The Deadly Mantis

The Deadly Mantis is a 1957 American science-fiction monster film produced by William Alland for Universal-International. The film was directed by Nathan Juran from a screenplay by Martin Berkeley based on a story by producer William Alland.[3] The Deadly Mantis stars Craig Stevens, William Hopper, Alix Talton and Pat Conway.[4]

Not to be confused with The Deadly Mantis (1978 film).
The Deadly Mantis
Directed byNathan H. Juran[1]
Produced byWilliam Alland
Screenplay byMartin Berkeley
Story byWilliam Alland
StarringCraig Stevens
Alix Talton
William Hopper
Music byUncredited:
Irving Gerts
William Lava
CinematographyEllis W. Carter
Edited byChester Schaeffer
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal-International
Release date
  • May 1, 1957 (1957-05-01) (LA)
[2]
May 26, 1957 (US)
Running time
78-79 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

In the South Seas, a volcano explodes, eventually causing North Pole icebergs to shift. Below the melting polar ice caps, a 200-foot-long praying mantis, trapped in the ice for millions of years, begins to stir. Soon after, the military personnel at Red Eagle One, a military station in northern Canada that monitors information gathered from the Distant Early Warning Line, realize that the men at one of their outposts are not responding to calls. Commanding officer Col. Joe Parkman (Craig Stevens) flies there to investigate, and finds the post destroyed, its men gone, and giant slashes left in the snow outside.

When a radar blip is sighted, Joe sends his pilots out to investigate, but their intended target disappears. Soon an Air Force plane is attacked by the deadly mantis. He searches the wreckage, and this time, in addition to the huge slashes, finds a five-foot-long pointed object in the snow. He takes it to General Mark Ford (Donald Randolph) at the Continental Air Defense (CONAD) in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Ford gathers top scientists, including Professor Anton Gunther (Florenz Ames ), to examine the object, but when they cannot identify it, Gunther recommends calling in Dr. Nedrick Jackson (William Hopper), a paleontologist at the Museum of Natural History.

When Ned gets the call from Ford, he is helping museum magazine editor Marge Blaine (Alix Talton) plan her next issue, and dodges her questions as she begs him for a big scoop. Later, after examining the object, Ned recognizes it as a torn-off spur from an insect's leg, and soon guesses, from evidence that the creature ate human flesh, that it must be a gigantic praying mantis. Meanwhile, in the Arctic, the people of an Inuit village spot the mantis in the sky, and although they hurry to their boats to escape, it swoops down and kills several men.

Ned is sent to Red Eagle One to investigate further, and upon leaving, discovers that Marge has managed to get permission to accompany him as his photographer. They reach the base, where all the men, including Joe, are smitten by Marge.

That night, Marge and Joe join Ned in his office and discuss the creature, not realizing that it is drawing close to the office window. Marge suddenly catches sight of it and screams, and the bug attacks the building. Although the full unit opens fire on the mantis with automatic rifles and a flame-thrower, it is unscathed and moves away only after aircraft encircle it.

Hours later, the base remains on red alert, but they finally hear that the bug has attacked a boat off the Canadian coast, which means, Ned calculates, that it is flying at a speed of 200 miles an hour. Ford calls a press conference to announce the bug's existence, and asks the Ground Observer Corps to track its whereabouts.

Over the next few days, Ned, Marge and Joe track the bug's progress with the help of military and civilian observers. Late one night, Joe drives Marge home, stopping briefly to ask for, and receive, a kiss. They are distracted by a report of a nearby train wreck, and although they assume it to be an ordinary accident, soon after, a woman leaving a bus sees the mantis, and all emergency personnel are put on alert. The mantis is then sighted in Washington, D.C., atop the Washington Monument.

Joe is one of the pilots who attempt to drive the mantis toward the sea, but a dense fog throws him off course, and he flies directly into it. As the wounded mantis drops to the ground and crawls into the Manhattan Tunnel, Joe safely parachutes to the ground.

