Tonight's film was another winner from my Ultimate Sci-Fi Collection Volume Two dvd set. It was called "The Deadly Mantis" (1957), and boy was it ever good! I mean - wow! As far as Giant Bug Movies go, I'd put it right up there with "Tarantula" and "Them", and I'm surprised that it doesn't have a similar reputation. It's IMDB score is a mere 5.0, which leads me to question the sci-fi bona fides of the collective knuckleheads who reviewed it. Anyhow, listen up while I give "Mantis" it's due.
Remember a week or two ago, when we were talking about what makes a classic sci-fi? I stated that if you have military involvement, you are on the right track. The best sci-fi movies open with a group of Generals sitting in a conference room, planning a Secret Defense Project of some kind or another, which usually involves an Expedition To A Remote Location. The jungle is good, or even the desert, but best of all is the Arctic. Classic Sci-Fi starts with Generals in a room planning an expedition to the Arctic (or Antarctica), to conduct a Secret Project for the Defense Department. One General stands in front of a huge wall map with a pointer, and explains the logistics of said expedition. Then he turns the briefing over to a scientist, who details the particulars, who explains why the project is so important.
And if it is because atomic radiation has caused a Giant Bug to grow, and to start attacking humans, then you know you've got a classic Sci-Fi on your hands. Of course, it will have been shot in black and white. Color is absolutely verboten for 1950s sci-fi. But you're gonna be in the Arctic anyway, at least for the first half of the movie, so you don't need color. And if you're like me, you don't want it. Not for a film like "The Deadly Mantis".
Okay, look - up at the North Pole, there's been a huge breakaway of a gigantic piece of ice, which falls into the sea with an enormous splash. We actually get to see this, courtesy of stock footage, which is another hallmark of classic sci-fi. So the ice chunk has fallen, exposing an underlayer of crystal clear ice, in which a frozen Praying Mantis is trapped. His ice cube is going drip, drip, drip, however, and it won't be long before it melts.
We know this; the Generals don't. Nor do the scientists and the military personnel stationed at the DEW (distant early warning) radar sites near the Arctic Circle. They don't even know there is a Mantis. They have only been attuned to the possibility of a sneak attack by the Russkies (and I just Googled to find out that the DEW Line radar system became operational in 1957, the same year the movie was released). So the filmmakers knew the real threat, which was not the Russians but a 200 foot tall Praying Mantis that had been buried in the ice all that time.
At Weather Station #4, an operator tracks an anomaly on his radar screen. It seems to be a glitch, so he calls his supervisor over to take a look, and then Whammo!
Weather Station #4 is toast. That is enough to send the expedition on it's way, consisting of battleships, aircraft carriers and lots of jets. Colonel Craig Stevens is in charge, assisted by a paleontologist (William Hopper) and his photographer (Alix Talton), who is really an undercover reporter.
When they get to Station #4, they find no trace of the five soldiers who manned the site. The roof is caved in, debris is scattered everywhere, but the men are gone. The only trace of evidence is a huge, three pronged track mark in the snow, which looks like it could have been made by a.........foot?
Do insects have feet? What do you call the things they walk on, anyway? We know they have legs, but.....
Well anyhow, the footprint is huge (and if you want, you can use the east coast pronunciation of "huge" which is "yooge").
Nearby, they find a body part. It is five feet long, bony and hooked. It resembles a toenail or claw, and is broken away at it's base to reveal cartilage or some other goop inside. Biological testing reveals an absence of red corpuscles, which could only mean one thing :
It's from an insect.
But Holy Smokes, if it's from an insect, and it's claw is five feet long, then the creature must be The Biggest Thing That Ever Lived!
Which will prove to be quite true, I'm sorry to say. The Mantis would dwarf King Kong, or even Godzilla or any of those guys. He's several times bigger than a C-47 Troop Carrier, as you and the troops inside will see. An enormous can of Raid might work, but we don't have such.
The only thing left to do is to send in the Air Force, even though their missiles do little more than annoy the Mantis at first. I'll leave you to discover what happens after that, but yessiree, and wow again!
If you like military sci-fi, atomic age sci-fi, where the Army or the Navy or the Air Force has to take on a Giant Bug, then "The Deadly Mantis" is the movie for you. It's chock full of stock footage from start to finish, of jets over the Arctic, jets firing rockets, radar stations, Dew Line antennas, aircraft carriers, etc. You also get to hang out in the Paleontology Dept. at the fictional University, too. The paleontologist plays a lead role, but this is a military flick first and foremost. Former Miss Georgia Alix Talton is brought along seemingly for romantic purposes - Colonel Stevens has an eye on her - but to the film's credit, the writers allow her to be her own woman, there as a reporter and not as cheesecake.
I mean, hey - there's a man-eating Praying Mantis to deal with. Who's got time for romance? ///// :):)
So there you have it. Needless to say, "The Deadly Mantis" gets Two Gigantic Thumbs Up. It is an absolute must-see for fans of 1950s Sci-Fi, and the special effects are not too shabby either, better than you would think for a Giant Bug movie, and shot in an style that resembles German Expressionism or chiaroscuro ( a word I learned in Professor Tim's class).
Today is my last day off work until the middle of September, so I suppose I'll get out there on one last hike in a little while. Maybe I'll find some Coyotes or Spiders or other critters to photograph. Maybe even a Praying Mantis! Man, that would be so cool, especially if he was 200 feet tall......
That's all for now. See you outside on the trail. Don't forget about Disneyland next month.
Back tonight at the Usual Time, tons of love until then. xoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment