I know there's no Godzilla / Japanese monster movies on tonight, but as you may all know, I still love the giant monster genre, and thought I'd share this write-up I did for DeviantART about tonight's line-up:
TCM Drive-In Double Features, NIGHT 2
Its (almost) nothing but giant bug movies tonight on the cable network's monthly spotlight. Here's a quick write-up on the films, but as always, please check your local listings for exact times.
Or Turner Classic Networks official page on the matter:
http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/3 ... -June.html
8:00 PM Eastern - Them! (1954)
The disappearances of desert dwelling citizens in New Mexico leads police and scientist to a colony of deadly giant ants, brought forth from the earliest atomic bomb tests from the ending days of World War II. Although the desert colony is destroyed, a 'winged princess ant' manages to escape, leading our heroes to track down a second colony beneath the streets of Los Angeles, in hopes to finish off the oversized menaces for good, before this new species has a third chance to spread across the globe.
Arguably the film that started the giant mutant bug genre in the fifties, even if its origins and final execution is a tad dubious. Originally
"THEM!" was to be a big budget, 3D science fiction film, produced in full-blown color. Along with many sequences that were meant to be filmed, but became simple off-camera events mentioned in dialog, after Warner Brothers cut the production down to scale.
However, despite this, the finished
"THEM!" still remains a fantastically moody film, which stand up to this day for a multitude of reasons. Awesome group of human characters, played by equally pitch perfect actors, with notable stand outs of the father/daughter scientist team of Doctors Harold and Pat Medford, played by Edmund Gwenn and Joan Weldon respectively.
The budget minded black-and-white ultimately helps the splendid 'film-noir' direction of the film, which literally does start off as a police drama in an isolated desert region, before the big monsters are reveal in the second act. And about the title antagonist; life-sized animatronics puppets were used for the giant ants, and they are surprisingly effective, compared to say stop-motion or men-in-suits.
There have been many giant insect movies to come after, but
"THEM!" still stands above the rest in terms of quality, as well as being the granddaddy of them all. If you haven't seen this movie, I recommend it as required giant monster / daikaiju viewing. And thankfully, its one of those old school monster movies that are still worth a watch, even if its not exactly ones proverbial 'cup of tea'.
And for those who have seen it, I'd love to read you're opinions here in reply.
Here's the extended trailer for the film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2PLls02gOU
9:45 PM Eastern - The Cosmic Monsters (1958)
Rarely seen British B-movie about enlarged insects; never having viewed it myself, I can't confirm how big said mutants actually get.
11:15 PM Eastern - Tarantula (1955)
Don't remember too much about the film's story and actors (more of a
"Monolith Monsters" fan myself), but I can say for a fact that the visual effects in this movie are great! The title arachnid is beautifully added into the real-life desert landscapes, through some incredibly strong optical printing, which even goes as far to add shadows and spot-on interactions between Tarantula and its dwarfed surroundings. Diffidently worth a watch for this one element alone!
12:45 AM Eastern- The Black Scorpion (1957)
One of Willis O'Brien's final films which he did stop motion for, and is certainly an insane entry in the genre as well, for some of the outrageous sequences found within. Most notably multiple giant scorpions feasting on hundreds of poor souls of a train derailment, and then getting eaten themselves by the largest of their brethren, the Black Scorpion of the title!
There have been better entries in the world of 1950's American monster movies, but by its own twisted nature, and related scenario,
"The Black Scorpion" kind of stands in a league of its own.
2:30 AM Eastern - The Giant Claw (1957)
One of these things don't belong together, one of these things are not the same...!
Yeah, this giant bird film is clearly the odd movie out amongst tonight's insect and arachnid theme features. It also doesn't help that its considered one of the worse films of all time, largely thanks to its truly cheesy title monster.
My opinion?
Believe it or not, the Giant Claw herself isn't half bad a monster, despite her cartoon-ish puppet appearance. And she has a pretty cool invulnerability against military attacks, unlike other giant monsters who weren't Made-In-Japan. The real problem with the film is practically everything else, especially the insane use of stock footage from countless other sci-fi films of the decade.
However, let's face it, with all those SyFy Original movies constantly popping up every weekend, with even greater incompetence than all other monsters movies of the pre-CGI past...maybe
"The Giant Claw" has now become a good movie by comparison?
4:00 AM Eastern - The Wasp Woman (1959)
Never seen this film either, but do have fond childhood memories of its much more raunchy remake from the 1990's (if anyone has a copy of that version, contact me ASAP).
Despite the movie's infamous, but ultimately false poster art (of a giant black wasp monster, with a purely human woman's face, seductively pulling in a hapless victim towards his doom amongst a pile of skulls), this is not at all a giant monster flick.
