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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No Dragons Though

VALLEY OF THE DRAGONS-1961-In 1881, 2 guys are going to have a duel. Hector Sevadac (Cesare Danova), Frenchman  and Michael Denning (Sean McClory), from Ireland are starting their paces when a comet seems to sweep across Earth. At first they think civilization has been destroyed and they are the last survivors. They battle comical looking cavemen and a large phony spider. They also encounter the overused footage of the Earth cracking open and little lizards made up to look like dinosaurs from ONE MILLION BC. When night finally falls and they look up in the sky and see the planet Earth they realize the truth. They have in fact been swept up on the passing comet! 

The duo save each others life and forget their duel and become friends. After much exploring they come upon a tribe of human inhabitants but the group runs away. Eventually Hector is found by Deena (Joan Staley), a blonde haired female of a local tribe. He tries to teach her English (shouldn't he had tried to teach her French?) and of course winds up kissing her.  Meanwhile Michael falls in with another tribe and has his own female problems in the form of cave brunette Nateeta (Danielle De Metz) and Anoka (Mike Lane), her cave guy. He causes trouble but Michael uses a sling-shot to keep him in line.

Later after Hector and Deena frolic (too long) in an underwater love scene they wander into a cave and are attacked by creatures that look suspiciously like The Morlocks (George Pal's version of THE TIME MACHINE was made the year before). Deena escapes the Morlock wannabes but is captured by another tribe. Fortunately it's the tribe Michael has been hanging with.  Just when it seems as if the two tribes are going to fight the nearby volcano erupts more stock footage. When the smoke clears everyone gets together to help rescue some survivors trapped in a cave. Hector creates gunpowder and makes a bomb to destroy the giant lizard guarding the cave! Everyone lives happily ever after on the prehistoric comet. 

VALLEY is a very low budget production with lots of stock footage, super-imposed monsters and jungle and cave scenes obviously filmed in a studio. The biggest surprise though is a cameo appearance by Japan's Rhodan! Yes, a flying creature shown quickly several times is none other than Godzilla's old pal!

Perhaps it shouldn't  be that much of a surprise as one of VALLEY's producers was Al Zimbalist, the man behind ROBOT MONSTER!

Director Edward Bernds made this between THE RETURN OF THE FLY and THE THREE STOOGES MEET HERCULES. Bernds worked a lot with The Stooges and The Bowery Boys as well. He died in 2000 at the age of 94.  

VALLEY is based on the Jules Verne story "Career Of a Comet".

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