ALL SCI-FI

[Gord Green]

The interactions between the army and the giant spider were some of the best, scariest monster scenes in 50's cinema, rivaling even the magnificent FORBIDDEN PLANET Krell Id Manifestation battle scenes.

EVERTHING in this film that preceeded that concluding battle was just a "set-up" for those great scenes. They were very realistic to my young mind that was impervious to the fact that it was just a cinematic trick. I found it so much more realistic than the effects in THEM and to this day makes me look at spiders with a second glance!

[Bud Brewster]

[Gord Green]

The only point is that to a ten year old's imagination the TARANTULA conclusion was cool as hell.

Remember, I saw FORBIDDEN PLANET the first time from the back seat of my families Chevy BelAire looking through a streaky windshield while TARANTULA was first seen from the third row of a huge screen theater during a Saturday afternoon fun time with a bunch of my raucous pals!

Environment can affect perceptions.

Watching it now I very much can discern the vast chasm of quality. Of course the ID monster is the superior effect, but the "bombing run" and the destruction of a very real scary spider was very effective to a ten year old's imagination! Besides, heck, I experienced spiders every day. There were very few "Monsters of the Id" prowling around our neighborhood!

The same thing was true about KILLERS FROM SPACE. I distinctly remember my father taking me to see it at the theater and finding the "ping-pong" eyed aliens absolutely frightening. Later I found them ludicrous and the giant bug effects a joke.

[Bud Brewster]

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Oh, now I understand!

Your talking about the first time you saw each film, the age you were when it happened, and the circumstances which surrounded each events.

I forget which All Sci-Fi member said it years ago, but he mentioned that when he say Forbidden Planet for the first time as a kid, he actually felt disappointed by the ID monster!

For most of the movie it was invisible, and then when it finally appeared it was just a cartoon outline! And I'll confess I don't actually have any clear memories of my first viewing of Forbidden Planet in 1956, other than the fact that I liked it!

So, I guess wasn't too dazzled by it, eh?

Finally, I should point out that in my post above I did say the FX in Tarantula are impressive, and the burning spider scene looks absolutely real!

Strangely enough, just two years after Forbidden Planet, in 1958, I saw The Space Children at the Roosevelt Drive-in — but I wasn't able to see it again until 1986, twenty-eight years later! It was simply never shown on TV in all those years.

And yet my original memories of my first viewing were remarkably detailed. That movie really dazzled me!

It might have been Wayne (orzel-w) who was disappointed with FP's invisible monster, and he also made a post a while back to say that when he finally saw The Space Children he found it so boring there was absolutely nothing about it he felt like discussing!

Guess some folks are hard to impress, eh?
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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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I stand corrected, sir.
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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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Take heed, take heed . . . a scientist named Deemer (Leo G. Carroll) invents a serum to stimulate tissue growth via glandular activity; his lab is in the middle of the desert. Of course, his tests are on lab animals — one of these is a tarantula.

It doesn't work well on humans — Deemer's assistant is proof of this; humans just get deformed and insane — and then die. When I first watched this, it was this affect on humans that really creeped me out, not the giant arachnid. Mara Corday plays Deemer's new assistant — she gets stuck in a worsening nightmarish situation: Deemer gradually gets sick and twisted, while the giant spider eventually returns to its place of rebirth . . . can John Agar save her?

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I last watched this again as part of a recently-released DVD set: The CLASSIC SCI-FI ULTIMATE COLLECTION from Universal. I'd have to give the edge to THEM! as far as the best giant bug movie of the fifties — THEM! expanded in its 2nd half into a threat of worldwide proportions and there just seemed to be a lot more going on (also, James Whitmore is one of the best actors around, period, and Agar is just pretty good).

But, TARANTULA may very well be the 2nd best of that decade.

Directed by Jack Arnold, who did a few of the best of these in the fifties.



I will mention that this film has at least one truly great scene: at about the 70-minute mark, after the great beastie destroys Deemer's house and pursues the characters played by Agar & Corday, who flee in an automobile.

There's a very short pause in the action as Agar & Corday meet the approaching Sheriff's dept. on the road, in the middle of the desert. Then, the huge Tarantula appears from behind a hill in the distance.

"Jumpin' Jupiter!" the Sheriff exclaims, clearly astounded.

The Tarantula just sits there for a few moments, as if surveying the entire valley (its menu), a giant black beast perched on top of a hill. The Sheriff, his deputies, Agar & Corday just stare up in awe for a moment. The music is great here and it's a fantastic few moments.

BoG's Score: 7 out of 10

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[Phantom]

This was the first big bug movie I ever saw, in early 1956, and it has remained my favorite all these years. When Leo G. Carroll hopped out of bed as the spider was bringing down the house, I nearly hopped out of my shoes.




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What Is Essential Is Invisible

[Krel]

Tarantulas are extremely dangerous...And messy.

My Sister lives in Scottsdale AZ, and at a certain time of the year, tarantulas migrate. Herds of tarantulas head off, to where? I have absolutely no idea. But as they cross the highways that cross their migration path, they get flattened by the dozens. So many get mushed that the highway gets extremely slippery, and it causes vehicle accidents as the cars and trucks slide out of control on the tarantula puree.

So see? They can be extremely dangerous...And messy.

David.

[Maurice]

[Bud Brewster]

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There's nothing more determined than a horny tarantula! That explains why the big one in this movie attacked the house in which Miss Mara Corday was located, during the . . . . exciting climax!

No pun intended . . .

