Monster From Green Hell - Nightmares In Central Africa

By Steve D. Stones

With the success of Them in 1954, it was inevitable that a series of giant bug movies would soon follow on the big screen. Most were inferior efforts in comparison to Them. Monster From Green Hell (1957) is one of those lesser-known efforts that caters to an age of atomic fears.

Dr. Quentin Brady, played by Jim Davis of TV's Dallas, is a scientist who sends animal and insect test subjects into space to study the effects of cosmic radiation. One of Brady's rockets with a wasp specimen crashes in Central Africa in a region known by natives as Green Hell. The natives soon report seeing strange giant monsters in the area, but never specifically state they are giant wasps. These claims are dismissed as native superstitions.

Brady and his assistant Dan Morgan decide to track four hundred miles into Central Africa to investigate the claims. Along the way they encounter water shortage, dehydration, attacks from natives and a contaminated water hole. Soon they encounter a village wiped out by giant insects.

A lot of screen time is spent showing Brady, Morgan and their guides tracking through the African jungle. Although Brady and Morgan discover the source of the native's claims to be giant wasps, the creatures who appear on screen look nothing like wasps. They move very slowly and look more like a cross between a crab and a moth. The stop motion animation is a bit dated, but still makes the film fun to watch. One of the giant wasps even battles a giant snake towards the end of the film.

Brady and crew are eventually chased into a cave by one of the wasps. Dynamite is used to hold the wasps back from entering the cave, but instead traps the explorers in the cave. They find a way out just as a volcano in the area erupts and kills the nest of giant wasps.

Like the strange giant rat-bat-spider in Angry Red Planet (1960), the cult appeal of Monster From Green Hell may be in how the giant wasps are shown. They are not very convincing as wasps, but their strange appearance and slow stop motion animation adds to the appeal of the film.

The punk rock band The Misfits recorded a song entitled Green Hell in the early 1980s on their Earth A.D. album. The song was later covered as an homage by the Heavy Metal band Metallica in 1987. This song is likely inspired by Monster From Green Hell. Happy viewing.

Them! The first and best of the 50s giant bug movies

By Steve D. Stones

Them is 1950s sci-fi/horror at its best. The film plays on the fears of the atomic age and atomic testing. It's surprising that in today's digital age, the film has not been remade with digital giant ants. A film like Them is a masterpiece for its time, and likely would not hold up well as a remake in our age of global terrorism and the Internet.

A New Mexico state trooper, played by veteran actor James Whitmore, encounters a six year old girl wandering aimlessly through the desert. The girl is in complete shock, and will not reveal how or why she ended up in the desert. Whitmore discovers that the little girl's family trailer was attacked and destroyed during the night by something large. Only the little girl survived the attack.

The FBI is called in to help solve the mystery. In the meantime, a store owner is attacked and killed not far from where the trailer was destroyed. It appears that whatever attacked the store was looking for sugar. Whitmore's trooper companion is also killed in the attack.

FBI agent James Arness, who played Matt Dillon on TV's Gunsmoke, becomes impatient in not being able to identify what the plaster casted print taken from the destroyed trailer scene is. A father-daughter team of entomologists - Edmund Gwenn and Joan Weldon, are called in to identify the print. The two have a good idea of what the print is, but keep their findings carefully guarded until they know for sure.

While visiting a spot near the destroyed family trailer - Arness, Whitmore, Gwenn and Weldon are confronted by a large ant. This confirms Gwenn's theory that atomic testing done in the desert before the ending of World War II has turned ants into giants.

Gwenn and Weldon discover the nest of the giant ants in the desert and order that the police and military destroy it with fire. Weldon enters the burned out nest with Arness and Whitmore - only to discover that two winged queen ants and their consorts have escaped.

After a number of reports of giant ant sightings - Arness, Gwenn, Weldon and Whitmore track the two escaped queen ants and their consorts to a nest in the underground sewer system of Los Angeles. The film ends with the military once again burning up the discovered nest.

