The Silver Screen Oasis

THE DEADLY MANTIS





The Trailer of this Movie
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I just can't wait ... a great 1957 Classic!

Had I been about ten years older, I bet I would have seen these 1950s camp classics in a theater. Or maybe a drive-in, which would have required the cooperation of my parents. I came along a little too late. But I never missed them on Saturday night TV!

Don't miss the final reel of The Deadly Mantis (1957) when the big bug has the temerity to attack a city bus, The Washington Monument and The Holland Tunnel.

Maybe I'm overthinking it, but I suspect that the filmmakers were influenced by the ending of Clouzot's classic French noir, Diabolique (1955) in this monster movie's denouement.

moirafinnie wrote:Don't miss the final reel of The Deadly Mantis (1957) when the big bug has the temerity to attack a city bus, The Washington Monument and The Holland Tunnel.

It was a classic and I agree that the scenes of the City Bus, The Washington Monument, and The Holland Tunnel are fantastic and the flying scenes of the Deadly Mantis with Air Force Fighters were good. I just dig the eerie buzzing music that really set the tone of this horror classic and the action is very fast pace indeed ... I just loved the ending of where Marge Blaine played by Alix Talton was taking the picture and all the sudden a claw of the Deadly Mantis moved and prompt Col. Joe Parkman races in to save her from impending doom by picking her up and carry her to safety.



It was a very good sci-fi motion picture and it's certainly lived up it's billing. Wonderfully made and I just wanted to let you all know that I find this movie very entertaining and rightly so.

It was fun, Erik. I watched the scenes in the Arctic and kept wondering why the Mantis didn't need to wear a parka or at least a scarf! Loved seeing Paul DrakeWilliam Hopper as an entomologist in a plaid shirt (after relishing A Fever in the Blood, I guess it must be my week to enjoy cute stuffed shirts in plaid). Craig Stevens must have been desperate just before Peter Gunn came along to pay the mortgage.

You can't beat BIG BUGS!

In other words...I like BIG BUGS and I cannot lie!

RedRiver wrote:You can't beat BIG BUGS!

Well Said RedRiver!

RedRiver wrote:In other words...I like BIG BUGS and I cannot lie!

I just can't argue with you ... I like BIG BUGS too ... and that's no foolin!

SVENGOOLIE is having another Monster Flick this weekend and it's called the ....

THE LAND UNKNOWN
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Starring Jock Mahoney, Shawn Smith, and William Reynolds ...

MOVIE POSTER

Good heavens to Betsy! I am not at all familiar with this one. This could be so bad it's delightful!

moirafinnie wrote:(after relishing A Fever in the Blood, I guess it must be my week to enjoy cute stuffed shirts in plaid).

Lol!! I relished it, too. I loved seeing all three men at one point wearing plaid lumberjack shirts and smoking pipes.

Looking forward to Jock Mahoney in THE LAND UNKNOWN tonight. This will be fun!

THE LAND UNKNOWN is a pretty decent movie, nice screenplay, fairly good acting, and has it's moments and I wasn't complaining one bit of it. I enjoyed it to an extent but find the carnivorous plant scene fairly exciting and solid performances by Mahoney, Patterson, and Reynolds. It has it's charm, it's nostalgic, and most of all it's move at feverish pace that I liked and most of all it's a decent 1950's low budget sci-fi film.

The background scenery of the lush kingdom was the real star of the show and this scene below well made and that's made the film enjoyable to watch.




More Pictures of the Movie ...

The beautiful stills of The Land Unknown you've reproduced above were far more intriguing to me than some of the elements of the movie, Erik. I liked the way that the script referenced actual earlier missions to explore Antarctica and the vistas that the art directors made were much better than usual. The best part of this movie (and often the only good part of some movies) was one actor:


Henry Brandon!! Never mind what the man is in--and he was in some great movies (everything from Laurel & Hardy's Babes in Toyland (1936) to John Ford's The Searchers (1956)--this character actor never gives less than 110%. When he got the part of the half-mad (okay, maybe wholly-bonkers) Dr. Carl Hunter, who's been alone in this steaming hellhole for ten years too many, Brandon must have decided to just act rings around everything, including the script.

I did get a hoot out of the way that Shirley Patterson's hair remained lovely despite heat, damp, crashing helicopters, T-Rex attacks and hammer lock kisses from William Reynolds (master of the whirlybird). Her clothes became increasingly (and fetchingly) tattered too, of course, but there was ne'er a hair out of place on this broad, even when that big lizard was following her in the water.

I knew their mission was doomed when the officer briefing them was played by Douglas Kennedy. The only person worse as a guide through the unknown would have been John Archer. I did get a big kick out of the Pterodactyl attack on the copter and the actor in the Tyrannosaurus Rex suit was hilarious.

Both The Deadly Mantis and The Land Unknown were produced by William Alland, who made a great deal of money for Universal between 1954 and 1957 by turning out fairly inexpensive Sci-Fi films that generally did well at the box office. His biggest hit was Creature from the Black Lagoon, but he also did Revenge of the Creature, The Creature Walks Among Us, This Island Earth, Tarantula and The Mole People.
Stuntman-turned-actor Jock Mahoney does his usual fine job, and...as Moira pointed out...Henry Brandon is always fun to watch. I especially enjoyed him as the title character in the Republic serial Drums of Fu Manchu.