THE GIANT GILA MONSTER-1959-Whoa! They don’t make ‘em like this anymore! Suped up hot rods, rock and roll and a real lizard traipsing through matchbox cars and train sets all figure in this unintentionally funny 50’s teen horror flick!
Don Sullivan (from MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS and TEENAGE ZOMBIES) stars as Chase Winstead, a singing-hot rodding-mechanic/tow truck driver. He also manages to take a college correspondence course while supporting his mom and semi-crippled little sister. He has a French girlfriend (Lisa Simone, also in MISSILE TO THE MOON) whose accent makes most of her dialogue incomprehensible (yeah, like her dialogue really matters!). He’s buddy-buddy with the local sheriff (character actor and stuntman Fred Graham who had many un-credited film roles) and it’s a good thing! If it weren’t for Chase and his jive talking gang the scaly star of this epic would still be stalking the woods! A grumpy old mine owner (who looks like a tall skinny Lionel Barrymore) thinks Chase is responsible for the disappear-ance of his son but of course the title reptile is really munching locals.
Don sings a couple of songs including the very bad “Laugh Children Laugh”. It’s so bad he sings it twice! A local DJ named Steamroller (real Texas DJ Ken Knox) records him and plays the track at a town sock hop just before old Gila Gills busts in. A hot rod filled with Nitro spells the end for our hero, I mean the monster after it destroys a train and parts of a toy town. There’s also a comic relief town drunk (Shug Fisher) that you should keep an eye on. In a scene of him driving his pick up truck you can glimpse the hand of the director or some other hapless crewmember in the reflection of the windshield!
GGM is no classic even in a bad movie sense but it’s still fun. It was produced in Texas by Western actor (and future TV GUNSMOKE co-star) Ken Curtis who in the same year would also serve in the same capacity on THE KILLER SHREWS which GILA’s director Ray Kellogg would also helm. Curtis would even take a role in that one! Kellogg usually a second unit director and SFX cameraman (and sometimes actor) would later co-direct John Wayne’s reverse magna opus THE GREEN BERETS! Screenplay writer Jay Simms later wrote PANIC IN THE YEAR ZERO and CREATION OF THE HUMANOIDS and many TV shows (including THRILLER and THE MAN FROM UNCLE).
I wonder what happened to Sullivan? His last film credit was in 1962 ‘s PARADISE ALLEY. Did he ever make records? The guy was in a Jerry Warren movie; he must have a nice story to tell. Don if you’re out there the public wants your story. Hey! Even Arch Hall Jr. has re-surfaced!
Anyway, like The Giant Gila Monster, I’m gone daddio!
Thanks for reading!