Part of the effectiveness of Them is in not showing the giants ants very often, but implying their presence in a number of scenes. Keeping in mind that this is low budget film making at its finest - implying the presence of the giant ants helps to build the tension in a number of scenes.

Actor Edmund Gwenn is superbly cast as a grouchy old scientist who is level headed and strikes down the military whenever their suggestions jeopardize catching the giant ants. Arness is also convincing as the simple simon FBI agent who is anxious to solve the case quickly. Weldon provides window dressing for the male audience, but also plays a convincing role.

A number of giant insect films were soon to follow after the premiere of Them in 1954 - such as: The Deadly Mantis (1957), Tarantula (1955), The Black Scorpion (1957) and Monster From Green Hell (1957). Them remains the best of this sci-fi sub-genre. Happy viewing!

Them! & Tarantula – An Evening of 1950s Nostalgia!

By Steve D. Stones

Patrons of the Ogden Peery’s Egyptian Theatre were greeted to the pleasant, yet chilling sounds of a Wurlitzer organ on the evening of Saturday September 18th, 2010. The mood provided by the organ was like traveling back in time to the silent era of films. There were no poodle skirts or Brylcreem styled hairdos in attendance, but the evening was filled with 1950s nostalgia, courtesy of a drive-in double feature – Them! (1954) and Tarantula (1955).

Local film historian, collector and archivist Van Summerill appeared on stage to introduce the two films and to give some interesting facts about these 1950s classics. Between the two features, a 10-minute 1950s intermission clip was shown – adding to the ambiance of the event.

First up was Tarantula, starring John Agar, Mara Corday and Leo G. Carroll. Carroll plays a scientist who is conducting secret lab experiments in the desert to create a nutrient to end world hunger. One of his lab assistants is injected with the nutrient, causing him to develop acromegaly, a condition causing body glands to enlarge dramatically. The lab assistant attacks Carroll and accidentally unleashes a giant tarantula, which finds its way into the desert, grows larger and attacks local cattle and citizens.

A young Clint Eastwood saves the day at the end of the film as a jet fighter pilot who drops napalm bombs on the giant tarantula before it makes its way into town.

Considering that filmmakers would not have had the benefit of digital computer technology in the 1950s, scenes showing the giant tarantula walking across the desert landscape are quite convincing and amazing for their time. I thought of all the times as a child where I brushed away a giant spider on my window seal, or stepped on one on the sidewalk.

Next up was Them! Them is considered by most film historians and critics to be one of the best 1950s science-fiction films, a point which Summerill mentioned in his introduction to the film.

Them stars veteran actor Edmund Gwenn, as an entomologist, James Arness as an FBI agent, James Whitmore as a police officer, and Joan Weldon as Gwenn’s daughter assistant. Gwenn is called in by New Mexico law enforcement to examine strange prints left in the sand where a young family was attacked and killed during a camping trip. Gwenn and Weldon discover the print to be of a giant ant. They conclude that an atomic explosion conducted in the New Mexico desert in 1945 has caused desert ants to grow large.

The nest of the ants is found and destroyed, but not before some make their way to the canals of downtown Los Angeles. Arness and Whitmore team up with the National Guard to burn and destroy the giant ants in the canal waterways.

Both Them and Tarantula follow in a long line of “giant insects run amuck” films of the 1950s. Others to follow include: The Beginning of The End (about giant grasshoppers attacking Chicago, and starring Arness’s brother Peter Graves), Earth vs. The Spider (AKA The Spider), The Black Scorpion and The Deadly Mantis. These films clearly reflect the fears that postwar audiences had at the time of the Cold War and the atomic age.

A special thanks goes out to Carolyn Bennion, Van Summerill and the Peery’s Egyptian Theatre Committee for bringing these two cult classic1950s films to the theatre. It was a fun evening for all in attendance!