rotten eggs

TARANTULA ( 1955)

Another splendid science fiction come horror film by film director Jack Arnold.My prevoius review of ' THEM ' was released a year earlier and has a similar beginning , being part of the popular 'Giant Insect ' cycle of the period. Rather than having the little girl fleeing from the unseen THEM Arnold has a strangely distorted man with head and hands twisted into bestiality, jump out into the desertr and collapse as the title credits appear.

Performances are much better than average in TARANTULA. Leo G Carroll ( remember him in ' The Man From U.N.C.L.E ) plays a biochemist experimenting with artificial nutrients which consequently have devastating abnormal effects not only on man but also a huge TARANTULA which escapes from the laboratory.

John Agar and Mara Corday, are also smoothly effective with some touches of humor.Look out near the end for a fleeting glimpse of a young and uncredited Clint Eastwood as the fighter pilot who drops some napalm.

Universals desert town standing set is used to great advantage as it did in THE MONOLITH MONSTERS. Used here as a focus of action and a bridge to the rather more threatening world which lurks just beyond the lamplight. Arnolds feel for the desert is once again perfectly realised.

Obviously the special effects are not up to todays standards but what we have here is all atmosphere throughout and not like todays CGI perfectly rendered mostly lifeless FX. Travelling mattes and giant sets were mainly used making the spider appear enormous. I think we can forgive tha fact that the spiders legs don't seem to touch the ground.

GOOD EGG