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Tarantula
USA 1955
produced by
William Alland for Universal
directed by Jack Arnold
starring John Agar, Mara Corday, Leo G. Carroll, Nestor Paiva, Ross Elliott, Edwin Rand, Raymond Bailey, Hank Patterson, Bert Holland, Steve Darrell, Eddie Parker, Clint Eastwood, Don Dillaway, Tom London, Edgar Dearing, Dee Carroll, James Hyland, Vernon Rich, Stuart Wade, Billy Wayne
story by Jack Arnold, Robert M.Fresco, screenplay by Robert M. Fresco, Martin Berkeley, music by Henry Mancini, Herman Stein, music suopervisor: Joseph Gershenson, special effects by David S.Horsley
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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It all starts with Doctor Hastings (John Agar) investigating a man
(Eddie Parker) who has died in the desert - apparently from acromegaly (a
condition causing unnatural growth that eventually leads to death). Thing
is, four days ago the dead man was fine and not in the least bit affected
by the condition, and acromegaly is something that develops only very
gradually. Doc Hastings starts having his doubts, but Professor Deemer
(Leo G.Carroll), the local (mad ?) scientist and a colleague of the dead
man, assures him everything is all right, probably even against his own
better knowledge - because you know, Deemer and the dead man and Paul Lund
(Eddie Parker again) have been experimenting with some growth serum, a
serum that the deceased and Lund tried on themselves, and while the dead
man has just died, Lund has gone mad, and now he wrecks the professor's
lab and injects the professor with the growth serum as well, all before
the professor can kill and bury him. Unfortunately, when Lund wrecked the
lab, a tarantula injeccted with the growth serum escaped ...
At this point, some time is wasted with the blossoming romance between
Doc Hastings and Stephanie Clayton (Mara Corday), and Hastings and the
sheriff (Nestor Paiva) trying to figure out who's eating the local
lifestock, before the tarantula, now grown to truly giant proportions
(beyond the size of a house) decides to go on a rampage in the desert town
where most of the action is taking place, and since it is immune to
dynamite (?), it's finally disposed of using napalm, kindlydropped onto it
by a fighter pilot played by the then virtually unknown Clint Eastwood ...
Though Tarantula is nowadays considered a classic by many, the
film is less than perfect: An incredible anmount of time is spent with
setting up the main plot, and most of the science used in these scenes is
actually utterly ridiculous. Then there's the romance between John Agar
and Mara Corday, which unfortunately slows down the film exactly when it's
in desperate need of some action. Plus, the rather submissive role of Mara
Corday probably will not sit too well with today's audiences (though this
has to be viewed in the context of the time the film was made). The film's
saving grace - besides a very compact, competent directing job and
great desert landscapes - is of course the spider action itself: The
scenes with the spider (a real tarantula somehow copied into the scenery
and even interacting with it at times) are (almost) totally convincing and
actually amazing, considering the primitve technology they had in those
days (CGI has yet to deliver something half as convincing, actually), anf
furthermore the scenes are terrific. The last quarter of an hour or so are
really worth your while and are really worth sitting through anything that
happened before ... so in a way, the movie is totally recommendable - but
probbly not all of it ...
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