Tarantula! is a 1955 American black-and-white science fiction giant monster film from Universal Pictures, produced by William Alland, directed by Jack Arnold, the stars John Agar, Mara Corday, and Leo G. Carroll. The screenplay by Robert M. Fresco and Martin Berkeley was based on a story by Arnold, which was in turn inspired by Fresco's teleplay for the 1955 Science Fiction Theater episode, "No Food for Thought", that Aronld also directed.
Plot[]
Professor Gerald Deemer is a biologist and researcher who goes to the small town of Desert Rock to conduct experiments that will indicate a solution to the problem of human overpopulation in the future. White the help of atomic science he and his helpers create a nutrient that causes growth in animals. The formula is unstable and one of the researchers, testing on himself, develops acromegaly. He gets his hands and face deformed and dies soon after. Prfessor Deemer also becomes contaminated in an attack on the laboratory, which is partially set on fire. The animal guinea pigs die incinerated, except for a huge tarantula that escapes into the desert.
When a new assistant of Professor Deemer arrives, student Stephanie, accompanied by the local doctor, Dr. Matt Hastings, they soon realize that the experience has gone haywire and that a monster is on the loose in the desert.
Cast[]
- Leo G. Carroll as Prof. Gerlad Deemer
- John Agar as Dr. Matt Hastings
- Mara Corday as Stephanie Clayton
- Nestor Paiva Sheriff Jack Andrews
- Ross Elliott as Joe Burch
- Raymond Bailey as Dr. Townsend
- Hank Patterson as Josh
- Bert Holland as Barney Russell
- Steve Darrell as Andy Anderson
List of Deaths[]
List of deaths in the film, Tarantula!
Name | Cause of Death | Killer | On-Screen | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Jacobs | Heart disease | N/A | Yes | |
Numerous Horses | Eaten | Giant Tarantula | Partially | |
Horse-rancher | Eaten | Giant Tarantula | Partially | |
Lund | Eaten | Giant Tarantula | Partially | |
Deemer | Eaten | Giant Tarantula | Partially | |
Jean | Destroyed building | Giant Tarantula | Yes | |
Giant Tarantula | Shot and blown up by napalm | Jet pilot | Yes |
Production[]
A few years later later the same director would shot The Incredible Shrinking Man, when again it showed a fight between a human and a spider. But in this story the man has had his size changed, becoming diminutive.
Reception[]
The film was often paired with Running Wild as part of a double feature. It was the fourth biggest film at the U.S. box office in December 1955 and earned rentals of $1.1 million.
Film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film 3 out of 4 stars, praising the film's fast pacing, special effects, and intriguing subplot. He called it "One of the best giant-insect films". The contemporary review in Variety indicated "A tarantula as big as a barn puts the horror into this well-made program science-fictioner, and it is quite credibly staged and played, bringing off the far-fetched premise with a maximum of believability". In Video Movie Guide 2002, authors Mick Martin and Marsh Potter characterized Tarantula as "(a) pretty good entry in the giant bug subgenre of 1950s horror and science fiction movies". On Rotten Tomatoes it has an approval rating of 92% based on 13 reviews, with an average score of 6.3/10.
Home media[]
The film was first released on DVD by Universal Studios on April 3, 2006. Universal later re-released the film as a part of its boxed set The Classic Sci-Fi Collection, which features four other classics: (The Incredible Shrinking Man, Monster on the Campus, The Monolith Monsters, and The Mole People). It was last released on September 27, 2013. The German region B Blu-ray from Koch Media features both a 1.33:1 (Academy ratio) and a 1.78:1 widescreen version of the film. Shout! Factory released a region A Blu-ray April 30, 2019. It features audio commentary by Tom Weaver, Dr. Robert J. Kiss, and David Schecter.
Trivia[]
- Before he was famous, Clint Eastwood played the Jet Pilot who kills the tarantula by firing the rockets at the end.
External links[]
Tarantula! (1955) at the Internet Movie Database
Tarantula! (1955) at AllMovie
Tarantula! (1955) at Rotten Tomatoes
Tarantula (1955) at Wikipedia
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