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

[Eadie]

[Bud Brewster]

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Forgive me, but a Tarantula vs Fly movie in the 1950s doesn't seem like the best idea for the studios.

But a Tarantula vs Mantis sequel to those two movies makes my heart go bumpy-bump!

Both of those creatures are viscous predators, and if these two were forced to compete for an abundant food source in the Midwest, the battle between them would be colossal!

Imagine a huge cattle drive across Arizona. But these two giant creatures attack the herd on the same day! The brave cowhands do there best to repel these hideous invaders with six guns, rifles, and lassos — buy their efforts would be fruitless!

Suddenly the U.S. Army arrives in helicopters and jeeps, and they fight shoulder-to-shoulder with the cowboys to repel these two hideous creatures!

Just when it looks as if the battle is lost, the Air Force shows up to add their support!

But the giant mantis takes to the air and gives our valiant Fly Boys a taste of nature's own version of what she can do when her life forms are challenged for air supremacy!

How this all comes out is up to you guys. I've described the conflict . . . now you folks can tell us about the outcome!
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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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Thinking Outside the "Plot"!
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Gord Green, Phantom, and I have plans to watch Tarantula this evening in All Sci-Fi's Chatzy room, I got to thinking about a sequel.

I looked up info on the manner in which tarantulas reproduce and found this.
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Females deposit 50 to 2,000 eggs, depending on the species, in a silken egg sac and guard it for six to eight weeks. During this time, the females stay very close to the egg sacs and become more aggressive. Within most species, the females turn the egg sac often, which is called brooding.

This keeps the eggs from deforming due to sitting in one position too long. The young spiderlings remain in the nest for some time after hatching, where they live off the remains of their yolk sacs before dispersing.
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So, what does that have to do with this fine old 1955 movie?

Good question.

The tarantula escaped from Leo G. Carroll's lab during the fire and continue to grow, long after it had been fed the miraculous "nutrient" that Carroll had developed. Therefore, the nutrient didn't just nourish the lab specimens, it altered they're metabolism so that they grew much faster and larger than normal.

We don't know if the tarantula was male or female, but if Carroll wanted to find out if the offspring of his specimens would be born with altered metabolisms, he would have used females (at least in some cases) and artificially inseminated them to see if the offspring grew faster, like their parents did.





If that's true, then the tarantula might have been gestating at least 50 eggs — and possible 2,000! She may have walked out the door of the burning lab and then laid them in an egg sack out in the desert.

Notice in the picture below that she's trailing strands of webbing as she walks, indicating that she's ready, willing, and able to spin an egg sack when she lays the eggs!





Then again, she may have laid them in her cage before the fire, and Carroll removed the egg sack to store it in the lab somewhere. If that's the case, Momma Tarantula is headed out the door in search of those missing eggs she placed in an egg sack before Carroll kidnapped them!

The other lab animals in the wire cages were killed in the fire, but the egg sack would have been kept in a sealed container to prevent them from hatching and escaping — which meant they might have been protected from the heat and smoke.

I'm sure you see where I'm going with this. If the baby spiders were still somewhere in the fire-damaged lab, that would explain why Momma came back to the house and started tearing it apart!






Throughout the movie she roamed around the countryside, gobbling up the cattle and the farmers while she desperately searched for her kids. When she finally managed to find her way back to the house, she somehow sensed that her young'uns were there, so she ripped up the joint, determined to rescue her brood.

Perhaps she actually found the container and ripped it open. Or she may have just broken it open accidentally during her destructive rampage, thus releasing the ghastly horde of crawling creatures.

Then again, maybe they'd already hatched and started growing rapidly, eating each other to survive until they they got big enough to break open the container and escape!

Either way, we now have a great situation for a sequel! An army of oversized, rapidly growing tarantulas, all hungry as hell and not picky about what (or who) they eat!

And this unmade, imaginary sequel could start just minutes after the first film ends. When Clint Eastwood finished frying the tarantula, he'd head back out across the desert.





Flying low he sees a strange site. At the edge of a herd of cattle, he spots several steers almost engulfed in black shapes while the poor animals desperately flee from hundreds more of the dog-size monsters, hot on their heels!

Clint circles around to give the situation a closer look . . . and he quickly realizes what this might mean. He immediately calls his base.





"Red Dog 9 to base . . . I think we've got a new problem."

So, guys, where would this story go from here? Red Dog 9 is plum out of napalm, and the herds of both spiders and cattle are scattering fast.

I think this would make a great Golden Age sc-fi movie.

By the way, I found this ironic trivia item on IMDB.
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Mara Corday (Stephanie "Steve" Clayton) was the lead female in this movie, with Clint Eastwood appearing briefly at the end as Jet Squadron Leader. But in her last four movies, Clint Eastwood was the star and she had small brief roles.
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The four movies — and the roles Miss Corday played — are these.

The Rookie (1990)
Interrogator #2

Pink Cadillac (1989)
Stick Lady

Sudden Impact (1983)
Loretta - Coffee Shop Waitress

The Gauntlet (1977)
Jail Matron
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Another reason why this is interesting is that Miss Corday's 44 screen appearances included 40 movies and TV shows which occurred while she was still young and beautiful (1951 to 1961). Then she gave up acting for sixteen years and devoted herself to her husband (actor Richard Long from The Big Valley) and their children.

Mr. Long passed away in 1977.

Between 1977 and 1990 she got four small roles in movies that starred Clint Eastwood, because (according to her IMDB bio) he was her friend.
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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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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.