Tarantula!

Tarantula is one of those Saturday afternoon classics that made me fall in love with science fiction and horror stories. This Jack Arnold flick was in heavy rotation with other movies from Universal's 50's library, all of which I'll get to later, and it gave me the creeps exceedingly well for all its sunny sets.

The titular monster is pretty scary in its own right, but that takes at least half the movie to develop. The early parts of this monster epic are taken up with deformed men in pajamas raising all sorts of questions and creating all manner of trouble for our protagonists.

Our hero Dr.Matt Hastings flies back into the town of Desert Rock, Arizona just in time to be summoned by the sheriff (played to the hilt by Nestor Paiva) to identify a mysterious body which turns to be the partner of Professor Deemer (Leo J. Carrol), a somewhat eccentric but generally kindly scientist isolated in his desert home.

The dead body is overcome with the symptoms of acromegalia, but the symptoms for this chronic but not immediately fatal disease seem to have come on with amazing swiftness. That's the core mystery for the first half of the flick and its pursued by Hastings even as Stephanie "Steve" Clayton arrives to take on a role as assistant to the scientific operation.

Between bouts of flirting, the mystery is unraveled bit by bit by the pair, as Deemer is attacked by another deformed man and his lab burned out. A Tarantula at least six feet across escapes. Then cattle start to die, leaving only stripped bones and pools of venom. It's not until the movies' third act that the full-sized Tarantula appears, but then appear he does in spades. It lumbers around the landscape at will attacking people and threatening the town of Desert Rock itself.


This movie has it all. A small threat created by the insane and deformed men, and the large threat of the Tarantula. The jovial John Agar is in perfect form as Hastings and he's well matched by Mara Corday as Clayton. Paiva heads up a dandy cast of sidekicks and characters who inhabit the town, though the town itself seems straight out off the back lot, which of course it is. That doesn't mean the natural settings are any less effective, as putting this story in the desert is an ideal choice not only for hiding the monster, but creating a sparse and isolated mood for the story.

The use of a real Tarantula is very effective and makes this one above average, and a movie that holds up remarkably well over fifty years later. The damage it causes is well realized, in particular a truck which is convincingly flung off the road.

If you've never had the chance to catch this one I highly recommend it. It doesn't scare me like it did so many years ago, but it's still a fantastic entertainment.


One oddball connection with these sci-fi classics is that in the previous movie I looked at (Cult of the Cobra)Edward Platt, the "Chief" of CONTROL from Get Smart had a small but pivotal role as the leader of the Lamians, and in this one Leo J. Carrol or "Alexander Waverly" of U.N.C.L.E. fame has a big part. Spymasters galore it appears!

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The Mighty Crusade Never Ends!

Joe Staton
I know I've been reading comic books a long time when I can remember all of the reboots of the MLJ heroes from Archie Comics. I've actually missed one whole reboot since I abandoned new comics several years ago.

Paul Reinmann 1965
Rich Buckler 1983
Dan Jurgens & Keith Willams 1992
Ian Churchill & Norm Rapamund 2010
And now after that umpteen failed attempt, there is a new revival on the horizon for next year.

Bill Bates 2012
Here's an article with some few details.

I wish them luck, but if history is any judge, I think I know how this will turn out.

Sigh.

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Strolling Down 1313 Mockingbird Lane!

Vic Prezio
I tried this last year and for whatever reason didn't complete it. So this year I'm once again going to try and tear through the complete set of Munster episodes I bought a long time ago.

They might be just the item to leaven out all the 1950's radioactive mayhem I'm enjoying otherwise. A combo of 50's schlock and 60's shtick seems a flavorful combination.

Wish me luck!


Update: I was watching the 13th episode, "Family Portrait" and it seems clear to me that the photo used as the cover for Event Magazine was the one which Vic Prezio used to inspire his artwork for Monster World. That or another from the same shoot, probably an early picture session for the series.

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Cult Of The Cobra!

This 1955 Universal effort is an out and out horror movie. The premise of Cult of the Cobra is a bit busy, but basically six American soldiers at the end of World War II are sporting about Asia and stumble across a Cobra Cult called Lamians whom they offend mightily and so get cursed with death. Then a woman who can become a cobra begins to kill them off one by one.

