This blog was begun Tuesday night June 2nd, and completed the following day :
It's been a while since we had a Giant Bug Movie, so I was excited to find one I'd never heard of : "Beginning of the End"(1957), directed by our friend Bert I. Gordon ("Tormented", "The Amazing Colossal Man"). We're in Illinois, just outside of Chicago, and as the movie opens, a young couple is making out, parked off the side of Devonshire Street. Suddenly they hear a loud screeching noise and look up. The girl screams and Bert Gordon yells "cut"! Flash forward about an hour and two cops are driving down Devonshire when they see an overturned car that looks like it's been hit by a train. "Call homicide", says one. When detectives arrive, they reassign the officers to another location. "You two get over to Ludlow right away. Something bad's happened, no word yet what it is but they're setting up a roadblock. Go help".
At the roadblock, the officers are assigned to keep everyone out, but by morning an Intrepid Reporter (Peggy Castle) has shown up and talks her way in by pulling a "Karen" and asking to speak to the manager (i.e. the authority on scene). I have to step in to say that while I normally pay little attention to Facebook memes and other online fads, I nevertheless find the "Karen" meme hilarious, which is why I worked it into the review, haha. But back to the story, when the commanding officer tells Castle he doesn't have any information either, she goes over his head as well. Turning to the military, she visits the local Army base, where she knows the General (Morris Ankrum). He likes Castle, she's always written in favor of his leadership, but even he hasn't much information to relate. Of Ludlow, he says: "All I know is that the entire town's been destroyed, and everyone who lived there is gone. Vanished without a trace".
"But that's over a hundred and fifty people", Castle replies. "Are you saying there's not a sign of anyone"?
"That's correct. It's utterly baffling. We've ruled out an explosion, which would leave remains. Even a meteor strike would leave something, but there's nothing there except some wood scraps. We have no idea what happened, which is the reason for the strict secrecy".
The General agrees to take Castle on a tour of the site, if she will withhold her story for the time being. Driving through in a jeep, they view the wasteland of what had been Ludlow, a small town of 150. Stock footage of tornado damage was used to simulate the destruction. After the tour, the General takes Castle to see another building that was also leveled, a nearby grain warehouse. It's corrugated steel walls are knocked flat, the giant silos askew. What's interesting is that all the grain is missing. "There must have been over one hundred tons altogether", the General says, "but nothing is left, not a kernel".
"What was the crop"?
"Wheat".
Castle's curiosity drives her to visit an experimental farm sponsored by the state of Illinois. Inside the greenhouse, she is struck by the sight of enormous tomatoes and strawberries. She meets "Dr. Ed Wainwright" (Peter Graves), who explains they're the result of an Atomic Fertilizer being tested at the facility. He goes on further to say that he's not a botanist but an entomologist. The head botanist has been rendered deaf and mute by a radium spill, so Graves is the spokesman by default. "As you can see, it's dangerous work. But we believe the benefits will be worth it. These tomatoes could feed a village, for instance. Imagine what we could do with meat and dairy products". She doesn't want to imagine that, and neither do I, but she does want to know about bugs.
"You say you're an entomologist"?
"That's right".
"What is it that you do at a place like this"?
"Well, it's interesting you asked that. Normally I study insects, their breeding and habits, and for that reason I have lots of them around. But here, my job is to keep them out. The protocols are very strict because of the atomic plant food we're using. We've actually had a few species get in, grub worms mostly". He pauses to show her a frozen specimen, enlarged beyond it's normal size. "This guy got into the strawberries. The radiation from the fertilizer caused him to grow quite rapidly, just like the fruit itself".
Castle's mind is working fast. She gets an idea : "And what type of insect eats wheat"?
"Oh........grasshoppers mostly. Locusts also, when they swarm".
She asks Graves to accompany her out to the site of the destroyed grain warehouse. As it turns out, it belonged to his facility. "Yes, this was ours. I wasn't aware of it, when did this happen"?
"Last night. As you can see, all the grain is gone. Could locusts have done that"?
"Maybe, though not in one night. And besides, they'd still be here. Some of them anyway. They don't leave an area for weeks".
Just then, they hear a low humming sound. It gets louder and louder, until it builds to a high pitched screech. Suddenly, from behind a fallen silo, a Creature appears........hold your breath kiddos, it's a Giant Grasshopper, eight feet tall!
