Attack! of! the! Exclamation!: Them! & Tarantula!

Since it is October, time for some themed posts!

Last weekend, my local arthouse held a double bill screening of a pair of classics from the fifties era of monster movies.

Them! (Gordon Douglas, 1954):

Police are puzzled by a series of mysterious deaths in the desert.

They quickly learn that a hive of mutant ants, irradiated by the original atom bomb tests, have grown to massive size.

What is worse is that two queens are secluded somewhere, growing fresh workers to support their hives.

Can they be stopped?

The first of the American run of monster movies in the fifties, Them! was released in the same year as the original Godzilla and shares that film's catalyst of nuclear weapons. 

Directed by jack-of-all-genres Gordon Douglas, starring James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn (who played Santa Claus in the original Miracle on 34th Street), Joan Weldon, and James Arness (the original Thing, 1951) and written by George Worthing Yates, Ted Sherdeman and Russell Hughes, Them! is a terrific thriller that endures despite some of the technical limitations of the 'them' of the title.

Since it is coming at the head of a genre, Them! is fascinating as the filmmakers find their way into narrative and character conventions that are now seen as cliche. 

For a majority of the runtime, the movie is fashioned like a mystery - the filmmakers hold off showing the title creatures until the last possible moment, and the movie is better for it.

This movie has a great first act. Police find a catatonic girl wandering in the desert, and a camper peeled open like a can of sardines. As they load the little girl into an ambulance, eerie cries echo across the desert. The little girl snaps to attention. She knows the source, but is unable to describe it.

The sound design of the ants' cries is deeply unsettling, and works well to build the omnipresence of the threat as the camera pans across empty desert vistas, the source of the cries hidden from view.

The movie spends a lot of time with our heroes as they try to figure out what is going on, and once the menace is revealed, the filmmakers only show the ants (represented by crude animatronics) sparingly.

While the special effects are rough, the rest of the movie more than makes up for it. The cast are all solid, Douglas's direction milks the atmosphere, and the script unfolds at a clip. There is even a scene which is just an educational movie on ants which is great.

A terrific start to the genre, it is easy to see why Them! was followed by so many imitators, which brings us to...

 Tarantula! (Jack Arnold, 1955)

When an experiment to artificially grow food goes tragically wrong, a super-sized tarantula is released from a desert lab and proceeds to terrorise the local community.

It falls to local doctor Matt Hastings (John Agar) and scientist Stephanie 'Steve' Clayton (Mara Corday) to stop the menace before it is too late.

If Them! is the inauguration of a genre, Tarantula! is an example of the genre in medis res. Directed by Jack Arnold (Creature from the Black Lagoon) and produced by William Alland, Tarantula was part of Universal’s push into horror and science fiction in the fifties. 

Released a year after Them!, in some ways Tarantula! feels like a distilled version of the earlier movie. 

Once again we open in the desert. A figure stumbles into view - a disfigured man. He collapses in the sand.

There is more overt sci-fi and horror elements in Tarantula! which make it more fantastical than Them! 

There are elements of body horror in the portrayal of the scientists responsible for the titular monster, although they are relatively benign, not Frankenstein-style egomaniacs.

For me, the biggest difference with Them! is the casting. Them! was populated by character actors, there is a broader, more b-movie quality to the performances in Tarantula! nothing agains the actors - the characters feel more like archetypes.

That being said, that shift fits the more comic book style of this movie. The acting is pretty solid all round - Leo G. Carroll is good as the distant scientist struggling with what he has wrought, and Mara Corday brings plenty of spark to the female lead.

I cannot say the same for the lead. There is something off about John Agar - there’s a slyness in his brow and a tension round the jaw that put me on edge. He is a familiar face in Arnold’s movies so he will probably fit in if I watch more of Arnold’s work. Here, he just came off as a cocky asshole - but that is probably because the role is a prime example of the macho American male who knows when to take charge. 

He may be a doctor, but he is a rough and tumble man of the earth (or desert). It feels like a dry run for 'science v machismo' conflicts of later Hollywood fare. In the end, he is responsible for the very unscientific manner of the tarantula's demise. 

Onto the star of the show.

In contrast to Them! the title role of Tarantula! was played by a real-life tarantula (who would go on to menace Grant Williams in Arnold's The Incredible Shrinking Man).

The compositing of the spider into the live-action footage is great - the effects team even managed to include its shadow - and the movie gets a lot of tension from wide shots showing our eight-legged hero advancing over the horizon toward the hapless humans.

One downside to the great effects is that the movie lacks the mounting dread and sense of discovery that made Them! so watchable. The movie is really enjoyable but it does feel more generic in its narrative development. We see our boy fairly regularly throughout the picture, which dissipates some of the tension.

