ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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A good cast and excellent special effects do a great deal to make up for the low budget of this Warner Brothers film which was shot in Mexico.

The giant creatures are done with stop-motion animation by Willis O'Brien and his talented protégé,, Pete Peterson.





Mara Corday ("Tarantula", "The Giant Claw", Playboy's Miss October 1958) stars with Richard Denning ("The Creature from the Black Lagoon").







In addition to several animated scorpions there's a spider, a giant worm with claws, and other crawly monsters which inhabit a huge cave into which Denning descends in a diving bell.







In one fantastic scene, a group of giant scorpions ambush a train, snatch the passengers out with their pinchers, and eat them!





During the climactic battle with one giant scorpion in Mexico City (which takes place at night in a sports stadium) the scorpion is just a featureless black silhouette in several scenes, a "traveling matte" which lacks the superimposed image of the animated monster. (I didn't bother to include any of those shots because . . . well, I hate 'em. I just used the good stuff. )







The producers ran out of money before O'Brien could process the shots and add the actual image of the scorpion! Directed by Edward Ludwig.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

[Bud Brewster]

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You're dead on target with both questions, Wayne. I've heard that the title was a halfhearted attempt to legitimize the badly flawed scenes with the scorpion silhouette. And all the scenes of the scorpion in the city were, I'm sure, darkened to reduce the obvious fact that the FX shots were incomplete.

Notice that during those scenes in the city, a "laboratory zoom" sweeps in on the scorpion in the street every time it's shown, cutting the fleeing mob at the bottom of the frame out of the picture because it just emphasized the huge flaw in the shot.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[scotpens]

[Krel]

The creatures in the underground caverns were reused from "King Kong", from the deled scene after the sailors had been dumped from the log.

David.

[Bud Brewster]

[Bud Brewster]

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!
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-World's Deadliest Scorpion? | National Geographic


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Always enjoyed this 50s sci-fi monster film with the marvelous stop-motion animation being done by the legendary Willis 'Obie' O'Brien & Pete Peterson.

The writing never reaches the superb level of "Them!" by any means, but its a serviceable enough story with a fine cast.

And who knew scorpions were such droolers?

I really liked the ranch interior we see here, which appeared to be an actual place rather than a set.

[Bud Brewster]

[Bogmeister]

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_________________ The Black Scorpion Trailer

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Giant scorpions invade Mexico, threatening stars Richard Denning & Mara Corday (above), with stop-motion FX by legend Willis O'Brien (best known for King Kong/1933).



This has some slow spots but then there's that central sequence of the two guys (including star Denning) descending into the cavern from hell. Besides the visuals of the giant creatures, the entire sequence is informed by that constant howling of the monsters.

A little kid has stowed away "to help" and ends up getting chased by some sandtrap spider-thing. The whole sequence is quite nightmarish and very well done. Denning is a little stiff and too cool here; halfway down, the two men spot a giant scorpion in the cavern wall; Denning doesn't even blink. Time to take a photo; OK, proceed. Giant scorpions don't seem to impress Denning's character one iota.



______ The Black Scorpion - Underground Battle


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____________ The Black Scorpion - Stadium Battle


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Later on, there are the scenes with the derailed train and all the passengers getting chased by the scorpions. Again, there's a nightmarish tone to these scenes which elevate this above the average big monster picture of the fifties. Willis O'Brien — ya done did it again. I agree, though, there a couple close-ups of the giant scorpions(s) — drooling — which could have used some trimming. In the plot, there are a bunch of giant scorpions in Mexico but, towards the end, there's just the largest one, maddened by hunger or something. A wild ending.

BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10





On the DVD, there's a very intriguing special feature - test footage of 2 sequences. The first is named 'Las Vegas Monster' and is a long one featuring what looks like an enlarged, mutated gibbon trying to get into a shack. Then a truck arrives and the monster attacks the truck. Then the thing attacks a helicopter - all very well done and surprisingly smooth. The 2nd one is called 'Beetlemen Test Footage' and is shorter, but in color. This footage was done by Pete Peterson, the assistant to O'Brien at the time. The footage was discovered in a trunk of Peterson's after his death in the 1960's.

~ Ignore the title on the thumbnail below.

_______________ The Black Scorpion - Trailer


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BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[Bud Brewster]

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Based on the post Bogmeister made for this movie, he likes it more than I do. It occurred to me while reading it that the reason for my lack of enthusiasm is that the animation in this movie just created monsters . . . whereas Harryhausen's animation often created characters.

I realize that even Ray couldn't have done much with scorpions, but maybe that's why he rarely did insects. However, even the bee and the crab from Mysterious Island moved with an elegance that seemed more appealing than the scorpions in this movie.

And the dinosaur in The Giant Behemoth doesn't hold a candle to the animation in Beast from 20,000 Thousand Fathoms.

Other than King Kong, Willis O'Brien never seemed to have a chance to do the kind of stop motion that Ray did.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

In Clash of the Titans, RH's final film he created giant scorpions battle the hero and his companions.

Ray was blessed by having producer Charles Schneer as his partner and advocate. Together they were able to produce many fine stop~motion animated movies.

Sadly, Obie never had that lasting professional relationship over the course of his career.

[Bud Brewster]

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Sadly, Clash of the Titans has never felt like a Harryhausen movie to me, despite some great work by Ray.

He had other animators helping him, but I can't seem to find specific information about who animated which creatures. I seem to remember that Pegasus was not done by Ray, by I could be wrong.

For me, everything after Jason and the Argonauts was a let down.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Jim Danforth & Steve Archer were hired to assist Ray on COTT. Ray admired both men's stop~animation skills but prefers to do all of the animation on his productions.

Steve did several vulture flying sequences.

Jim did the Pegasus flying sequences & Dioskilos.

[Pow]

Jason and The Argonauts clearly was Ray's finest production in both story and animation,Bud.

However, I think his Mysterious Island was also a worthy effort with his usual superb animation along with a strong script and cast.

First Men in the Moon was also an entertaining film. Not as much stop~motion animation as I like to see.The story is fun and the moon city sets are terrific.

Valley of Gwangi has the most stop~motion sequences of any of Ray's movies. Being a western fan as well as a sci~fi fan, I quite enjoyed this movie.