Tarantula

With a wave of creature features hitting theaters and drive-ins during the 1950s, studios churned them out as quick as they could.  Usually they were workmanlike efforts, rarely flashy but always professionally done.  They were movies that didn't call for a lot of directorial style.  One director though who managed to rise above the B-movies and make a name for himself was Jack Arnold, director of Creature from the Black Lagoon, Revenge of the Creature, It Came From Outer Space, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and 1955's Tarantula.

I think what works so well about these movies -- however poorly done or cheesy they are in their execution -- is that they play on feelings, worries and nerves that most audiences can relate to.  What lies in the depths of the oceans or hidden away in a volcano? Or what about ordinary, everyday things, like spiders?  In this case, it's that simple. A tarantula at its largest is only three or four inches long, but there's just something about them that sends shivers up your spine (okay, maybe it is just me). So even with some cheesy effects to make it look bigger, what about a tarantula over 100 times larger than your typical arachnid?  Okay, it isn't particularly scary, but it is creepy and it makes for a good movie.

In a small, isolated desert town in Arizona, Dr. Matt Hastings (John Agar) is called in to investigate a mysterious death. The man's partner, a scientist, Professor Deemer (Leo G. Carroll), explains the death as a bizarre, rapidly moving and rare genetic condition that caused the body to contort. Hastings isn't buying it but when Deemer welcomes a new assistant, a beautiful medical student from California, Stephanie (Mara Corday), the good doctor starts to investigate. Is the professor up to something that he's trying to cover up?  As Hastings starts to poke around, weird occurrences start to pop up all over.  What can they chalk it up to? Hastings has an inkling, but he can't prove  it outright, much less explain it to other people. Can he get his evidence in time?

Without going into a lot of detail (and if you've made it this far I'm hoping you know what's going on), it is in fact....a giant tarantula terrorizing the countryside in this B-movie.  Carroll's Deemer is in fact up to no good, even if his intentions are genuine. He's looking for a way to provide food and nourishment for a rapidly overcrowded world.  Smart doctor that he is, he test his radioactive nutrient on animals including rats, guinea pigs, and of course, a tarantula which escapes as it is still growing.  Tarantulas need to eat, and there you go. You've got your badass creature, a tarantula several hundred feet tall with an insatiable appetite.  Now how do we go about killing it?

This is a movie I can understand some movie fans wanting to be remade, but I like the low-budget charm of this 1955 popcorn flick.  The tarantula is in fact, a tarantula.  Thankfully the studios did not make a life-size spider or a miniature that could be blown up to make it look bigger.  The movements of an actual spider were filmed and then inserted over footage shot in real-time, making it appear that the tarantula is actually interacting with the much, much smaller cast.  Considering how bad it could have looked had Arnold chosen a different route, it's easy to look past the sometimes-cheesy look of these scenes. Still, it's a gigantic tarantula with booming music playing over its attacks. How is that not scary at least a little bit?

Blah blah blah spider movie with a cast. Who cares?  Well, I do.  B-movie star John Agar is his typical solid self as Dr. Matt Hastings.  As an actor, he didn't have the greatest range, but I just don't understand why Agar never amounted to more after bursting onto the scene in two John Ford westerns and another with John Wayne (Sands of Iwo Jima). He's a good actor if not a flashy one and a solid leading man here. Corday is the babe, the love interest although not much comes of that.  Carroll is the scientist with the right intentions who ends up unleashing a crime against nature on the world. Also look for Nestor Paiva as Sheriff Andrews and Ross Elliott as Joe Burch, the nosy newspaper reporter looking for a scoop.

As a fan of pointless movie trivia, I'll add this too.  Look for Clint Eastwood in an uncredited role and one of his first movies overall. Even Dirty Harry had to start somewhere.  I lost a bet in the last year or two that Eastwood was even in this movie, and it is a quick appearance. Stick around until the end as he plays a fighter pilot called in to battle the gigantic tarantula.  This is a fun movie all-around and a good example of what a science fiction B-movie from the 1950s can be when handled correctly. Watch the movie at Youtube starting HERE with Part 1 of 8. Pretty decent quality too for a 1950s Youtube version.

Tarantula <---trailer (1955): ***/****