Tonight I finally had the occasion to watch "The Killer Shrews"(1959), a film that has gained notoriety over the years as a legendary Good/Bad Movie. While not as infamous as "Plan 9" - and I ask you, what is? - "Shrews" nevertheless has turned up again and again on lists of Cheesy Sci-Fi Films, and because of that I'd deliberately avoided it. After all, until recently I hadn't been seeking out anything but the generally accepted classics of the genre or at least the second tier stuff like "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms". But then came this situation we find ourselves in, and I just wanted some escape. I didn't have the focus to sit through a "serious" film, what with all the news hysteria being pumped out 24/7, and so I figured I'd go with some "hair of the dog", if the comparison is apt. I wanted some paranoid panic movies from the 1950s, when fear of the Atomic Bomb was all the rage (and quite legitimate), and I settled into the pattern we are now running through, of watching public domain sci-fi on Youtube.
None of this was a conscious decision, mind you. It just evolved "by osmosis", as my Mom would say. I just wanted something fun to watch, nothing heavy, or serious, or new. I love 1950s culture and I love Science Fiction, so I thought, "well, instead of watching 'Earth vs. The Flying Saucers' for the umpteenth time, maybe I should try Public Domain". And because public domain often means "movies that nobody bothered to renew the copyright", that can translate to "this is a cheesy movie".
But as we have seen, that is not automatically true, and even when the movies are cheesy, or have elements of cheese, even then they can be scary, or entertaining in a "Bad/Good" way. Such is the case with "The Killer Shrews", which does both. It's the kind of movie that would have scared the living daylights out of kids from my generation, but then when those kids got a little older, they would have seen through the low budget effects and recognised it for the Good/Bad Masterpiece it is.
James Best stars as Thorne Sherman, captain of a small supply boat on it's way to an island in the middle of a Texas lake. A hurricane is brewing, so Best and his first mate Rook (Judge Henry Dupree) decide to anchor their boat in the lagoon, rather than sail it to the dock, where it might be dashed against the railings. They set anchor and take a rowboat to the island, bringing along the crates that were ordered for delivery. A scientist meets them at the shore, accompanied by his daughter (Ingrid Goude) and a rifle-toting assistant (Ken Curtis, who also produced). What's in the crates is never specified, but it's likely an element like cobalt or uranium. Such staples are needed in '50s Sci-Fi; you've gotta have your radiation.
Best is advised to "leave before nightfall" but explains it's impossible with the coming storm. Miss Goude then offers the sailors shelter for the night inside the facilities, which will cause problems because she is engaged to the rifleman, a jealous sort. Once inside, the scientist confers with another of his assistants, a lab coated, bespectacled fellow who is examining a small rodent. They speak in biological jargon, but it is clear they are involved in what we would now call "genetic engineering". James Best has been enjoying a martini, but breaks in to ask why they need such a remote location "if you're only breeding mice"? When the white coated gentleman begins to respond in greater detail, he is given a look by the rifle-toter that says : "you'd better shut up". And so he does.
Meanwhile, the hurricane has begun to rage. The occupants hear a crash outside. Best tells his first mate to check on their rowboat. "Get out there and tie it down"! By now, night has fallen and the scientist feels the need to speak up. "I'm afraid it's not safe to go outside after dark". He goes on to say that during the course of his experiments, a "mutation" occurred in one of the breeding samples that caused some of the strain to grow abnormally large and ravenous. His explanation comes across as more scientific mumbo-jumbo.
"I don't know exactly what you're talking about", Best replies, "but we've got to get our skiff tied down or we'll have to swim back to our boat in the morning"!
"Then you'd better take a gun", instructs the grim-faced rifleman.
Best gives the first mate his pistol and sends him out the door. He is never seen alive again.
Well, that's not entirely true because we see him as he runs toward the lagoon, and this is where things start to get hairy, quite literally. We hear noises in the jungle - snorting, chattering noises and the swooshing of plants and footsteps. Suddenly we see a close up of Giant Fangs and Teeth, and a snout pulled back into a snarl. Oh my goodness, it's a Killer Shrew, like we heard about in the title!
The only trouble is, it's clearly a puppet, and a cheap one at that. Now, do not despair because this is one of the things that makes this movie a Good/Bad Classic. But wait, it's gonna get better, because as the first mate continues to run, he makes the quick decision to climb a tree in order to get away. He shoots at the hideous creature below, which only makes matters worse because the noise attracts a whole bunch more of them. Now they're all leaping at the trunk of the tree and he is out of bullets. But for us, the whole thing has turned into a blast. We're having a ball in the "cheesy movie" sense, because - and this is one of the greatest ideas I've ever seen put to use in a motion picture - the "Killer Shrews" are obviously dogs wearing rodent suits on their backs, complete with shrew masks.
It's one of the funniest things I've ever seen, but it's also super cool at the same time, because the dogs are doing a great job. They're good actors, and they want you to think they're scary Killer Shrews, so that's what you - as the viewer - have to do. You've gotta go along with it, because the dogs are giving the scene their all. "We aren't dogs, so stop saying that! We're Killer Shrews, can't you tell"?
If you were enjoying this movie already, by now you're loving it, and for myself, when the doggies entered the picture I finally had an idea of why "The Killer Shrews" has attained "Plan 9" status. But unlike the Ed Wood classic, "Shrews" actually sets out to be legitimate, and other than the "special effects" (lol), it mostly succeeds. It has a scary atmosphere, a unique location on the Texas island with it's bare, scrawny trees, and a plot not unlike that of "Night of the Living Dead", where several people of different backgrounds are holed up inside a building while all hell breaks loose outside. In both movies, only the psychologically strong will survive. In "Shrews", a major plot thread will involve an ongoing struggle between Best and the drunken Ken Curtis for the affections of Ingrid Goude. Curtis has his rifle, which he rarely lets go of, but he's always hammered which gives Best the edge. In that regard, Best's character is similar to Duane Jones' in "NOTLD" as the one guy who keeps his cool under fire. The difference is that Best - who had one of the greatest lines in motion picture history in "Rolling Thunder" - has a Good 'Ol Boy insouciance about him whereas Jones, in "Night", was utterly determined and humorless. In James Best's case, it's casual : he's gonna defeat the Shrews cause he's god-dang from Texas! Don't give him a lot of scientific back talk!
Don't get me wrong, he's not playing a goofy redneck. His character is intelligent, but you've gotta love that drawl of his and the way he prioritises his cocktails and pursuit of Miss Goude over the matter of the Shrews.........at least until they start tunneling through the wall. Then he becomes serious as all get out. And he will ultimately devise an Ingenious Means of getting the survivors to safety.
This is another one you absolutely have to see, and I am gonna give "The Killer Shrews" Two Big Thumbs Up, for it's inventiveness and effort to maintain a frightening atmosphere, at which it mostly succeeds. Dogs or no dogs, this is another example of the kind of movie that would scare the heck out of little kids. You can check the comments on Youtube as proof. It takes itself seriously and therefore you should too, even as an adult. Highly recommended! /////
Well folks, I'm going a little bananas sitting in my Tiny Apartment, so I'm gonna head out on another CSUN walk. Man, I can't wait to get back to my job and normal life. I know everybody feels that way, but I had to blow off a little bit of steam, lol. I've had the good fortune to be at Pearl's house so much of the time for the past ten years, and The Tiny has mostly just been my "clubhouse" for all that time, a place to hang out during my breaks and days off . But now that I'm actually living here, and stuck inside for three solid weeks, it's getting pretty claustrophobic. Well, I'll shut up now. See you tonight at the Usual Time. Stay well.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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