Tarantula
                                                                                        
Director: Jack Arnold
Year: 1955
Rating: 6.0
This is a fine addition to the monster films of the 1950s. There is something inherently creepy about spiders and the bigger they are, the creepier they are. This giant spider had nothing to do with radiation as was the cause for many of the mutated monsters of the time. Instead, it is science run amok. Damn you science. If you aren't curing us, you are killing us. This is directed by Jack Arnold who was behind some of the classic B monster films of the era, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Revenge of the Creature, Monster on the Campus as well as a few sci-fi films of note - The Incredible Shrinking Man, This Island Earth and It Came from Outer Space. When the 50s ended and these types of films fell out of favor, his career slid into TV shows.

 

The special effects are pretty simple though they work just fine. Shoot a tarantula and make it look really big as it wanders across the desert. This stars John Agar of course - it wouldn't feel right without him. His female co-star Mara Corday had a few similar films to her credit as well - The Black Scorpion and The Giant Claw. Ah, the 50s' Not good for much other than B sci-fi, fantasy and monster films. The mad scientist isn't actually that mad - just accident prone. Professor Deemer (Leo G. Carroll) is trying to produce larger animals as a food source because he foresees a day when the population will outstrip the available food. But if a pig was 20-feet long, that would feed a lot of people.  But for some reason he is experimenting on tarantulas. One of his assistants - in the opening scene - is found dead in the desert with his face all mutated and horrible looking. The local doctor Hastings (Agar) says the cause of death is his thyroid going nuts - but it happened so quickly that it makes no sense.

 

There is a fire and a tarantula escapes - at the time only 8 inches long or so. Then the skeletons of freshly eaten cattle and people begin to show up. So does Mara, who came to Arizona to work for the Professor. The film is paced just right - not too slow, not too fast. The giant tarantula is not shown for a while and then slowly emerges along the mountain skyline. The scene of it starring in the window of Mara's bedroom is King Kong Kool. And then it heads for town. Lots of yummies there.  What happens to the Professor is a thing of nightmares and great make-up work. And damn if I wasn't right - I knew the voice though the mask covers the face - the air force pilot is none other than Clint Eastwood. His debut had been in Arnold's Revenge of the Creature.