That being said, the presence of a real-life spider gives a sense of verisimilitude to the set pieces - there is something disquieting about watching a giant spider stealthily scuttle down a hillside toward panicking horses. 

A running theme of both movies is the sense of American exceptionalism underpinning the heroes' struggle. No matter how dire the threat, it can be solved by tough-minded professionals with plenty of fire power. By the end of Tarantula!, I was so depressed by how clean-cut and all-American the protagonists were that I was hoping the tarantula would win.

The use of military power feels like such a product of the Fifties. Compare the lack of cynicism here with the monster and disaster movies of the seventies, after the double barrels of Vietnam and Watergate.

That baggage aside, Them! and Tarantula! are still terrific. The production design is terrific, and while both movies suffer a bit from being aggressively earnest, that same desire to take their subject matter seriously works. They also do not lose themselves on over-use of their effects - both films are great examples of how the limitations of technology can lead to an emphasis on other aspects of the production. Jaws worked because the shark did not, and the same sense of ingenuity courses through both of these films.

Both highly recommended.

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on Libsyn, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Just going to post this...

After watching the first presidential debate, this was all I could think about.

Here is the full quote:

"Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."

The JAMES BOND COCKTAIL HOUR is back!

If you were wonder ing where the podcast went... TA DA!

This season we decided to switch things up a bit and - following the strategy of the last season of the SugaBros - we released the first THREE episodes.

In our season premier, we check in on the marketing campaign for Bond 25 AKA No Time To Die, and review the new trailer which dropped earlier this month.

You can check this episode at this link or wherever you get your podcasts. 

In our second episode, we dive back into the John Gardner era of literary Bond with a look at 1986's Nobody Lives For Ever.

In the third episode, we analyse how each new actor was introduced as Bond and set up the next batch of episodes!

The next episodes will drop on 14 October (NZ time). 

BITE-SIZED REVIEW: The Debt Collector 2 (Jesse V. Johnson, 2020)

After surviving their last job, French (Scott Adkins) and Sue (Louis Mandylor) are back again. This time they have to claim three debts for a new client, someone who wants to make sure that the gruesome twosome are beaten and bloodied by the time they complete the assignment.

After the surprise of the original, I was looking forward to another day in the lives of the professional leg-breakers.

I liked Debt Collectors - particularly the rapport between the title characters. Adkins and Mandylor have a solid chemistry and the script finds ways to add more nuance and shading to them. 

Mandylor in particular gets more depth, as their latest job turns out to be far more personal than he initially lets on. 

The movie continues its prequel's emphasis on the pain and brutality our heroes have to endure. In a neat story development, French's unwillingness to get hurt puts the friends at odds just before the final showdown. While the story-telling is not that original, the script has a solid grasp of the character development.

Without the freshness of the original, this movie does feel a little bit short - I could have used some more scenes with French and Sue hanging out in Vegas, interacting with various weirdos. The ending also feels a tad neat, tying up the story far too cleanly.

If we can get a couple more movies out of the premise, I might feel more charitable about the movie. But as is, while the story is interesting and the actors are more secure in their roles, I could have used more time with them.

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on Libsyn, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Bait (Antoine Fuqua, 2000)

After getting arrested for a heist involving shrimp/prawns, Alvin (Jamie Foxx) ends up in a cell with a man who is implicated in a massive bullion heist. He is the focus of an investigation to learn the identity of the robber and the location of the missing bullion.

After he dies, the authorities shift their focus to the only other person in the cell: Alvin.

After implanting a microphone in his back molar, they release Alvin back into society.

While he tries to sort out his life, the authorities wait to see if the mastermind behind the heist will take the...

Antoine Fuqua has had a really interesting career - he has been mostly aligned with the action genre, and has attained a certain cache for directing the Oscar-winning Training Day. Most of his work has attempted to balance R-rated thrills with earnest drama.

For me the earnestness usually comes off a little silly, particularly juxtaposed with how ridiculously violent his movies are - not that I am complaining. Fuqua makes fun action movies, and in the 2010s he seems to have recognised this, particularly with Olympus Has Fallen and The Equalizers. 

Before Training Day, Fuqua made Bait, an action comedy thriller starring Jamie Foxx. Now I have not seen every Fuqua movie, but I do not think he has made any other comedies. As such, Bait is an interesting outlier from the action movies and dramas that make up the rest of Fuqua's filmography.

From the beginning the movie is odd. Tonally it feels very similar to later Fuqua movies - and then we meet Foxx's Alvin, trying to steal prawns.

