ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

IMDB has __ trivia items for this movie. Here’s a few of the ones I found the most interesting, in the blue text.
________________________________

~ Over 200 grasshoppers were used for the film. During the filming, they began to eat one another. By the time the last shots were done, only a dozen were left.

Note from me: We've heard that Hollywood is "dog eat dog". Apparently it's true.

~ The sound that Common True Katydids make is used for the giant grasshoppers.

Note from me: Let's hear it for scientific accuracy!

~ Bert I. Gordon was inspired by Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956), the big movie hit of 1956. That film's biblical plague of locusts became Gordon's plague of giant grasshoppers invading a modern city.

Note from me: Ummm . . . yeah, right. Raise your hand if you believe this.

~ Since he couldn't get the grasshoppers to climb vertically up the side of a model building, Bert I. Gordon placed a photo of a building on a table, had the insects walk across it horizontally and tilted the print to look as if they were crawling up. The producers of Batman (1966) did substantially the same thing with their stars, who comically met the many guest stars who did cameos on the show on the way up.

Note from me: Actually, the grasshoppers crawling on the photographs works pretty well!
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

Let's Create a Sequel!
________________________________

Here's what Wikipedia says about the premise of this movie.

Dr. Ed Wainwright is experimenting with radiation as a means of growing gigantic fruits and vegetables to end world hunger. Wainwright reports that there have been a number of mysterious incidents nearby, and that locusts have eaten all the radioactive wheat stored in a nearby grain silo.

~ A Question for the Members: If this radioactive wheat can trigger accelerated growth in insects, could it do the same to animals which are sometimes fed wheat . . . such as cattle?

~ Here's what I came up with.: After all the locusts have been disposed of, the egghead scientists decide to test the super-wheat on cattle being raised for beef, and on cows which produce milk.

The goal, of course, is to raise oversized cattle with lots of beef on their bones, and king-sized cows that can squirt out a hundred gallons of milk per day!

Normal cows produce six-to-seven gallons a day, so these Mega-Milkers would deliver 14 times as much as a normal one!

Therefore, this story is about a large experimental farm in Montana which is raising a sizable herd of gigantic Angus cattle for their high quality beef and a hundred Guernsey and Jersey cows which crank out enough milk each day to feed everybody in Billings, Mt — the largest city in the state.

In addition to the beef cattle and the milk cows, the farm is also raising a hundred oversized chickens which each lay eggs the size of footballs, and pigs which are the size of ponies!

This large farm is staffed by a combination of experienced farm works and highly skilled scientist. These two groups work together on this important project, hoping to end world hunger — a very worthy goal!

However, the diverse natures of the two groups sometimes cause friction.

The farm workers have great respect for the animals they care for, while the scientist regard them as lab rats in scientific experiments!

The clash between the head scientist and his staff — along with the owner of the farm and his farm hands — create situations similar to those we see in The Thing From Another World.

Add to this the bizarre idea that these humans spend each day working around oversized animals, and this gives the movie a strange flavor similar to Land of the Giants and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

Gentlemen, I've laid out a story idea that presents a plethora of spectacular images — a farm with oversized animals and normal people, some of whom are farmers and others who are scientists.

The possibilities for an exciting conflict to develop are overwhelming! Frankly, I can't decide what to do next with this the idea!

However, one idea I came up with is to have the government decide that the experiment has gotten out of control and might present a threat to mankind! They fear the spread of giant animals, which would wreck the ecology and threaten the population!

With that in mind, the government actually considers completely whipping out the farm!

For that reason, the military isolates the entire area, cutting off all physical accesses to the outside world. This forces the scientist and the farmers to work together and resolve the crisis before the military destroys the farm. Even though they can still communicate with the outside world . . . they can't receive any physical help from them.

The only other plot elements which might be useful here is the fact that large farms tend to have an unwanted population of mice, rats, and cats. However, how these creatures might figure into this story is a subject for further discussions.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Gord Green]

Just imagine....GIANT SQUIRRELS !!!!
_________________
There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

Hmmm . . . interesting suggestion. But do squirrels eat wheat, or do they just gobble up their nuts?
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Krel]

Wherever you have farm animals, you have mice, as well as rats which feed on dropped feed and undigested feed in the manure. Insects feed on the manure, and spiders feed on the insects. You have mosquitoes, fleas, ticks and horseflies that feed on the animals. Insects feed on each other.

