Black Pearl, The (1977)

aka: La Perla Negra

The young Ramon Salazar (Mario Custodio), son of a village owner, dreams of becoming a pearl fisherman. His father agrees to let him experience this job. Ramon enters a forbidden cave, den of a giant skate nicknamed the Manta Diablo. He finds an oyster containing a black pearl of unusual size. His father donates it to the Virgin rather than sell it to dishonest traffickers. Shortly after, the flotilla of the village led by Salazar perishes at sea. Ramon must face the Manta Diablo with another fisherman to bring prosperity to the village. Also stars Carlos Estrada and Perla Cristal. (In Spanish language, with English subtitles).

NOTE: This extremely rare film was one of many that were influenced by the summer blockbuster film Jaws (1975), which featured sea creatures that were blown out of proportion to monstrous size. This film featured a giant mechanical manta ray, similar in construction to the mechanical great white shark in Jaws, which was produced to cash in on the then current craze of sea monster films that flooded the market in the 1970’s and 1980’s.