I get the impression that this movie is intended to work in a similar way to Eddie Murphy's 48 Hours and Beverly Hills Cop - a familiar thriller/action scenario, with a comedian at the centre of it. Bait never quite manages that balancing act between comedy and the drama of the situation.

While Alvin botches his robbery, the film interrupts with the more sophisticated heist taking place in a federal vault. In contrast to Alvin's introduction, this heist is very dark and serious, with a brutal edge - it ends with the movie's villain coldly executing security men tied up on the floor. 

The tonal shift is jarring, and remains fairly consistent throughout the film.

Part of the issue is that the story is very dark - the premise of a government agency using an unknowing black man as a patsy is very Orwellian. I am sure there is some very in-depth analysis that has been written about this element of the film's story.  The filmmakers try to make the surveillance component part of the comedy but it just comes off as creepy.

It also feels like Foxx is on his own - if you took out his asides, there is not a lot of humour in the story. Foxx is really good when he is just part of the scenes, particularly when Alvin finds out he has a kid. Foxx is a really talented guy, but there is too many moments where it feels like ad-libbing has been wedged into the movie.

Fuqua also shoots it with a lot of harsh blues and greys. For an action comedy the movie's overall tone is too oppressive to allow the humour to breathe. It is hard to have jokes in a movie featuring multiple deaths, a torture scene and a baby in peril.

While this tonal inconsistency throws the movie off where it wants to be, it also makes it weirdly compelling. Watching Foxx trying to work comedic moments in the middle of the film's grim diegesis is fascinating - it is like watching someone wear a suit that is two sizes too big. 

It also filters into the casting: The most comedic actor in the movie is Mike Epps, as Alvin's brother. He and Foxx have a good rapport, but it feels like a completely different movie.

The rest of the casting feels like the kind of heavy duty ensemble you would get in any 90s thriller: David Morse, David Paymer and Kimberly Elise are wildly over-qualified for this movie, and their presence adds to the tonal disconnect. 

Kimberly Elise in particular feels wasted. She is stuck playing a girlfriend role, and is unconscious for most of the third act. Since Alvin has left her in the lurch repeatedly, her disenchantment and impatience make sense - and also undermine Foxx's wordplay. Alvin comes off as callous rather than quick-witted. 

Bait is a movie made for mixed reactions, and that includes the villain: Doug Hutchinson is a real life creep. He is also good in this movie. He underplays the role, with a simmering rage that only bubbles to the surface in his final confrontation with Foxx. If this movie were a straight thriller, he might be more effective and memorable.

Bait is made by talented people. It does not work in the way that it wants to, but that makes it more interesting to watch. 

Alligator (Lewis Teague, 1980)

What do you get when you put a pet baby alligator and a bunch of genetically-engineered rats in a sewer? 

Alligator!!!

Body parts keep showing up and it falls to policeman David Madison (Robert Forster) and gator expert Marisa Kendall (Robin Riker) to find the culprit (Alligator!!!).

I have a bad habit of looking at the least celebrated corners of pop culture, and that includes filmographies

I have not seen any of John Sayles’ films but I have read multiple books and interviews with him. He has a career path that I envy. 

Since his early days he has jumped between his own projects and writing genre pictures. His better known credits in this capacity are Joe Dante’s Piranha and Ron Howard’s Apollo13.

1980’s Alligator is pretty significant - it was an early directorial credit for genre helmer Lewis Teague (Cujo), inspired Quentin Tarantino to cast leading man Robert Forster in JACKIE BROWN (earning him an Oscar nomination) and helped pay for John Sayles’ directorial debut Return of the Secaucus Seven.

As a monster movie, Alligator is pretty fun.

While the movie had a modest budget, it has pretty solid sense of scope, and the effects are serviceable. 

Accomplished by a real gator on miniature sets, an animatronic and POV shots, they may not always work but there is something weirdly entertaining to watching a real alligator interacting with toy cars on a model street. It also helps that the creature - in its various forms - is a physical entity, rather than a mass of pixels.

While the effects are fine, there are a lot of moments of confused editing which detract from the suspense. The animatronic cannot do much so there is a lot of cutting around it. The tail seems to swing into frame out of the wrong direction multiple times.

The two elements that I really liked were Robert Forster’s performance and the third act.

While the cast are fine, they all feel of a piece with the movie’s tone - they feel like characters in a monster movie. Forster feels like an ordinary guy.

The character is based on a familiar cliche - the veteran cop struggling with a past failure - but Forster natural understatement shaves off any potential cheese. I used to find him a little one-note, but in the last couple of years I have really come around to his performance style.