Ford leads a team that seals off the tunnel, filling it with smoke to provide cover for Joe and his special unit of men, who enter the tunnel armed with rifles and three chemical bombs. They creep past wrecked cars until suddenly the bug appears in the fog only a few yards ahead of them. They shoot at it, but it lumbers on, forcing them backward. The mantis seems immune to the ammunition and the first chemical bombs until, only feet from the tunnel entrance, Joe throws a bomb in its face, and it collapses, dead.

Later, Ford, Ned, Joe and Marge enter the tunnel to examine the bug. Marge photographs its face while the men walk around its side, but Joe suddenly sees the mantis' arm move, and runs to protect Marge. Although Ned explains that the bug's movement was merely an autonomic reflex, Joe takes the opportunity to pull Marge into an embrace.

Cast

Production

The Deadly Mantis was the first science fiction film made by director Nathan Juran, who says the opening sequence was his idea.[5]

To create special effects for The Deadly Mantis, a 200-foot (61 m) by 40-foot (12 m) long papier-maché model of a mantis, with a wingspan of 150 feet (46 m) and fitted with a hydraulic system, was built. Two smaller models were also built, one that was 6 feet (1.8 m) long, and another that was 1 foot (0.30 m) long; these were used for the scenes where the mantis walked or flew. Shots of a real praying mantis were used for the scene in which the deadly mantis climbs the Washington Monument.[2]

The Deadly Mantis utilized stock Air Force footage taken from short films such as "Guardians All", "One Plane - One Bomb", and "SFP308." The footage of the Inuit village was taken from Universal's 1933 film S.O.S. Iceberg.[2]

Reception

The Deadly Mantis was released in 1957 as a double feature with the spy film The Girl in the Kremlin. The Deadly Mantis received mostly negative reviews upon its release. TV Guide awarded the film 1/4 stars, calling it "[a] Lame rip-off of the sci-fi classic THEM!".[6] Andrew Smith from Popcorn Pictures gave the film a score of 4/10, writing, "Devoid of anything fresh, featuring a tired storyline, an over-use of stock footage and peppered with lifeless characters, it’s no surprise to see this drop off the radar whilst true classics likes Them! and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms reign supreme."[7]

On his website Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings, Dave Sindelar criticized the film's unmemorable characters, clumsy story, and occasionally poorly handled scenes. However, Sindelar noted, "despite all this, the movie is fun and quite energetic".[8] The website Atomic Monsters looked at the film in a somewhat positive light, giving it a "radioactive rating of 5 atomic blasts out of 5".[9]

Home media

Universal released The Deadly Mantis on DVD in a boxed set called The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection Vol. 2, which includes four other films: (Dr. Cyclops, The Land Unknown, Cult of the Cobra, and The Leech Woman). Shout released a region 1 Blu Ray on March 19, 2019, with an informative Tom Weaver-David Schecter audio commentary. In February 1997, [N 1]

See also

References

Notes

  1. The Deadly Mantis was featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.[10]

Citations

  1. "Nathan Juran Filmography.' fandango.com, November 8, 2013.
  2. The Deadly Mantis at the American Film Institute Catalog
  3. Rajewski 2006, p. 18.
  4. Halliwell 1989, p. 257.
  5. Swires, Steve. "Nathan Juran: The fantasy voyages of Jerry the giant killer, part One." Starlog Magazine, Issue 141, April 1989, p. 60.
  6. "Movie Reviews and Movie Ratings: 'The Deadly Mantis'." TV Guide.com, November 1, 2018.
  7. Smith, Andrew. "Review: 'Deadly Mantis, The' (1957)." Popcorn Pictures.co.uk, (Andrew Smith), November 1, 2018.
  8. Sindelar, Dave. "Review: 'The Deadly Mantis' (1957)." Fantastic Movie Musings.com (Dave Sindelar), November 1, 2018.
  9. "Review: 'The Deadly Mantis' (1957)." Atomic Monsters, June 9, 2016.
  10. "Season 8, Episode 4 The Deadly Mantis" TV Guide

Bibliography

  • Halliwell, Leslie. Leslie Halliwell's Film Guide. New York: Harper & Roe, 1989. ISBN 978-0-06016-322-8.
  • Rajewski, Genevieve. Introducing the Deadly Mantis. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 2006. ISBN 978-1-40420-848-3.
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