Mr. Big's Ants

 

 (themoviedatabase)

EMPIRE OF THE ANTS-1977-After an introduction that says ants are as smart as men, real estate scammer Marilyn (Joan Collins) takes a bunch of prospective suckers on a yacht piloted by Capt. Stokey (Robert Lansing). Unfortunately, her swampland is overrun by ants who have been contaminated by radioactivity. Group includes John David Carson (THE SAVAGE IS LOOSE (1974), familiar TV actress Jacqueline Scott, Pamela Shoop (later in HALLOWEEN 2 (1981)), Robert Pine (who was a regular on the TV show “Chips” at the time), Irene Tedrow (another familiar TV actress), familiar TV actor Harry Holcombe and Brooke Palance (daughter of Jack). The ants grow very big and start killing. After munching and menacing, the survivors meet a weird couple who call the sheriff (Albert Salmi). It turns a nearby town has been enslaved by the ants and hypnotized by their queen. Some flares and a gasoline truck help put an end to the ant party. 

Who else but director Burt I. Gordon would have made a modern-day movie about giant ants and then say it was based on a novel by HG Wells? (he did the same thing earlier with FOOD OF THE GODS in1965) The SFX aren't so good but the strange turn the story takes is kind of surprising. Salmi was in Mr. B.I.G.'s next film BURNED AT THE STAKE in 1982. Gordon died in 2023 at the age of 100!

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Corman's Swamp

 

SWAMP DIAMONDS-1956-In New Orleans during Mardi Gras, a female police Lt. Lee Hampton (Carole Mathews) poses as a hardened criminal to infiltrate The Nardo gang or at least the women serving life sentences for a jewelry robbery their men were executed for. Their leader is Josie Nardo (Marie Windsor) plus the flirty Billie (Jill Jarym) and the trigger happy high strung Vera (Beverly Garland). Hampton plans their escape and they head for a Bayou swamp to get their stash. When their boat springs a leak they confiscate a boat carrying oil speculator Bob (Mike Connors) and his dumb girlfriend Marie (Susan Cummings). Their guide is killed and the gang for some reason take the pair hostage. The women argue, fight, lust after Bob and verbally abuse Marie who tries to sell out Bob and winds up alligator bait when she tries to escape. They find the diamonds and get happy but Vera steals the diamonds (and Bob). When the remaining members go after her she tries to ambush them but is killed. Hampton over powers the remaining two and rescues Bob (who has no idea she's undercover) just as the police arrive. Ed Nelson (as a police officer) and Jonathan Haze (as a pickpocket) have small roles at the beginning of the film. 

Also known as SWAMP WOMEN, this kind of crazy in color women out of prison movie was made by Roger Corman a year after his first science fiction film (and third movie) THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED (also with Connors). The same year he also made IT CONQUERED THE WORLD and two westerns GUNSLINGER (also with Garland) and OKLAHOMA WOMAN. Parts of it are fairly improbable but it's still fun with Beverly Garland giving a good performance as the ruthless Vera.

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Filmed On The Bayou

BAYOU-1957- Hi-jinx in the Cajun swamps as crab fisherperson Maria (Lita Milan) is ogled by pervert store owner Ulysses (Timothy Carey; bizarre as usual) while NY architect Martin Davis (Peter Graves; also in Bert I. Gordon's THE BEGINING OF THE END the same year) tries to win a contract to build a “civic auditorium”. His contractor friend (Douglas Fowley) gets him an interview with the city commissioner but Murphy (who calls Cajuns “animals”), his rival for the job embarrass him. Maria's father Emil (also played by Fowley though he doesn't get credit for the dual roles) has no more credit at Ulysses' store but U urges dad to put the hard sell on his daughter and make Maria attend a dance with him. After Davis almost runs Maria down in his speed boat, Ulysses does his greasy best to put the moves on her but when she resists he tries to rape her. Fortunately her father comes home and U scrams. Maria and Davis hook up at a bar and she shows him around the carnival. Ulysses beats Davis in a “pirogue race” and gives Davis a hard time. When Davis backs down from fighting everyone thinks he has no guts. Maria though is stuck on him and Ulysses starts trouble when they go for a boat ride. 

At a wedding “shivaree” Ulysses does a wild dance where he looks like he's being tortured. Again he challenges Davis to a fight but again the future MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE star backs down. When a storm hits, the two lovers decide to elope but dad is killed. After his funeral Davis and Ulysses have their fight and Davis whips his ass. Everyone (even his abused little pal Bos, played by Jonathan Haze) deserts Ulysses. Ed Nelson is also in the cast. 

