Tarantula (1955)

Andy Andersen: [viewing what's left of his dead cattle] I never saw anything like it! No footprints! No blood! No sign of a struggle! The bones just stripped clean like peeling a banana!

You won’t need many guesses to know what this movie is about and it’s probably not a good movie for those suffering from Arachnophobia, just like one of the modern spider movies like Arachnophobia or Eight Legged Freaks.  Unlike many modern creature movies, this 1955 film takes itself seriously and is really quite a good movie and well deserving of its 92% approval rating in Rotten Tomatoes.  It’s directed by Jack Arnold who brought out other well respected 50’s classics like It Came from Outer Space, The Incredible Shrinking Man and The Creature from the Black Lagoon.  It’s also interesting to note that the real spider used in this film was also used in The Incredible Shrinking Man a few years later.  Also of interest, is a young Clink Eastwood who makes a cameo appearance as a pilot.

Dr. Matt Hastings (John Agar), a local town doctor, is asked to give his opinion on a disfigured body found by the highway just outside of town and it is initially attributed to a rare disease that “supposed” to take years to reveal itself but the man affected was only seen days before in perfect health.  About 20 miles out of town a few scientists led by Professor Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll) has been trying to make a super nutrient that would allow humans to survive if/when the population outgrew the world’s food supply.  In the initial stages they test the solution on animals which has alarming results but when an accident occours in the laboratory, one of the creatures escapes.

Whilst I do enjoy the odd comedic view of monster movies such as “Eight Legged Freaks”, I really appreciate those that take themselves seriously.  The image posted above showing the overgrown guinea pig told me that this was not going to be a cheesy movie, and it wasn’t going to be some chemical waste that somehow caused spiders to grow to an extraordinary size but rather due to serious lab work.  The acting is also very convincing as is the overall script and the directing is very well done.  Sure some special effects are not as good as the top CGI done these days but this is 1954 and as can be seen below, it’s certainly not cheap cheesy effects but really quite good.

The DVD used in the review was imported from the UK and just includes only the movie only.  The image quality is really good in the vast majority of scenes with the worst scenes not as sharp but still quite good nevertheless.  There is a Bluray available from Germany that is basically from the same source (or so it seems) as the DVD and, naturally, looks better but it also comes at a somewhat higher price seeing it has to be imported from Germany.  Whilst the Bluray looks better, the DVD goes for a good price on ebay imported from the UK.  By memory mine was about AUD10 shipped which is a bargain for a great movie.  

Overall I highly recommend the movie for those who like monster movies, 50’s sci-fi or just something different from the norm of today’s offerings.  Its intelligent and well directed and the effects are really good for a movie of this age.  

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