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Tarantula (1955)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 27, 2021 4:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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In the Forbidden Planet (<— link) thread Krel commented on the fact that in states like Arizona there are mass migrations of tarantulas which cross the roads — so many that they cause automobile accidents!

Here's how he described it.


Krel wrote:
I believe that I may have written about this in another thread, but tarantulas can be VERY dangerous in Arizona. Every year there is a mass tarantula migration, which crosses roads and highways. The roads get so slick with crushed tarantulas that there are many motor vehicle accidents, some of which are very serious or even fatal. Shocked

Fortunately this does not happen in the area where my sister lives. I know, because I've asked. Laughing

I don't have arachnophobia, but I would hate to live in the migration area where my house would be surrounded by thousands of tarantulas as they moved through my yard and around my home. It would be too close to a real life "Kindom of the Spiders". Laughing

By God, what a great idea for a classic 1950s science fiction movie! Very Happy

Imagine what would happen if atomic radiation enlarged the tarantula population just before this migration, and the giant tarantulas came thundering across the Arizona landscape like a herd of buffalo! Shocked

According to a site I found which is devoted to Tarantula Migration, here's why the tarantulas head out in droves.
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Each summer, with the start of the monsoon season in June, thousands of male tarantulas leave their burrows and venture out, looking for females.
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Okay, so we have herds of horny arachnids heading for the Sonoran Desert in Arizona.

And if Hollywood had made a movie about the giant versions of these critters, they'd have themselves a blockbuster 1950s film!

I mean, screw those silly ants in Them and their boring urge to start a new colony! This is a mob of gigantic, sex-crazed spiders who cross busy highways and risk collisions with hundreds of cars and dozens of sixteen-wheelers, just to reach their eight-legged sweethearts! Shocked

These determined lovers will stomp through towns, crash through buildings, march down main streets, and crawl over houses to reach their goal in the Sonoran Desert in the southern third of the state.






Imagine the military bravely battling a stampeding herd of giant spiders, marching though Arizona communities, determined to reach their mating area!

And these hairy Romeos will get hungry along the way when they encounter beefy American GI's who block their path to true love. They won't hesitate to gobble up a few morsels of Grade A Midwestern corn-fed "beefcake"!

How this colossal battle ends is a mystery to me, so I'll leave it to you guys to concoct the conclusion of this unmade 1950s extravaganza!

Put your brains to work, folks, and tell us how this fantasy version of a 1950s sci-fi classic concludes!
Cool
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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Wed Nov 24, 2021 11:26 am; edited 1 time in total
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 27, 2021 6:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

And leave us not forget Mara's co-starring role in the classic Willis O'Brien movie "Black Scorpion."

Wish "Tarantula" had also been a stop-motion animated giant creature.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 24, 2021 2:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
Wish "Tarantula" had also been a stop-motion animated giant creature.

Forgive me, Mike, but as much as I love stop motion, I really think the way the tarantula was presented in this movie was much more effective than a stop motion one would have been.

All Harryhausen could have done was endeavor to make the animation look just as real as a slow-moving spider — and smooth, slow animation is not only tough to do, it's very time consuming. And not very exciting. Sad

With that in mind, if a movie about a horde of horse-sized spiders marching across the desert was done with animation, it would require a team of animators, all trying to produce results that imitated the real thing.

As for the imaginary sequel (which we might call Army of Arachnids), after pondering what new and unexpected wrinkle we could add to this story, if occurred to me that perhaps these creatures aren't just bigger . . . they're smarter!

That's not an original idea, of course, because ants are incredible "team players", and what I'm suggesting is that these spiders act more like ants. When the military tries eradicate them, the spiders defend themselves in ways that suggest a high degree of instinctive cooperation.

Remember, they're all the offspring of the giant spider whose physiology was drastically altered by the "nutrient" that Leo G. Carroll fed her.

Naturally I'm not suggesting that the individual spiders have 130 IQs. Besides, the idea that they have the sort of instincts for cooperation which ants have is much creepier — especially when each spider is about the size of a Toyota Camry!

One element in this story should be the fact that the spiders will die shortly after they mate. That being the case, the military would be told by the arachnologists that the giant spiders will try to find mates when they get to the Comanche National Grassland south of La Junta, Colorado, where many female spiders are found in their burrows, waiting for male partners.

Unfortunately, the normal spiders can't mate with the Big Boys, so there's no danger that a new generation of giant tarantulas will be produced.

Or . . . is there!? Shocked

I haven't figured out yet what else happens in the story.

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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 24, 2021 11:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Actually, except for some of the matte lines, this was not a bad special effect effort!

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2021 1:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Agreed! Cool

By the way, the idea of a herd of tarantulas that act like an ant colony has some really interesting possibilities.

Ants can immobilize their prey with stings, and tarantulas do the same thing. The difference is that ants then work as a team to take their prey back to the ant colony, whereas a lone tarantula simply devours the prey on the spot.

So, what would "organized spiders" do with stunned prey — like human beings?

Creepy thought, eh? Shocked

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scotpens
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 25, 2021 8:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gord Green wrote:
Actually, except for some of the matte lines, this was not a bad special effect effort!

That, and the fact that the giant tarantula didn't cast a shadow in the bright desert sunlight!
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 26, 2021 11:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Although I'll agree that the special effects aren't perfect, I don't think these minor flaws really prevent anyone from both enjoying and admiring this fine movie. Very Happy

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 14, 2022 2:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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GETTING TO KNOW OUR FAVORITE MONSTERS!
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We love the giant monsters from our favorite sci-fi films, but just how much science and how much fiction is involved in these movies?

I went looking for videos which reminded me of the great educational film we were treated to in Them!, and here's one that fits the bill perfectly!

Enjoy! Very Happy

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________ Giant Tarantula | National Geographic


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 03, 2024 3:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

__________________________________________________

Let's Create a Sequel!
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~ A Question for the Members: Let's assume the Leo G. Carroll's formula for the growth-stimulating nutrient was not lost in the laboratory fire. If that were the case, both the government and private industry would be interested in using it to stimulate the growth rate and size of various animals which are raised as food.

What story ideas would that suggest?

~ Here's what I came up with.: Imagine an experiment being conducted on an Oklahoma farm where the super-nutrient is being tested. Groups of cows, pigs, and chickens are being fed the nutrient — and the place is stated to look like something out of Food of the Gods.

A team of scientists are monitoring the growth of the animals as they attempt to modify the formula so that the growth rate can be controlled. Eventually the have cattle that stand twenty feet tall!

But whenever any of the animals continued to grow in spite of a new version of the formula, the animals are destroyed and cremated to prevent the environment from being contaminated by the meat.



__________


However, one evening the large incinerator on the farm breaks down, and several cattle carcasses are left inside the large shed where the dead animals are stored before being cremated.

During the night a pack of wolves get into the shed and dine on one of the cattle carcasses.

Several weeks later, the pack of oversized wolves begin raiding the cattle pens and killing the over-sized animals. This accelerates their growth rate even more, and within a week the wolves in the pack measure eight feet high! Shocked

The unnatural growth rate causes deformities which gives the wolves a monstrous appearance!





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