Director Harold Daniels was later one of the credited directors of HOUSE OF BLACK DEATH. This nonsense, full of bad Cajun accents, played for years on the drive-in circuit under the title POOR WHITE TRASH.

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Just In Time For Halloween

THE MAD MONSTER-1942-Dr. Lorenzo Cameron (the great George Zucco) talks to a caged wolf in his lab then turns a cheerful, dimwitted farm hand named Pedro (Glenn Strange) into a scary snarling wolf-man (in overalls). He then addresses an imaginary panel of doctors who ridiculed him and banished his ass from his chair at a university. They didn't like his idea of creating an army of wolf-men to fight wars. Cameron vows revenges.  Pedro is very friendly especially toward the mad doctor's daughter Lenora (Ann Nagel). "It must be great to be educated", Pedro says to the doc. Cameron later lets Pedro the wolf wander the foggy swamp. Although Cameron wants to use the monster to get revenge on his former colleagues the wolf monster's first victim is a little girl. Cameron gets ready to visit and execute his first victim Prof. Blaine (Robert Strange). Meanwhile Lenora's reporter boyfriend Tom (top billed Johnny Downs) talks to Blaine about the possibility of a giant lizard being the murderer. Later after a long scene leading up to the killing of Blaine, Pedro transforms without the aid of the doctor's formula. Tom comes by looking for a story but the doctor turns him away. Later he tricks another doctor into taking a drive with Pedro just as Tom has organized a small hunting party, Then Lenora snoops around her dad's lab she runs smack into the wolf man. Amid a fire, creation turns against creator and a fire destroys everything.

Despite being made by PRC, the lowest of the low budget studios, THE MAD MONSTER has it's moments. The highlight is George Zucco's performance as the totally rational, totally mad Dr. Cameron. He really loses it at times. Zucco made appearances in many bigger budgeted Hollywood films but spend a lot of time at places like PRC and would go on to make a few more for the company like the vampire tinged DEAD MEN WALK the next year. Glenn Strange is ok as the unwitting pawn in his employer's cruel experiments and as the wolf-man he's downright terrifying! Especially when he's wandering through the foggy swamp. Ann Nagel had previously been a successful contract player at Warner Bros. but her career took a nosedive after her marriage to actor Ross Alexander. She later had un-credited roles in MIGHTY JOE JOE and the excellent low budget film noir ARMORED CAR ROBBERY. Johnny Downs was once a member of "Our Gang". Henry Hall & Mae Busch also have  small roles.

This is by far one of the best made movies by super speedy Sam Newfield who made a staggering 20 movies in 1942 (some times using pseudonyms)!

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The Creature From The Black Lagoon

THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON-1954-This “creature classic” from Universal-International (originally filmed in 3-D) takes place in the Upper Amazon (after a brief intro on how the world began) where the fossilized remains of an over sized claw are found. Two research-ers, David Reed (Richard Carlson), a se-rious level headed science guy and Mark Williams (Richard Denning), a crabby hard nose who's more concerned with financial success, head an expedition to check out the find. They bring along Reed's fiancee Kay (Julie Adams) too. Nestor Paiva is Lucas, the guy who steers their “barge”. Whit Bissell is Dr. Thompson, another victim, I mean researcher. Little do they suspect that the creature who's remains they are looking for is still alive and has killed two local native helpers. 

Their first dig doesn't turn out so good so Reed has a plan to visit the uncharted “Black Lagoon”. After only seeing a scaly claw for a few scenes, The Creature finally emerges when Reed and Williams go scuba diving. When Kay goes for a swim, the creature checks her out. On another scuba dive, the duo have a closer encounter with “the gill man” where Williams spears him. Later, after it's obvious his intentions lay with Kay, they use a native drug to capture him and put him in a bam-boo cage. That doesn't last long and he breaks out and does some plastic surgery on Thompson. When they try to leave the creature blocks their path. In their efforts to clear a path Williams is killed. Just when it looks like they'll escape the creature grabs Kay and takes her back to his pad, I mean cave. Before he can do in Reed the Gill Man dies in a hail of bullets...or does he? 

TCFTBL is one of the great monster movies of the 1950's. The creature itself deserves to be right up there with all the other “famous monsters” like Frankenstein & Dracula.

