Tarantula (C- or 1.5/4 stars)
'Tarantula' (directed by Jack Arnold) is a 1955 fantasy monster flick that has its amusing moments, but it mostly a shoddy entertainment. Leo G. Carroll plays Prof. Deemer and, though he is brilliant & well-intentioned, there is never any doubt that his Arizona desert experiments with accelerated tissue growth hormones {as an attempt to increase the world's food supply} will end up creating a monster-sized catastrophe. Tom this, Deemer's partner is found dead in the desert, suffering from a ailment that normally takes years to advance, but has attacked & afflicted him in mere days.
And then the Professor accidentally re-arranges the scientists' faces & produces a gargantuan spider which escapes when unleashed by a demented, experiment-damaged lab partner. Just how big is this tarantula, you ask? 100 feet high. John Agar plays the story's hero, Dr. Hastings, the not-as-bright local doctor who is puzzled {a-duh!} by the bizarre goings-on. And Mara Corday co-stars as the story's heroine, Prof. Deemer's attractive asst., Stephanie "Steve" Clayton. Hasting & "Steve" set out to try to figure out how all of this craziness started & hopefully how to end it. When cattle remains are found in the countryside, all of the evidence points - scarily so - to the enormous tarantula being the perpetrator. Silly, over-the-top chaos ensues.
Okay. So. 'Tarantula' is not particularly scary ... even though I am terrified of most spiders {daddy long legs don't bother me}. That said, I'm sure this thrilled less discerning audiences back in 1955. I was light years more terrified by a random TV movie from the 1970s in which a town is run rampant by millions of small killer spiders that can get in any crevice, or by 1989's Arachnophobia; which I first watched as a child when I was home sick with a migraine & puking my guts up -- but I digress.
This whole movie has a dated retro-style, visuals, attitudes & ideas. Nothing engaged me on any level, whatsoever. The acting was far from great; though, it's fun to see a 25 yr. old Clint Eastwood near the end of the film as a jet pilot -- leading the climactic attack on the tarantula. The make-up & special effects work might've been state of the art back then {and those archaic effects have a certain charm when looking through the lens of the past}, but they're just laughable now. The desert location is eerie enough, but didn't wow me. This classic "Big Bug Movie" just didn't do it, for me.
And then the Professor accidentally re-arranges the scientists' faces & produces a gargantuan spider which escapes when unleashed by a demented, experiment-damaged lab partner. Just how big is this tarantula, you ask? 100 feet high. John Agar plays the story's hero, Dr. Hastings, the not-as-bright local doctor who is puzzled {a-duh!} by the bizarre goings-on. And Mara Corday co-stars as the story's heroine, Prof. Deemer's attractive asst., Stephanie "Steve" Clayton. Hasting & "Steve" set out to try to figure out how all of this craziness started & hopefully how to end it. When cattle remains are found in the countryside, all of the evidence points - scarily so - to the enormous tarantula being the perpetrator. Silly, over-the-top chaos ensues.
Okay. So. 'Tarantula' is not particularly scary ... even though I am terrified of most spiders {daddy long legs don't bother me}. That said, I'm sure this thrilled less discerning audiences back in 1955. I was light years more terrified by a random TV movie from the 1970s in which a town is run rampant by millions of small killer spiders that can get in any crevice, or by 1989's Arachnophobia; which I first watched as a child when I was home sick with a migraine & puking my guts up -- but I digress.
This whole movie has a dated retro-style, visuals, attitudes & ideas. Nothing engaged me on any level, whatsoever. The acting was far from great; though, it's fun to see a 25 yr. old Clint Eastwood near the end of the film as a jet pilot -- leading the climactic attack on the tarantula. The make-up & special effects work might've been state of the art back then {and those archaic effects have a certain charm when looking through the lens of the past}, but they're just laughable now. The desert location is eerie enough, but didn't wow me. This classic "Big Bug Movie" just didn't do it, for me.