mechanical foam-rubber sharks, Mexican fishermen as actors, lots of technical bloopers and the beautiful Diane Webber as the Queen of the Mermaids who guarded the pearls. Four years later, John M. Lamb added a further 10 minutes to the film. All of the new scenes were underwater footage of mermaids. There was one big difference, however. In the new version the mermaids appeared topless. They made new prints of the film and it was once again premiered, but this time with a new title: Aqua Sex and The virgin aqua sex. The charm of psychotronica. On the one hand, an adventure all the family, and, on the other, a warm-up exercise for bedroom play. Lamb carried on in this vein in his next films and went on to film a few more gems in the Sexploitation subgenre: The Raw Ones (1965) a documentary filmed in a nudist camp and Mondo Keyhole (1966) the story of a fictitious rapist from Los Angeles. Later, using the pseudonym M. C. Von Hellen, he made the sex documentaries Sexual Freedom in Denmark Sexual Liberty Now (1971) and Sex Freaks (1974). Mermaids of Tiburon will not find much of a place in the history of cinema. Cinematographically, there was nothing new about it. But it does have other values: creativity, making dreams come true, following your instinct, a declaration of vocation.... That’s why we like this raggedy film. Because we too are attracted to simple naïf beauty. And one more thing, it has achieved what films that cost a thousand times more have never done: it has appeared in the pages of The balde.