The year before this director Jack Arnold made another movie in 3-D the Sci-Fi themed IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (also starring Carlson). Producer William Alland was a former member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theater. He played the reporter trying to find out the meaning of “rosebud” in CITIZEN KANE. He'd also produced IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE and produced later Arnold efforts including the sequel THE REVENGE OF THE CREATURE, TARANTULA and THE SPACE CHILDREN. Co-screenwriter Harry Essex had penned IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE and later worked a lot in TV. In 1971 he made his own version of an undersea creature, the whacked out OCTO-MAN. Ricou Browning portrayed the creature underwater, while Ben Chapman was the creature on land. The same year as CREATURE star Carlson directed his own Sci-Fi movie RIDER TO THE STARS. There's a also a memorable musical score by the un-credited trio of Hans Salter, Herman Stein and Henry Mancini.

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Creature

CREATURE-2011-Three obnoxious couples heading for New Orleans take a detour and wind up being terrorized by some insane hillbillies while a swamp creature (who was once a man) prowls around killing. It's later revealed that one of the guys on the road trip is actually part of clan and is leading the others to a spot so the inbred crackers can perform a blood sacrifice. This is sort of a rip-off of Rob Zombie's HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES and in the movie's only highlight Sid Haig plays a character similar to his "Capt. Spauding" in 1000!

There's nudity and gore but there's also a lot of yelling and the ending is ridiculous. It's the only movie (so far) directed by Fred Andrews, a TV production designer.

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Before Craven's Nightmare

SWAMP THING-1982-This adaptation of the DC comics character takes place in “the unexplored reaches of an un-mapped swamp”. Adrienne Barbeau (who was in a segment of George Romero’s CREEPSHOW the same year) is Cable some kind of government liaison assigned to the secret lab of Dr. Alec Holland (Ray Wise) who’s experiments involve recombinant DNA and making plants more aggressive. Unfortunately a thought to be deceased evil genius Arcane (over acting Louis Jordan) is alive and takes over the compound. Holland is accidentally doused with is own rejuvenation formula and goes up in flames. He’s reborn however as a big green galoot (Dick Durock) who’s very strong, impervious to bullets and can bring people back to life! Cable escapes into the swamp and gets help from a young black kid named Jude (Reggie Batts).

While it’s certainly no classic SWAMP THING is ok especially for a comic book adaptation. Most of the SFX are pretty cheesy. The monster Arcane turns into at the end for the final battle is horrible and many of the scenes seem all to deliberately to be spotlighting Barbeau’s breasts but it is cool to see Nicolas Worth and David Hess (as Arcane’s lead henchmen) have decent speaking roles!

Writer/director Wes Craven was still 2 years away from NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and he still had his roots planted in low budget exploitation.

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Eaten Alive!

EATEN ALIVE-1977-This was director Tobe Hooper’s follow up movie after THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. It was written by the same screenwriter, Kim Henkel and features one of it‘s stars. It didn’t get too wide of a release and was not nearly as well known as it’s predecessor. The first scene features Robert Englund as a john wanting anal sex. Not the best way to start off a movie…

Neville Brand stars a Jed, a mumbling drug addict with a fake leg who owns a motel/crocodile farm. After his attempted rape of a runaway whore (Crystin Sinclair) fails, he stabs her with a rake and feeds her to his “crocs”. A weird couple (William Finley and Marilyn Burns) and their daughter stay in a room after their dog is eaten. They argue a lot and act strange. After Jed kills the father and ties the mother to a bed he terrorizes the daughter with a scythe (she hides under the house to escape him). Meanwhile Mel Ferrer searches for his missing daughter (the first victim) and a hick sheriff (Stuart Whitman) investigates. Carolyn Jones is almost unrecognizable as Miss Matty, the owner of the local whorehouse. Jed feels nearly everyone to his crocs.

Despite Brand’s manic performance and a pretty whacked out climax EATEN ALIVE it isn’t that good! It’s drawn out and cheap looking but the excellent lighting and music help.

After this Hooper’s career kind of took an unfortunate nosedive, as he was replaced on two movies (THE DARK and VENOM) and although he has the director’s credit on POLTERGEIST it’s considered that Steven Spielberg directed most of it. He did manage to make a decent TV adaptation of Stephen King’s ’SALEM’S LOT but this was followed by disappointing features like THE FUNHOUSE, LIFEFORCE, a remake of INVADERS FROM MARS and finally TCSM-2. Lately he’s done TV episodes and another remake, THE TOOLBOX MURDERS. As for this writing he’s suppose direct a version of another King novel, FROM A BUICK 8.

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