There is something so grounded, and un-affected about his performance that really connects with me. He underplays the character’s trauma, makes fun of his baldness and comes across as a professional trying to deal with a ridiculous situation. It is a cliche, but he feels like a guy you could meet on the street. 

John Sayles' script is really good at finding ways to give this monster story some more meat (no pun intended), particularly in terms of how it manages to work in a subplot about corrupt city politics and corporate greed without feeling contrived.

Early on, it turns out that the city's milquetoast mayor is in bed with the corporation responsible for super-sizing the gator. This puts the brakes on Madison's investigation, forcing him to go it alone in hunting down the deadly animal. It is not as vicious as RoboCop (and feels like a polish of the Mayor from Jaws), but it adds to the world-building, and another layer of jeopardy to the film.

The highlight of the movie is the ending - the gator attacks a wedding at Slade’s mansion. If you are angry at the 1%, this scene is very therapeutic. It is also a blackly comic punchline to the movie's takedown of the mega-rich.

This sequence is followed by Madison's final showdown with the Gator. While he tries to escape, an unknowing driver stops her car on top of the manhole cover he is planning to escape through. 

Overall, Alligator is a really enjoyable creature feature, with a strong script and a great lead performance. 

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Eagle Has Landed (John Sturges, 1976)

Following the rescue of Mussolini, an official in the Third Reich develops a similar scheme to kidnap British prime minister Winston Churchill during a trip to the southern coast, and spirit him to Germany.

A group of German paratroopers led by Colonel Kurt Steiner (Michael Caine) are charged with accomplishing the mission. 

Will they succeed?

After making my way through the desert of the G.I. Joe franchise (RIP), I felt an itch to watch some old-school war movies. The Eagle Has Landed popped up online, so I checked it out.

I watched this one about 15 years ago. A late entry in the men-on-a-mission strain of WW2 movies, The Eagle Has Landed takes the usual template and flips it, splitting the narrative perspective between the German invaders, their unknowing hosts in the small English village, and the bored American soldiers stationed down the road.

In terms of its point-of-view, it is closer to a film like Day of the Jackal, in which the audience is expected to empathise with the enemy. Unlike the banal sociopath of that movie, Steiner and his men are presented as 'good soldiers', professionals disgusted and disillusioned by the crimes of the Third Reich. 

The film makes it clear that their ultimate loyalty is to each other, a bond forged by years of difficult missions. In terms of archetypes, they are closer to the battle-scarred veterans of a thousand action movies - their cynicism about higher authority (officers, the Reich). 

It is a dark spin on the anti-authoritarianism running through the action movies of the decade, and is probably an offshoot of the myth of the 'clean' Wehrmacht that was popular after WW2. While I questioned the film's portrayal of Steiner and his men, the complicated approach to audience sympathies does make the movie a more interesting watch. 

There is an air of fatalism through the picture that waters down any sugarcoating of the paratroopers  - Steiner and his men are condemned to die for betraying orders. Whether it is by suicide missions on human torpedo boats or as participants in this ridiculous scheme is irrelevant.

While the movie is unique for its splitting of perspectives, if you are familiar with pre-Vietnam Hollywood war movies, it does feel rather familiar in its presentation - Lalo Schifrin's score is light years away from his most familiar work, recalling the scores of Elmer Bernstein. The final credits also feel weirdly out of step with the subject - each player's credit plays over footage of the character from the movie. It might be an intentional playing on conventions. It might be the times in which we live, but I left the movie vaguely disquieted.

The best performance in the film comes from Donald Sutherland (who would go on to play a very different foreign agent in 1981's Eye of the Needle). He plays an Irish republican who is determined to assist any action that will help to liberate his country.

His accent might wander, but Sutherland brings a charm and swagger to the role that makes him the most arresting of the film's anti-villains.

As far as the other characters go, Donald Pleasance is quietly unsettling as the nervy, officious Himmler, and -  in a fun cameo - future Dallas star Larry Hagman plays an over-eager American officer who leads a failed counter-attack on the paratroopers.

If I have one overall complaint, it is pacing. The first hour is ridiculously slow, as we are introduced to the paratroopers, the townsfolk and the Americans. Once the paratroopers' cover is blown, the movie gains pace and suspense, and the film's duelling perspectives become more evident. A movie like this does require a good deal of set-up, but there is a strange lack of tension and energy to the film's first half that almost made me turn off.

If you can get through the opening, The Eagle Has Landed amounts to a unique spin on the 'men-on-mission' genre. I roll my eyes at the virtuousness of its soldier protagonists, but actual mission aspect is very compelling.

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.