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.

Thanks for reading!

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 Martin, 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!

Thanks for reading!

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).

Thanks for reading!

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.

Thanks for reading!

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.

Thanks for reading!

50's Horror

MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS-1958-A college professor Donald Blake (Arthur Franz) cuts his hand on the tooth of a 1000 year old fish treated with gamma rays. He becomes a rubbery faced caveman-monster and kills a nurse (Helen Wescott ) and a cop (Ross Elliot). Since the cops find unusual hand and foot prints at the scenes of the crimes Blake is not a suspect but he begins to suspect himself! His work in proving the fish is somehow responsible makes everyone think he's crazy. His future father in law (Alexander Lockwood) and doctor (Whit Bissell) suggest he go to a mountain retreat to relax. He tries to experiment on himself and turns into the monster just as Madeline, his fiance' arrives at the cabin. She wrecks her car and he carries her off, then chases her through the woods. Blake manages to get a picture of himself  as the monster but Madeline can't understand why the monster is wearing Blake's clothes! At the end Blake injects himself with some of the fish's blood and becomes a monster getting shot to death by a police lieutenant (Judson Pratt) in the process.

MOTC also features a German shepherd with fangs, a giant dragonfly and Troy Donahue (later on the TV shows SURFSIDE 6 and HAWAIIAN EYE) and Nancy Walters (later acted with Elvis in BLUE HAWAII) as some students who try to help. Perennial '50's character Hank Patterson (later Arnold the Pig's "father" on TV's GREEN ACRES) also appears.

CAMPUS is an ok low budget horror film but considering Jack Arnold directed it I thought it could have been better. Of course it was one of four movies he directed in 1958 so maybe he had to rush it a little! Screenwriter David Duncan wrote several other low budget horror films (THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD, THE LEECH WOMAN, and others).

Though Franz is shown in two transformation scenes stuntman Eddie Parker played the monster. Parker had played the Mr. Hyde role in the earlier ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (which also featured Wescott). And if the Mr. Hyde monster in that movie reminds of the cave-monster in CAMPUS well, Bud Westmore and Jack Kevan did the make-up on both! Other Abbott & Costello related notes: Franz starred with "the boys" in A & C MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN and Parker played the mummy in A & C MEET THE MUMMY!

Lead actress Joanna Moore (mother of Tatum O'Neal) had a role in Orson Welles' TOUCH OF EVIL the same year.

Thanks for reading!