The movie stars the magnetic and properly exotic actress Faith Domergue as the fatal "Lamia" or cobra woman, and a gaggle of handsome leading men types as the doomed G.I. Joes. Richard Long plays Paul Able who along with his best buddy Tom Markel played by Marshall Thompson date the same girl played by Kathleen Hughes. Along with their buddies Rico Nardi (David Jannssen), Pete Nortan (William Reynolds), and Carl Turner (Jack Kelly), they fly home after the thrillseekers had a harrowing encounter with the Cobra Cult which ended in the poisoned death of Nick Hommel (James Dobson). Once there the two rivals soon discover that brainy Paul has won the girl and somewhat bitter Tom finds solace in a mysterious but beautiful woman named Lisa Moya played by Domergue. She then knocks off the boys one by one before she is ultimately discoved.

There is a real chummy quality between the men which gives this movie some machismo charm. They seem really to like each other despite disparate personalities and backgrounds. But this esprit de corps is challenged by Moya's beauty and by the death which stalks them all.

The upbeat nature of the men's relationships is countered by the women in the movie who are disruptive and downright dangerous. In addition to the obvious threat posed by Moya, the woman Julia who the two leads vie for seems more than a bit manipulative in the way she ultimately handles both guys and unaccountably blind to the heartache she causes. I don't think she's supposed to be such a heartless character, but circumstances do not make her seem all that charitable.


So in spite of the chaos the men cause in this story, it's the women who seem truly to be the dangerous ones.

The movie has a few really neat scenes, though few are actually very scary. The scariest is a death that is handled off screen and is only suggested and shown in aftermath. That's the kind of restraint this film might've made better use of from time to time to maximize the threat.

I did see some attempts in the movie to evoke the manner of a Val Lewton flick, with some startling jolts from time to time, though they aren't nearly as effective. The general antiseptic nature of the movie is really after all what undermines its ability to scare, right from the Las Vegas nature of the Lamians and their dance skit to the generic studio lot feel of the sets.

This does seem like a movie ripe to be remade, and I can see a very sexy version of this made today with the right cast, and set in a more modern setting. it would sure be the snot out of the endless parade of backwoods slasher flicks they seem intent on churning out endlessly.

I can't say it's a classic, but it's a pretty decent movie nonetheless.

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His Name Was Adam!

I just read about the passing of veteran character actor Charles Napier. The first image I have of Napier is as Adam, troubadour member of the "Space Hippies" in the Star Trek episode "The Way to Eden". This show from the third season was one I actually got to see during the show's first run, and it impressed me mightily.


Whatever Napier did after, and his broad grin and booming voice did plenty, it was that first impression that always seemed to be my primary memory.

Character actors are always to be treasured, though the stars suck up all the media attention, because it is these guys who make the tapestry of television and film truly interesting and truly memorable.

Charles Napier was all that in spades. I cannot think of any production he was in that he did not improve by his very presence, some of them quite considerably.

Here's a link to a website dedicated to Mr. Napier. I didn't know until I researched for this post that he was a fellow Kentucky boy.

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Checkmates!

Maurice Whitman Murphy Anderson Bob Brown Charles Nicholas & Vince Alascia The use of chess as a motif on comics covers is a natural as can be seen by these examples. Wayne Howard As handsome as those covers are though, this is probably my favorite chess-theme cover ever. Rip Off

The Saucer's Reign!

Here's an outstanding bit of pseudo-noir, sci-fi-lite with a Southern drawl from the mid 80's. The Saucer's Reign is the debut vehicle for Webb Wilder and began as a collaboration between Webb his partner songwriter R.S. Field and movie-maker Steve Mims. This midget masterpiece of a movie ran repeatedly on USA's Night Flight, making Webb's detecting adventures familiar to thousands.

Webb himself has gone on to have a vital career in music having been inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame just a few years ago.

This is where I first learned of Webb Wilder, but eventually I gathered up the available cassettes and began a lifelong appreciation for his offbeat talents. Every year "Wilderians" gather in Bowling Green, Kentucky to celebrate the music of The Last Full Grown Man.

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