(1955)
2.5
Bruce Eder
Jack Arnold's Tarantula was clearly modeled after Gordon Douglas' Them, the first of the giant insect movies, which had scored a huge hit for Warner Bros. the previous year. The story, however, was also tailored to the elements that Arnold favored in his own work, utilizing the notion of the isolated desert community as well as the topography of the desert and its psychological implications to full effect. Tarantula used as its jumping off point a distantly related script entitled "No Food for Thought," which had been done on Science Fiction Theater, and added the element of the giant spider ("No Food for Thought" was about an artificially developed nutrient that renders its victims incapable of surviving on natural sustenance). The script was especially clever in seldom more than hinting at the horror to come through most of the first 30 minutes, even as it offered all kinds of tantalizing elements of horror and mystery, assembled like points on a map leading us to the conclusion. The mystery here isn't as deftly woven as it was in Them, but there is more than enough to keep audiences guessing as to how all of these elements can possibly tie together with the monster that we know we'll be seeing at the denouement. John Agar, Nestor Paiva, Hank Patterson, and Leo G. Carroll handle the acting chores with success and even some inspiration, and Mara Corday makes one of the most delectable-looking heroines ever seen in a mid-'50s monster movie. It's Jack Arnold who pulls it all together, evoking his expected poetic look at the desert (a staple of his movies since It Came From Outer Space) and handling the personal elements of the story very smoothly. He even uses the desert shots that were a fixture of his horror titles to play off of the chills that we know are coming -- shots linger for long seconds, teasing us (will we see the ever more menacing spider, and if so, for how long?). There are enough horror elements before we get a look at the mountain-sized tarantula in the daylight to keep fans entertained, though it is obvious in the final phase of Professor Deemer's acromegalia that it is someone other than Leo G. Carroll under the makeup. The only major flaw with video, laserdisc, and television transfers is that its very difficult to discern the giant arachnid's size or shape in the scenes depicting the night attacks, which was not the case when this movie was shown on television during the 1960s, and certainly wasn't true in theaters -- perhaps the eventual, inevitable DVD release will solve that problem. Universal should also probably consider adding "No Food For Thought" to any DVD edition of Tarantula, to enhance its value and show off other, related aspects of Arnold's work.
releases for Tarantula on AllMovie
Tarantula (1955)
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Tarantula!
Universal
More
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April 3, 2006 |
