Tarantula (film): Difference between revisions
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==Plot summary== |
==Plot summary== |
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The plot concerns a biological researcher, Professor Gerald Deemer who is trying to prevent the food shortages which will result from the world's expanding population. With the help of atomic science, he invents a special nutrient on which animals can live exclusively, but which causes them to grow to many times their normal size. In his laboratory, he houses several oversized rodents and, inexplicably, a [[Brachypelma vagans|Mexican red rumped tarantula]]. |
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When a mysteriously deformed man, ERIC JACOBS, is found dead in the desert, DR. MATT HASTINGS, a family doctor in the tiny neighboring town of Desert Rock, is called in to examine the body. Jacobs, a research scientist, worked with PROFESSOR DEEMER, a reclusive scientist who's conducting mysterious experiments at an out of the way mansion near the town. |
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When his researchers try the nutrient, they develop runaway [[acromegaly]] and one of them is driven mad, half destroys the lab (freeing the animals) and attacks Deemer and injects him with the solution. Sadly, the tarantula is one of the creatures freed. As a result, Deemer gradually becomes more and more deformed while the now-gigantic tarantula ravages the countryside. A sympathetic doctor and Deemer's female assistant investigate the mystery of the clean-picked cattle bones and the eight-foot pools of arachnid venom, and the spider is eventually destroyed, after several failed attempts, by a [[napalm]] attack launched from a fighter squadron. |
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Dr. Matt is baffled by the cause of Eric's death. His distorted features suggest acromegaly, a disorder of the pituitary gland, but since Eric was fine just days earlier, Matt can't understand why he would deteriorate so quickly. When Professor Deemer insists that it is acromegaly and refuses to authorize an autopsy, Matt is both annoyed and confused. The local SHERIFF takes the Professor's side. |
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Later, Deemer returns to his lab, where it's revealed he's working on creating a food nutrient to feed the world's increasing population. He has injected the nutrient into lab animals, which have grown at astonishing rates. A caged tarantula is several times normal size. Suddenly, Deemer's other assistant, PAUL, stumbles into the lab, his face as hideously distorted as Jacobs'. Delirious, Paul attacks Deemer and busts up the lab, setting the tarantula loose. He also injects the unconscious Deemer with the nutrient, then dies as the lab begins to burn. Deemer awakes in time to put out the fire, then buries Paul's body without notifying authorities. |
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The following day, beautiful DR. STEPHANIE CLAYTON arrives in Desert Rock, having been hired by the late Jacobs. Matt gives her a ride to Deemer's, informing her of Jacobs' death. When they reach Deemer's house, the Professor pretends the damaged lab was an accident. Deemer explains how he is making the nutrient using the power of the atom to bind the solution. |
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Stephanie becomes an able assistant to Deemer, helping him with his experiments. She also gets to know Matt, who shows her the town and desert scenery. Meanwhile, something odd is going on in the desert. Something unknown is devouring the horses, their skeletal remains found by local RANCHERS. Two human beings appear to have been devoured after an apparent car accident. Matt notices huge pools of a mysterious substance near the accident. After lab analysis, he discovers that it's insect venom û but in an enormous quantity. |
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At the lab, Stephanie becomes concerned about Deemer, whose face is gradually becoming distorted, much like Jacobs and Paul. When Deemer finally confesses to Matt and Stephanie that Paul went on a rampage and released the tarantula, Matt becomes suspicious, making a connection to the recent phenomena. Meanwhile, the tarantula continues its rampage, killing TWO OLD PROSPECTORS in the desert. |
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While studying in her bedroom that night, Stephanie doesn't see that the tarantula is approaching in the distance, visible from her bedroom window. Once the tarantula begins wrecking the house, a horrified Stephanie tries to save Deemer, who's convalescing in his room, his face now completely distorted. Unfortunately, the tarantula kills Deemer before Stephanie can save him. |
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Matt drives up to the house as it collapses, but Stephanie gets out alive, rushing to Matt's car. They drive off into the desert, notifying the State Police and Sheriff, who gives orders to evacuate the town. Efforts to kill the approaching tarantula with machine guns fail, and the monster kills TWO COPS in the bargain. Another effort to kill the monster with dynamite also fails. With the tarantula headed for town, fighter planes approach, dropping bombs on the monster as it reaches Desert Rock. When traditional bombs fail, the planes drop napalm, setting the tarantula on fire as a relieved Matt, Stephanie and various OFFICIALS look on. |
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The film's poster, featuring a spider with two eyes instead of the normal eight, and carrying a woman in its fangs, does not represent any actual scene in the film. |
The film's poster, featuring a spider with two eyes instead of the normal eight, and carrying a woman in its fangs, does not represent any actual scene in the film. |
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Revision as of 00:29, 7 September 2010
| Tarantula | |
|---|---|
 1955 Movie Poster by Reynold Brown[1] | |
| Directed by | Jack Arnold |
| Written by | Robert M. Fresco Martin Berkeley from a story by Ray Bradbury uncredited. |
| Produced by | William Alland |
| Starring | John Agar Mara Corday Leo G. Carroll |
| Cinematography | George Robinson |
| Edited by | William Morgan |
| Music by | Herman Stein |
| Distributed by | Universal International Pictures |
Release date | December 14, 1955 |
Running time | 81 min. |
| Language | English |
Tarantula is a 1955 science fiction film directed by Jack Arnold, and starring Leo G. Carroll, John Agar, and Mara Corday. Among other things, the film is notable for the appearance of a 25-year-old Clint Eastwood in an uncredited role as a jet pilot at the end of the film.
