June 7- Tear into “Tarantula” Tonight!
What has eight legs and flies? Is it a) four outfielders with batting skills (ooh, that’s lame) - b) two horses with poor hygiene - c) Super Octopus! – or d) a giant tarantula with Clint Eastwood as a pilot? You probably know the right answer- because tonight’s Sven feature is indeed the 1955 giant menace film “Tarantula!”
A scientist is trying to develop a nutrient to help fight world hunger- but the best intentions often cause horror films, because, while the stuff does seem to make creatures become bigger and bigger- think what it’d do to cattle! Or swine! Or Cheetos! (Okay-scratch that last one…)- when it’s injected into humans- it causes them to mutate! When a thusly afflicted assistant returns to the lab to give the scientist a taste of his own bad medicine- in the ensuing brawl- a tarantula the size of a picnic table is released, and heads out into the desert!
Soon, cattle are being chewed up and dissolved, and there MUST be a reason- yeah, a big one that does whatever a spider can! Soon, it’s up to a valiant group of tarantula tenders (those are not like chicken tenders- I mean, people tending to the tarantula) to stop the big hairy guy in his tracks- as he gets larger and larger!
Plenty of notable folks in this film- John Agar, former early Playboy Playmate Mara Corday- Leo G. Carroll- Nestor Paiva, who was the boat captain in “Creature from the Black Lagoon” starring as the sheriff, and, make sure you watch for the Beverly Hillbillies’ Milburn Drysdale, Raymond Bailey, as a scientist- without the customary toupee he wore when he catered to Jed Clampett! And- as promised- Clint Eastwood, with his face covered by an oxygen mask, as a fighter pilot helping attack the tarantula.
You’ll notice that most of the shots of the tarantula are magnified close-ups of a real tarantula- with only a few shots of a special effects tarantula. The beast is often super-imposed into other shots- my favorite is one where it seems to topple a telephone pole- a really convincing effect!
On the Sven side, you can see our song parody of the classic Italian folk dance song that actually got its name from the hairy little beats (or big beast, as he appears in this film…) and all the usual Sven stuff.
This is a classic 50s Universal monster flick, right on par with the “Deadly Mantis” giant bug film. Since summer has a tendency to bring insectoid pests out- the time is right for “Tarantula!” –also appearing on Me-TV at 1 am tonight, and on our Milwaukee and South Bend outlets- check local listings for
when it will run this weekend!
A scientist is trying to develop a nutrient to help fight world hunger- but the best intentions often cause horror films, because, while the stuff does seem to make creatures become bigger and bigger- think what it’d do to cattle! Or swine! Or Cheetos! (Okay-scratch that last one…)- when it’s injected into humans- it causes them to mutate! When a thusly afflicted assistant returns to the lab to give the scientist a taste of his own bad medicine- in the ensuing brawl- a tarantula the size of a picnic table is released, and heads out into the desert!
Soon, cattle are being chewed up and dissolved, and there MUST be a reason- yeah, a big one that does whatever a spider can! Soon, it’s up to a valiant group of tarantula tenders (those are not like chicken tenders- I mean, people tending to the tarantula) to stop the big hairy guy in his tracks- as he gets larger and larger!
Plenty of notable folks in this film- John Agar, former early Playboy Playmate Mara Corday- Leo G. Carroll- Nestor Paiva, who was the boat captain in “Creature from the Black Lagoon” starring as the sheriff, and, make sure you watch for the Beverly Hillbillies’ Milburn Drysdale, Raymond Bailey, as a scientist- without the customary toupee he wore when he catered to Jed Clampett! And- as promised- Clint Eastwood, with his face covered by an oxygen mask, as a fighter pilot helping attack the tarantula.
You’ll notice that most of the shots of the tarantula are magnified close-ups of a real tarantula- with only a few shots of a special effects tarantula. The beast is often super-imposed into other shots- my favorite is one where it seems to topple a telephone pole- a really convincing effect!
On the Sven side, you can see our song parody of the classic Italian folk dance song that actually got its name from the hairy little beats (or big beast, as he appears in this film…) and all the usual Sven stuff.
This is a classic 50s Universal monster flick, right on par with the “Deadly Mantis” giant bug film. Since summer has a tendency to bring insectoid pests out- the time is right for “Tarantula!” –also appearing on Me-TV at 1 am tonight, and on our Milwaukee and South Bend outlets- check local listings for
when it will run this weekend!
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