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The Deadly Mantis (1957) Directed by Nathan Juran Screenplay by Martin Berkeley Run Time: 79 min Tagline: "This Was the Day That Engulfed the World in Terror!" "Two men just don't vanish!" "These did." "It came from something alive...something incredibly, unbelievably huge!" Oh joy...another "big bug" movie. Man, when will I ever learn? Although far from the worst of this genre (see Beginning of the End (1957) for a good example of a truly crappy bug movie), "The Deadly Mantis" has a lot to be desired. OK. I take that back; This movie sucks. The "science" behind the mantis's existence is, well, non-existent...basically a volcano erupts somewhere in the Southern hemisphere causing an iceberg to break off on the other side of the globe near the North Pole (!). Our featured bug was, of course, released from its icy tomb in the process, no worse for the wear, and quickly proceeds to raise hell before finally being gassed to death in a tunnel in New York City. "For every action is an equal and opposite re-action," is all the film's narrator (the ubiquitous Marvin "Robby the Robot" Miller) in way of explanation of the mantis's highly improbable advent. Gee. Thanks. What about the more obvious questions: What the hell is a giant mantis doing at the North Pole in the first place? How does a insect, albeit a huge one, survive the deadly sub-zero temperatures? Why can't anybody seem to find and shoot the damn thing down? Why do I spend my time watching these movies? The observant reader (or somebody who bothers to investigate a bit on IMDB) may notice that Romanian-born director Nathan Juran helmed one of my favorite goofy sci-fi films The Brain from Planet Arous (1957). (Coming soon to this site when I get the time!) Other films of note include Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958), and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (also 1958). Gotta love that guy! Screenplay writer Martin Berkeley also penned some decent flicks from the 50's including one of the better "big bug" flicks: Tarantula (1955). He also wrote the so-so 1955 sequel to "Creature from the Black Lagoon" entitled Revenge of the Creature, alone with a handful of other films. Incredibly enough, the mantis special effects were done by Fred Knoth: the man responsible for the nice effects done the same year in sci-fi classic (in my eyes) The Incredible Shrinking Man. I guess he needed a quick buck because, believe me brother, the mantis itself is pretty damn goofy. Anyway, the film opens with the "for every action is an equal and opposite re-action" malarkey that I quoted above. As is par for the course for these sci-fi cheapo's, almost all opening narration is The film proceeds as expected at this point. A search party flies out to the radio station only to discover that it's in fact destroyed ("...as if something crashed into the roof!") and that the 2 radio operators are missing. A couple of 'false-scares' and a bit of head-scratching leads to the discovery of two long furrows in the snow, almost as if something landed there...hmmm. (How they didn't see the pair of 50-foot long tracks from the air is beyond me.) To the eerie strings of a violin on the sound track, one of the men brushes away some snow to reveal a huge 3-toed imprint in the ice. Back at "Red Eagle One", a "blip" on a radar screen compels the jumpy CO, Colonel Parkman, to call a red alert. The red alert is accompanied by clips of stock footage showing pilots donning flight gear, running across tarmacs, and scrambling into fighter jets. Unfortunately, whoever chose this footage failed to see (or probably didn't care) that the footage was filmed in a snowless, tree-filled part of the country, which doesn't exactly match the Arctic terrain that we've been seeing so far. Just try not to notice that.
Umm, wasn't this film taking place at the North Pole? Anyway, more footage of planes flying around in formation looking for the source of the mysterious "blip". After a pointless scene, the planes report back that they found nothing and return to base. Now that was exciting! The next day the mantis downs a C-47. Colonel Parkman and a couple of others fly out to the crash site and discover more of those weird 3-toed imprints in the snow. (Take a look at the cardboard mock-up of Parkman's plane in the background...the wind from the fans blowing the soap-flake 'snow' seems to nearly blow the 'plane' off the set as well!) To add to the mystery The officers at the base are stumped. What the hell could it be? Well, they decide to report their finding to "CONAD", or Continental Air Defense, which is responsible for the "Super Sonic Shield that guards the North American continent." (The Super Sonic Shield? I argue that this adjective is not entirely what they intended to say when they wrote the script.) A certain General Ford (Donald Randolph) arranges for the odd organic finding to be flown to the Pentagon for study by a committee of scientists. This astute board of professors have come to one conclusion: "That this appendage comes from some living creature." They cannot say any more than that. (Wow! Your tax dollars at work!) The scientists's spokesman suggests contacting Dr. Nedrick Jackson (William Hopper), a leading paleontologist at the Museum of Natural History. (No, not 'Fredrick'...Nedrick.) Moving right along, Nedrick and his female assistant and museum's magazine editor Marge Blain (Alix Talton), go over the evidence. Nedrick eventually deduces that the appendage fragment must have come from a giant, prehistoric insect. Later when he tries to explain his theory to the other scientists, he shows them a goliath beetle, but Nedrick refers to it as an "ant"...Idiot...and this guy is supposed to be working at the Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.? Yeah. Right. Stupid movie.
