Mr. BIG's Giant Bugs

 

 (imdb)

THE BEGINNING OF THE END-1957-When the town of Ludlow, Illinois is mysteriously destroyed and the army blocks all roads, famous reporter Audrey Ames (Peggie Castle; later in the TV series “Lawman”) inves-tigates. Col. Strugeon (Thomas B. Henry) and Captain Barton (James Seay) give her the lowdown on Ludlow and later let her visit the destruction. 

Nearby, she meets entomologist Ed Wainwright (Peter Graves; in BAYOU the same year), his mute assistant Frank (Than Wyenn) and their large experimental vegetables. When the 3 of them investigate a warehouse wreck, they discover giant locusts are causing the destruction and poor Frank is killed. They tell Strugeon but he doesn't believe them until he takes out a platoon and they are attacked. Ed figures the locusts got big eating his radiated vegetables. General Hanson (Morris Ankrum) sends General Short (Frank Wilcox) back to Illinois with Ed and Audrey where the locusts are on the march. Unfortunately, the government orders Hanson to drop an A-bomb on Chicago if Ed can't come up with a solution! After they capture a live giant locust, Ed discovers a high frequency signal that drive the horde into the water. 

The sfx are really laughable even by director Bert I. Gordon standards. Scenes of the locusts crawling up buildings are them just crawling over pictures! Also with Richard Benedict and Hank Patterson. Mr. BIG made two other classic low budget features in 1957: THE CYCLOPS and THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN.

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Mantis!

 

 (TCM)

THE DEADLY MANTIS-1957-After a lengthy introduction about the creation of the Dew Line, an US Arctic outpost is mysteriously destroyed. Col. Joe Parkman (Craig Stevens; TV's Peter Gunn series) investigates and the Air Force spends a good deal of time looking for what caused it. All they find is a piece of giant claw which a bunch of egghead doctors can't figure out. They contact Dr. Nedrick Jackson (William Hopper; TV's Perry Mason), a paleontologist who deduces the claw is from a giant praying mantis, which later destroys a village in Greenland. When Jackson is sent to the Arctic to check things out, a female museum reporter Marge Blaine (Alix Dalton) goes with him. During a dance at the air force base the mantis attacks. Later it heads down the coast to terrorize the eastern seaboard. It wrecks a bus, buzzes the Capitol and the climbs the Washington monument. Later it lands in NYC and hides in the Manhattan tunnel where it is eventually destroyed. 

Pat Conway (from TV's TOMBSTONE TERRITORY is also in it. Good '50's giant insect horror, despite some phony looking effects, directed by Nathan Juran who in the same year made 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH, THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS (with John Agar) and HELLCATS OF THE NAVY (with Ronald & Nancy Reagan). Story is credited to William Alland.

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Them!

 

THEM!-1954-In this classic 1950's "giant bug" science fiction story giant ants are breeding in the New Mexico desert (9 years after a nuclear bomb blast) and killing humans. After police Sargent Ben Peterson (James Whitmore) finds a shell shocked little girl (Sandy Descher) wandering around and his partner is killed, FBI agent Robert Graham (James Arness) is called in. So is ant expert Dr. Medford (Edmund Gwen) and his daughter Patricia (Joan Weldon). They discover and kill one of the ants and later with the help of General O'Brien (Onslow Stevens) and Major Kibbee (Sean McClory) the army wipe out the colony. 

Unfortunately a couple of queens escape and take up residence in the sewer drains of LA. A frantic search ensues and along the way many familiar characters show up (Fess Parker, John Beradino, Willis Bouchey, Olin Howland, Richard Deacon, Ann Doran, Dean Fredericks, William Schallert, Dub Taylor, Dick Wessel, Harry Wilson and of course Leonard Nimoy.

The finale in a crumbling section of sewer, where besides destroying the nests, they must rescue two boys trapped there.

Arguably, this is the best giant insect mov-ie. It's very forward, scientific and has solid acting. Director Gordon Douglas had a varied and interesting career, making entries into "The Great Gildersleeve", Our Gang shorts, ZENOBIA (with Oliver Hardy and Harry Langdon), ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY (with Brown & Carney) be-fore THEM! Later in the '60's, he made bigger budgeted movies for Bob Hope, Sinatra and Jerry Lewis, IN LIKE FLINT, two Tony Rome detective movies (also with Sinatra), the missing link drama SKULLDUGGERY, THE CALL ME MR. TIBBS and SLAUGHTER'S BIG RIPOFF! Some res-ume!

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Mothra

MOTHRA-1961-A group of scientists, photog Michi (Kyoko Kagawa) and Bulldog (Furanki Sakai), a stowaway reporter go to investigate an island they thought was deserted after learning of an A-bomb testing by the nation of Rolisca (stand in for the USA). They discover “Shobijin” two tiny ladies who save Dr. Chujo (Hiroshi Koizumi) from some killer plants. An evil guy named Neruson (Jerry Ito) tries to capture the duo and natives surround the group. They leave but Neruson comes back, kidnaps the little pair and takes them to Japan where he plans to exploit them. Bad move. They sing a song about Mothra who eventually comes to Japan as a giant caterpillar. When the army fails to kill it, Mothra spins a cocoon and becomes the colorful winged giant moth. Neruson is killed and the girls are returned to their island. Bulldog's editor is played by the great Takeshi Shimura.

 Ishiro Honda directed and did his usual great job despite a restricted budget. It was the first entry in a new Kaiju series that would eventually rival Godzilla in popularity in Japan. The J-pop duo “The Peanuts” played the little ladies (they were really twin sisters).

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LOL

BIG BAD BUGS!-2012-Amateurish badly acted and directed crap about giant insects invading Earth from another dimension. The SFX are terrible. I think it was a comedy but it was so bad it was hard to tell! This was directed by Peter Paul Basler who also made ICE: THE MOVIE.

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Sandy Stuff

SAND SERPENTS-2009-A small band of US soldiers fighting The Taliban in The Middle East are taken hostage but they escape after the captors seem to be wiped out mysteriously. They are almost rescued but a giant sand worm wrecks their helicopter. They hot wire an abandoned truck but promptly get into an accident with some locals being forced by The Taliban to make bombs. The characters do a lot of stupid things, argue, complain and then get killed. If these idiots are based on real life soldiers our country is doomed. The ending surprised me a little though. TV actors Jason Gedrick and Tamara Hope star. Director Jeff Renfroe recently filmed a biography of Steve McQueen.

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