Plot summary
The plot concerns a biological researcher, Professor Gerald Deemer who is trying to prevent the food shortages which will result from the world's expanding population. With the help of atomic science, he invents a special nutrient on which animals can live exclusively, but which causes them to grow to many times their normal size. In his laboratory, he houses several oversized rodents and, inexplicably, a Mexican red rumped tarantula.
When his researchers try the nutrient, they develop runaway acromegaly and one of them is driven mad, half destroys the lab (freeing the animals) and attacks Deemer and injects him with the solution. Sadly, the tarantula is one of the creatures freed. As a result, Deemer gradually becomes more and more deformed while the now-gigantic tarantula ravages the countryside. A sympathetic doctor and Deemer's female assistant investigate the mystery of the clean-picked cattle bones and the eight-foot pools of arachnid venom, and the spider is eventually destroyed, after several failed attempts, by a napalm attack launched from a fighter squadron.
The film's poster, featuring a spider with two eyes instead of the normal eight, and carrying a woman in its fangs, does not represent any actual scene in the film.
Cast
- Leo G. Carroll as Prof. Gerald Deemer
- John Agar as Dr. Matt Hastings
- Mara Corday as Stephanie Clayton
- Nestor Paiva as Sheriff Jack Andrews
- Ross Elliott as Joe Burch
- Edwin Rand as Lt. John Nolan
- Raymond Bailey as Townsend
- Hank Patterson as Josh
- Bert Holland as Barney Russell
- Steve Darrell as Andy Andersen
- Clint Eastwood as Jet Squadron Leader (uncredited)
Production
The special effects for both the giant animals and the unfortunate scientist's deformity are fairly advanced for the time, with real animals (including a rabbit and a guinea pig in Professor Deemer's lab) being used to represent the giant creatures. A real spider was also used for shots where the whole monster was shown, with models reserved for close-ups (and its skyscraper-sized version), resulting in a rather more convincing monster than the giant ants in the previous year's big-bug film, Them!.[2]
The movie was filmed in and around the rock formations of "Dead Man's Point" Lucerne Valley CA, a frequently used movie location for many early western films. Like Them!, Tarantula makes atmospheric use of its desert locations; and although a radioactive isotope does make an appearance, it differs from most big-bug films in having the mutation caused by the peaceful research of a well-intentioned scientist rather than nuclear weapons and/or a mad genius. Arnold was to use matte effects again two years later to show miniaturisation rather than gigantism in The Incredible Shrinking Man, which also featured an encounter with a spider.
Trivia
 | This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. (February 2008) |
- A poster of this movie, along with a poster of Revenge of the Creature, are seen in Back to the Future Part III, right after Doc Brown asks Marty who Clint Eastwood is. Marty replies "That's right; you haven't heard of him yet." This is an ironic coincidence, as Revenge of the Creature and Tarantula are two of Clint Eastwood's first feature film roles; he appears in both, uncredited. In Revenge of the Creature he appears as a lab technician and in Tarantula he appears as a jet pilot.
- The movie ands its leading man are name checked in the song Science Fiction Double Feature Picture Show. "Leo G Carroll was over a barrel, when Tarantula took to the hills"
Notes
- ^ The poster shows the spider (inaccurately depicted with only two eyes instead of eight) carrying a woman in its fangs, à la Fay Wray in King Kong, though such a scene does not appear in the film.
- ^ Searles B (1988). Films of Science Fiction and Fantasy. New York: Harry N. Abrams. pp. 165–67. ISBN 0-8109-0922-7.