Nedrick displays an "ant" to a curious scientist. Nedrick's 'big bug' theory is initially met with disbelief, but eventually the other scientists are willing to give it a shot. ("Five men have vanished!" Nedrick shouts, "To die is one thing...to disappear without a trace suggests complete destruction!" Umm, sure, Ned, sure.) "Where do we start?" asks Dr. Gunther. "By thinking of the hook...as though it were infinitely smaller," Nedrick suggests. Man, if you want to know what I'm thinking...I'm thinking about just switching this crap off. Nedrick makes a final (and most unlikely) deductive leap and concludes that it is in fact a gigantic praying mantis. Meanwhile, our titular insect busies itself by eating an eskimo village. Well, sort of. We don't actually see it eat anybody. Rather the filmmakers took Eskimo footage from an old 1933 film called S.O.S. Eisberg and foleyed that irritating buzzing noise over the scenes. This is really quality stuff here folks. Well, at least we finally see a shot of the mantis's head and forelegs as it clumsily knocks over I would also like to point out that the mantis roars like a lion. Oh boy. We're having fun now. (Hilariously, in the next scene the headline of The Washington Globe newspaper is "Greenland Eskimos Terrorized". Yeah, I guess you could say that. You'd think that the fact that they were terrorized by a praying mantis the size of a Greyhound bus might have also been mentioned...) The next day Ned travels to the Arctic to meet with the Air Force at Red Eagle One and investigate first hand. After some silly, sexist banter, Marge persuades Ned to take her along as his 'photographer', even though, you know, she is merely a woman! The evening after Ned and Marge arrive at the base, the giant mantis is seen making its way across the snow towards Red Eagle One. Maybe not actually walking...the monstrous mantis sort of shuffles its legs back and forth and appears to hover over the surface of the snow. The bug makes its way, unseen (!), to the radar station and starts raising hell. (True to this film genre, the first person to see this gigantic intruder is the female lead, Marge, who lets out a ear-shattering scream upon spotting it outside the window.) A couple of soldiers grab rifles and a flame thrower and attack the insect. Having had enough abuse, the mantis takes wing and flies off into the cold Arctic night. A squadron of stock-footage fighter jets are quickly scrambled to track the beast. After some truly atrocious dialog, Ned deduces that the mantis is heading towards South America towards a more suitable climate. Ned and Marge head back to Washington as we cut to see the mantis flying low over the ocean. The "flying" mantis special effects are truly awful. The bug Newspaper headlines show growing fear throughout the continental United States as the mantis approaches. Boring scenes showing solemn newscasters broadcasting warnings to the public ensue. Unfortunately, nobody knows exactly where the bug is...because it flies at 250 miles per hour! Yup. And I have some swamp land down in Florida I'd like to sell you... Eventually the bug is spotted and a squadron of fighter jets are sent up to shoot it down. Let's just say that the ariel combat scenes between the jets and the mantis are less than convincing. In the end, the mantis dives into the clouds and escapes. For some reason the jets don't seem capable of flying through clouds and break off the pursuit. Go figure. People say things, things happen, the mantis continues raising hell by smashing buses and trains (off screen of course), and this dull, preposterous movie continues to crawl towards the conclusion. Moving right along...the mantis finally reaches Washington D.C. where it flies around a bit, buzzes Yet another squadron of stock-footage jets are scrambled to meet the threat. (Notice how the planes that are shown taking off don't match the planes shown flying in the air...nice.) Ok, yup. The mantis continues flying around but now the Army opens up with anti-aircraft fire. Following its natural instincts to avoid anti-aircraft fire, the wily bug drops down and cruises under the radar. (Don't ask how it knew to do that...I really don't care at this point.) Blah blah blah. Another ludicrous ariel battle between the bug and some jets results in Colonel Parkman crashing his jet into the mantis over New York City. (Parkman bails out At The Last Second.) The bug, mortally wounded, is forced to land in the city below. Seeing that there wasn't any money in the special effects budget to show