The prospects for disaster are practically endless.

David..

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

Good thinking, David!

That would be the reason the government locks down the facility and surrounds the farm with troops, tanks, etc.

I love the idea that a lovely American farm turns into a place which is suddenly overrun by over-sized creatures that threaten to explode onto the countryside and do battle with the military!

The more aggressive animals like the rats would be the first to charge the Army's line of defense when their population explodes and the local food supply begins to dwindle!

The chaos and noise created by the military when the open fire on the swarming rats would terrify the oversized chickens and pigs, who would then panic and flee the area, causing even more chaos from the surrounding tanks and guns.

With all this death and destruction surrounding the formerly peaceful farm, the giant cattle would suddenly stampede in all directions, turning the front lines of the surrounding military into something resembling Custer's Last Stand!

The poor overwhelmed troops would flee in terror when the oversized animals crashed though the lines of defense and erupted onto the surrounding region! Hundreds of giant cattle would thunder across the green fields of this rich agriculture region, flattening the crops and smashing into farmhouses and barns!

Out of the clear blue sky, the Air Force fighters would suddenly arrive during this catastrophic stampede and begin strafing the charging bovines in a vain effort to stop the wave of destruction!

But the rain of machine gun bullets slicing into the backs of the charging oversized cattle would only add to the panic which drove these giant steers!

Exactly how this nightmare situation would eventually end is anybody's guess!

And since that "anybody" includes you guys, I hope some of you will take a crack at describing what you think will happen next!
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Captain Starlight]

The horrible plagues of locust which have ravaged the land in many parts of the world for centuries makes me think that a movie about giant locust would be a pretty good disaster film!

CGI FX could create some gruesome images of big grasshoppers gobbling up people. It might be time to remake this movie as a horror/sci-fi film.

[Gord Green]

This reminds me of the sub plot in MYSTEREOUS ISLAND where Capt. Nemo was trying to grow larger animals to end hunger. Remember the giant chicken, crab and bees?
_________________
There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Bud Brewster]

[Bud Brewster]

______________________________________________

During a recent gathering for ASF’S Saturday Night at the Movies I watched this Bert I. Gordon film again, along with Phantom and Scotpens.

We all expressed our admiration for this low-budget gem — which we selected at the request of Phantom himself!

I suspect he's changed this mind about it to some degree.

This IMDB trivia item states something which might not be as correct as we thought.

~ Since [Bert I. Gordon] couldn't get the grasshoppers to climb vertically up the side of a model building, Bert I. Gordon placed a photo of a building on a table, had the insects walk across it horizontally and tilted the print to look as if they were crawling up.

However, I noticed that in several scenes the grasshoppers were shot by soldiers as they crawled up the buildings, and "they fell off" — as if the photograph was vertical.

So. if the photos were positioned horizontally, how did some of the grasshoppers fall off?

Add to this the fact in the video below you'll see a few scenes which show the grasshoppers crawling over the edge of the roof, as if the building were three-dimensional and actually HAD a roof!






____________ Beginning Of The End (1957


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

[Krel]

Bud the grasshoppers may not have been able to walk vertically up the slick photo paper. As for getting the grasshoppers to "fall" off the horizontal photo, they may have used the same method used to direct the tarantula from "Tarantula" and "The Amazing Shrinking Man". They blew air from straws.

IMDB Trivia: "~ Over 200 grasshoppers were used for the film. During the filming, they began to eat one another. By the time the last shots were done, only a dozen were left.

Note from me: We've heard that Hollywood is "dog eat dog". Apparently it's true."

When they filmed "Kingdom of the Spiders" they had pretty much the same problem, as tarantulas are cannibalistic. In behind the scene photos you can see that they covered the tarantulas with plastic cups when not filming. This not only kept the tarantulas from eating each other, but it also kept them in place. When finished for the day, they had to keep the tarantulas separated.

David.

[Bud Brewster]