It means business and even after pounding wheat grain all night, it's still hungry! Graves pulls his pistol and fires at it (didn't know entomologists carried guns until now), but it does no good. He and Castle are forced to run for their lives. They haul Major League Booty back to the Army Base to inform the General what they've seen. Graves gives him the Atomic Rundown on how it could have occurred. "The large supply of grain in those silos would have promoted rapid growth that would have correlated with the increasing appetite of the grasshoppers. The more they ate, the bigger they got, and the bigger they got, the more they kept eating, until all the grain was gone".
"That's quite a story", says the General, when Graves is all done. "I just hope you don't expect me to believe it. I mean, come on Doctor. Giant grasshoppers? You're doing good work out there at the farm, but maybe you need to take a break if you get my meaning".
Then Castle chimes in. "But I saw it too! It's real, General".
Graves : "Yes it is, and you need to do something about it right away, because that thing is likely not the only one out there. Insects feed in packs, of dozens, hundreds, even thousands".
The General : "Hmmm. Well, something caused Ludlow to be wiped off the map and up to now we've no idea what it is. I'll withhold an opinion on your grasshopper for the moment, but I want you to show me exactly where you saw it, right away".
This is me again. I'm gonna stop with the dialogue because this is one of those movies where I could write down every word. But the problem is that the plot development, which was excellent up to here, basically stops at this point. We're only at the 30 to 35 minute mark of a 73 minute film, and the suspense is over. The General will see the Huge 'Hopper for himself, and then a war will ensue. First he calls out ground troops, and when that doesn't get the job done he threatens air strikes. Graves turns out to be right, that there is more than one Grasshopper. There's hundreds of 'em! They're all over Placerita Canyon and some have entered Downtown Chicago and are climbing the sides of skyscrapers. Fans on IMDB have remarked about Bert Gordon's use of postcards to create this effect. He apparently took postcards of Chigaco, placed grasshoppers on them and photographed them in macro. It looks like the fans might be right, and if so - lol! But it still works pretty good as an effect. A Giant Grasshopper punches out the window of a high-rise apartment, to get to a woman wrapped only in a towel. Of course, Mr. Gordon, of course. :)
Graves begs the General not to go through with the air strikes. "There's people in those buildings. Look, I'm an entomologist, my job is insects. Just give me some time and I'll figure out a way to get those bugs out of the city. Then you can destroy them any way you want to, but please.....give me a chance first".
The General reluctantly agrees to give Graves some time, but it ain't much - just a few hours. The final plot point in the movie will involve escalation. While Graves is working feverishly to devise a sound that will lead the bugs out to Lake Michigan ("like a duck call"), their attack on Chicago is increasing. The General has given up on regular air strikes and has called Washington for permission to use The Atomic Bomb. He's gonna nuke the entire city to save America. Graves is Chicago's only hope. Will he be able to devise his "Grasshopper Call" before the deadline?
I loved the first half hour of "Beginning of the End", and was thinking "man, this is one of the best Bug Movies I've ever seen". The the plot broke down and the last forty five minutes was more or less a war, which was okay too because there was a lot of action. But the story was so interesting, I wish Gordon had continued to develop it, for at least another fifteen minutes or so. Then he could've used the final act to stage the war, instead of making it more than half the movie. Had the plot been more extensive, there's no doubt I'd be giving the film Two Huge Thumbs Up, but because of the drift-off I can only allow Two Solid Thumbs. It's still really cool, and they say Stephen King mentioned it in "IT". I can see why he would love it - the Giant Grasshoppers are awesome, because they are Awesomely Cheesy. Gordon takes real grasshoppers and uses backscreening to superimpose them in various locations. Ya gotta love it, and.........it will (all together now) Scare The Bejeezus Out Of You! So I do recommend the film, it's definitely a classic Bug Movie and has a lot of great science and Atomic Age dialogue. It just could've been a Top Five Classic had the story been deeper. But don't miss it anyway! ///////
Finally, today I finished "Dark Matter, Missing Planets and New Comets" by Tom Van Flandern, and I think as science books go, this is one of the greatest I've ever read. It will now be my Astronomy Bible. I believe Dr. Van Flandern's "Meta Model" theory of a stable (non-expanding) but infinite Universe will one day replace the Big Bang model, which has been having theoretical challenges for decades now. Van Flandern, who died in 2009, will go down as one of the great scientific geniuses, in my opinion, and will be forever known for his Exploded Planet Hypothesis, which will revolutionise our understanding of the Solar System and of the birth and death of planets and other orbital bodies.
That's all for the moment. Our curfew has been expanded to 9pm, so I don't have to rush all my miles today. Maybe I'll try for a hike in a little while. See you tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of peace and love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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