the bug landing and moving through the city, we simply cut to see that the bug has taken refuge in a highway tunnel and that the Army has blocked off the exits with massive tarps. The tunnel itself has been filled with smoke (?), which I guess is meant to kill the mantis...because bugs hate smoke, I guess. Instead of keeping the mantis trapped in the tunnel until it dies, which is of course the only realistic thing to do, the Army decides to go into the smoke-filled tunnel to kill the mantis with poison gas Anyway, apparently the only person qualified to lead the assault team into the tunnel is our hero: Air Force pilot Colonel Parkman. Why would a jet pilot be chosen to lead an infantry squad against a giant praying mantis? Because he's the hero...that's why! Now let me get back to work. Oh, ok, I just learned that the smoke was meant to give the guys "cover" as they make their way through the tunnel. Actually, I think it would give the mantis just as much cover as it gives them...but anyway. The elite squad of soldiers, armed with gas grenades and rifles, trudges through the tunnel. (Why couldn't The boredom, excuse me, suspense, builds as the soldiers advance deeper into the tunnel. Suddenly, out of the smoke, the mantis rears its head and lets out a ferocious roar...which is quite a feat given that insects don't have vocal cords. A few gas grenades later, the mantis roars its last and collapses onto the tunnel floor...lifeless. Yea verily. Later, the film's leads gather in front of the back-projected dead mantis and gaze at the expired bug, deep in their own thoughts. Marge snaps a few shots for the museum magazine, setting up a fake-scare scene. Yes, the mantis still has a little life in it (unlike this film) and takes a feeble swipe at Marge. This scene also has the added benefit of giving Colonel Parkman another opportunity to literally grab Marge and carry her out of harm's way. (Because, you know, 1950's women forgot how to walk when they were scared.) Yuch. Parkman tosses Marge's camera to Ned so he can take the pictures. Of course taking the camera from Marge frees her up for a big kiss...something any woman would want standing next to a dead giant praying mantis in a poison-gas filled tunnel. You know what? The movie's over. Hallelujah! Dennis Grisbeck (Feb 2006)
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accompanied by massive amounts of stock-footage in order to save a buck. After what is almost a 5 minute documentary on Radar Site Construction, we finally get to the film itself, which opens at Polar radar station "Red Eagle One", far, far North in the Arctic wastes, where our hero and radar station Commanding Officer, Colonel Joe Parkman (played by Hollywood veteran Craig Stevens), has just arrived. The day quickly turns hectic when a routine patrol discovers that one of the distant radio stations has been destroyed by unknown forces. (We see a quick scene where 2 enlisted men pick a strange 'buzzing' noise on some sort of radio before the station is destroyed. How the buzzing sound from a giant insect's wings can be picked up on a radio is not very clear to me...but you really can't be too nit-picky in films like these.) 
of the strange footprints, the wrecked plane's crew is missing, and Colonel Parkman discovers a big piece of....something...which broke off the bug. (Needless to say, the exoskeleton sample is brought back to Red Eagle One for further examination.)
some balsa wood structures. Let's just say that the monster's debut in the film is far from satisfying considering the crap the viewer has had to put up with to get this far.
basically "hangs" in the air while its wings flop back and forth. (The wings were blurred in post-processing in order to make them appear to be rapidly flapping.)
the Capital building, and finally perches on the Washington monument (the only scene in the movie featuring a real mantis) where it roars like a lion and proclaims its supremacy. (Maybe I read a bit too much into that scene, but, well, it does climb to the top and roar.)
because it "might break through the walls" and start a flood. (I was never aware that praying mantises could tunnel through re-enforced concrete.)
they just pump poison gas into the tunnel instead of smoke?!) It's pretty funny to see these guys peering about with flash-lights, looking into cars, looking behind them, etc., because, hey...they're looking for a giant praying mantis the size of the Washington Monument!!! You'd think it wouldn't take a trained search party to find something like that.
