ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Producer Bert I. Gordon used real grasshoppers to portray his mutated insect monsters, superimposing them (badly) into scenes of battling tanks and army troops.


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When the monster bugs attack the city and start climbing up the buildings, Gordon simply filmed grasshoppers crawling across photographs of skyscrapers! This budget-friendly stroke of genius actually worked pretty well in some scenes, like the ones shown below.


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And the basic concept is worth a compliment. Although radiation is the predictable cause of the insects' growth, they didn't get it from an atomic bomb. The Department of Agriculture dumps radioactive material into the soil to increase the growth rate of crops. Dumb idea for the government agency — but pretty smart of Bert I. Gordon.

The experienced cast includes Peter Graves ("Killers from Space", "Red Planet Mars") as the hero-scientist. The damsel in distress is the fair Miss Peggy Castle.





Co-starring the Grand Old Man of 1950s science fiction, Morris Ankrum, along with another sci-fi alumni, Thomas B. Henry ("Earth versus the Flying Saucers", "20 Million Miles to Earth", others).


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

[Brent Gair]

This movie holds a special place in my home video history.

In 2003, I got my first HDTV. It was 51" TV back in the day when that was a big deal.

The very first movie I watched on my fancy new TV was BEGINNING OF THE END. The DVD was anamorphic widescreen which meant it could take advantage of some of the TV's capabilities. So this old B&W classic was used to christen my initial foray into bigtime home video.

[Bud Brewster]

I can well understand your emotional connection, Brent. The first movie I ever taped on my brand new Sony Betamax was The Mating Season, with Gene Tierney and Thelma Ritter.

I currently have a DVR of it I enjoyed a few months ago, but I couldn't bring myself to delete it. Wasn't sure why . . . until your story made me remember just now.

As for my own feelings about Beginning of the End, it's an interesting mix of good and bad moments. Bert I. Gordon might have made a much better movie if he'd just been able to . . . get the bugs out.

(Forgive me. Couldn't resist.)
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[scotpens]

[Robert (Butch) Day]

[alltare]

BEGINNING OF THE END is my favorite B.I. Gordon film. Cheezy props and all, it's the only B.I.G movie that I can watch all the way through without falling asleep.

[Phantom]

I saw this in '57 on a double bill with The Unearthly (a guilty pleasure, really guilty).

You won't get many positive words about B.I.G. from me, but I have to admire the scene in which a hoard of giant, horny grasshoppers try to mate with a public address system in the middle of Lake Michigan. It's as absurdly hallucinatory as Roy Scheider blowing Jaws out of the water with an oxygen tank.

[orzel-w]

I find it interesting that the poster artist chose to paint the grasshopper in silhouette, making it appear more like a spider. He probably felt like he couldn't properly portray terror in the form of a grasshopper.
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...or not...

WayneO
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[bulldogtrekker]

I have a fondness for this movie, probably because it was shown on TV so much on local TV in the mid '60s.

[MetroPolly]

I have a fondness for this movie since it on MST3K, so I could get through it laughing along with the show.

BTW, Shout Factory is doing a MST marathon to open its Twitch channel, and I think Beginning of the End is on the schedule, but you'll have to check.

[Gord Green]

I love this movie and have since the first time I saw it in the 50's!

Oh, I knew it wasn't possible for insects to grow that big, even with mutations. Their sphireciles couldn't process enough oxygen to sustain them. (Insects WERE bigger during the Carboniferous Period because at the time the O2 percentage of the atmosphere was so high due to the land surface almost 100% coverage by plants pulling in CO2 and pumping out oxygen.)

The special effects, although so cheezy by today's standards, worked for me!

[Bud Brewster]

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The trailer for this enjoyable movie is a classic example of the art form, with great scenes and lot's of the text blurbs that shout things like —

____________________ WHAT CAUSES THE
_____________________ UNBELIEVABLE
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Enjoy, folks!
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_______________ Beginning of the End - trailer


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

[Bud Brewster]

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The idea of going to a drive-in or an indoor theater when I was a kid and seeing some of the co-billed movies I found double-feature newspaper ads for is fun to contemplate.

These two are a fine example!





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

[Bud Brewster]

GETTING TO KNOW OUR FAVORITE MONSTERS!
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Despite the low budget, Bert I. Gordon picked a pretty vicious creature to star in his monster movie, one of three "giant insect/arachnid" movies released in 1957.

The video below demonstrates pretty well just how savage grasshoppers can be!
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______ Swarms Of Locusts - Planet Earth on BBC


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

[Bogmeister]

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___________ Beginning of the End movie trailer


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Mr. B.i.G. continues his quest to show audiences all things really large.

This begins with the standard necking couple in a car at night out in some rural area, but they are rudely interrupted — by what, we dunno. Two state troopers find the wrecked auto. One of them is dispatched to another problem area and finds that an entire town has been wiped out.

The next morning, a persistent female reporter (Peggy Castle) is blocked from entering the area by the national guard. Her investigation soon leads her to a local government agricultural agency led by a scientist played by Peter Graves. He's developed giant-sized vegetables and fruit via radioactivity. The problem, as many of us may guess by this point, is that some kind of insect lifeform may have gotten to these giant tomatoes and strawberries.

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The giant perpetrators are locusts — similar to grasshoppers. Graves later describes them as 8 feet tall and each as strong as 10 men.

Bert Gordon, who handled all the main chores here, including the FX, naturally followed the template of Them! (1954) for some of this. It begins as a mystery. Later, troops hear the noise these insects make, heralding the approach of the giant bugs. The giant bugs can't fly like real locusts, and they move along much like the giant ants.

But Gordon used real locusts for his FX shots, superimposing them over army battle footage and then placing them on photographs of buildings. Some of this works surprisingly well, other shots are embarrassing — it's hit-or-miss.

Later, Graves shows some film of real locusts to the generals in Washington D.C., much like the scene in Them! about real ants. Gordon also got by with showing no FX in crucial scenes. The wrecked town in the first act is not shown — the reporter gapes at what she sees but the audience doesn't see it. But later, we do see wreckage superimposed over her taking photos, which looks like tornado damage.

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Gordon's script is the same hit-or-miss style: some of it is almost documentary-style and professional. But Gordon belabors one trope way too much — the officer in charge of the national guard scoffs at Graves' and Castle's tale of giant locusts. However, even after he's seen the giant creatures, he regards them as a minor threat, ignoring the scientist's warnings.

Then the general in D.C. also treats Graves as if the scientist is brain-damaged, even though they are aware of the threat by this time. Gordon's story also includes a deaf mute character in a brief role — for no apparent reason.

Gordon's skill was at making some of this picture seem bigger than the $250,000 production that it was, such as large crowd scenes in Chicago (shot by a 2nd unit), where the climactic action takes place. It's interesting in that an early scene has Graves remarking on what insects may have been affected by the giant veggies. After locusts, he mentions beetles, a seeming set-up for a sequel.

BoG's Score: 5 out of 10

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____________ MST3K 0517 Beginning Of The End


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BoG
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