Tarantula (film) 1

Tarantula (film)

Tarantula

theatrical release poster by Reynold Brown[1]

Directed by Jack Arnold

Produced by William Alland

Screenplay by Robert M. FrescoMartin Berkeley

Story by Jack Arnold

Based on inspired by: "No Food for Thought" (teleplay, Science Fiction Theatre, May 14,1955)by Robert M. Fresco

Starring John AgarMara CordayLeo G. Carroll

Music by Herman SteinHenry Mancini

Cinematography George Robinson

Edited by William Morgan

Distributed by Universal Studios

Release date(s) December14,1955 (U.S.)

Running time 81 minutes

Country United States

Language English

Box office $1.1 million (US)[2]

Tarantula is a 1955 science fiction film directed by Jack Arnold, and starring John Agar, Mara Corday and Leo G.Carroll. The screenplay by Robert M. Fresco and Martin Berkeley was based on a story by Arnold inspired byFresco's teleplay for Science Fiction Theatre, "No Food for Thought", which was aired on May 14, 1955.Although the film is set in Arizona, it was shot in California, with locations for the desert scenes in Apple Valley.[3]

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PlotWearing pajamas, a man with Neanderthal features stumbles through the Arizona desert. He falls and dies. Dr. MattHastings (John Agar), a bright, handsome and sympathetic doctor from the small town of Desert Rock, is called toview the body. Asked to give an opinion as to cause of death, he finds himself perplexed. Surprised to learn thedeceased was someone he knew biological research scientist Eric Jacobs Dr. Hastings suggests he be givenpermission to perform an autopsy to learn why the man's face is distorted beyond recognition. The sheriff refuses,judging an autopsy unnecessary as Jacobs' associate, Dr. Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll), signed the deathcertificate and there is no indication of foul play.Curious to learn more, Dr. Hastings drives twenty miles out of town to visit Dr. Deemer in his lab. Hastings learnsthat Deemer and Jacobs have been conducting experiments on animals in an effort to use an atomic isotope to createa super food nutrient. Foreseeing a future when human population growth would outstrip food production and resultin food shortages, their hope was to create a viable replacement for food and prevent widespread starvation.He learns that the scientists' experiments proved successful in one respect, in that some animals were able to thriveand grow exclusively on the nutrient without any food. Yet, the nutrient has not been perfected. Other animals havedied after receiving injections, and still others have kept growing to gargantuan proportions. The latter include awhite mouse, a guinea pig, and a Mexican red rumped tarantula.Deemer tells Hastings that the cause of Jacobs' death was his impatience to see if the latest batch of the nutrientwould sustain humans. As a result, Jacob injected himself with the nutrient which resulted in runaway acromegaly,which killed him in four days. What Deemer does not reveal is that Jacobs also injected his research assistant, PaulLund, with the same nutrient.After Hasting leaves, the deformed Lund appears, attacks Deemer and partially destroys the lab. During this rampagethe lab catches fire and the glass front of the tarantula's cage is shattered. Lund grabs the hypodermic that Deemerwas going to use to inject an animal and injects Deemer instead.During the melee the arachnid escapes outdoors, unnoticed. Lund collapses and dies. Deemer - who had beenunconscious - regains consciousness, grabs a fire extinguisher, and puts out the fire. Intending to continue his workwithout questions or objections, he buries Lund's body and conceals all traces of the grave.The following day a new lab assistant arrives in town, by bus. The young and beautiful Stephanie Clayton (MaraCorday), who goes by the nickname "Steve," has signed on to assist in the lab as part of her master's degree program.Told she will have to wait a couple of hours for the only taxi driver in town to return and drive her out to the lab, sheaccepts a ride from Dr. Hastings, who is also headed there.When they arrive and see the damage, Dr. Deemer tells them that the fire was caused by an equipment malfunction.He indicates that all the animals were killed in the fire, and avoids answering questions about what happened to hisprevious research assistant.As Steve's contract stipulates that she live in Dr. Deemer's residence, Dr. Hastings leaves her there with hersuitcases.Steve begins working in the lab and proves to be a capable lab assistant, even as she begins to notice disturbingchanges in Dr. Deemer's appearance and demeanor. Meanwhile, the now house-sized tarantula ravages thecountryside as Dr. Hastings tries to unravel a mystery that includes clean-picked cattle carcasses and pools ofarachnid venom up to eight feet in diameter.Once he puts two and two together, Hastings begs the sheriff to gather law enforcement personal and explosives sothey can try to destroy the creature that is killing livestock and humans.The tarantula eventually returns to the lab during the night and kills Dr. Deemmer but Steve escapes with Dr.Hastings. Then the tarantula pursues its human quarry down the road toward the town. After several failed attempts,the spider is eventually destroyed by a napalm attack launched from a jet fighter squadron.

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Cast

Leo G. Carroll as Prof. Gerald Deemer John Agar as Dr. Matt Hastings Mara Corday as Stephanie Clayton Nestor Paiva as Sheriff Jack Andrews Ross Elliott as Joe Burch

Edwin Rand as Lt. John Nolan Raymond Bailey as Townsend Hank Patterson as Josh Bert Holland as Barney Russell Steve Darrell as Andy Andersen

Cast notes:

Clint Eastwood appears uncredited in a minor role as the jet squadron leader.

ProductionThe special effects for both the giant animals and the unfortunate scientist's deformity are fairly advanced for thetime, with real animals (including a rabbit and a guinea pig in Professor Deemer's lab) being used to represent thegiant creatures. A real spider was also used for shots where the whole monster was shown, with models reserved forclose-ups and the final shots of the creature on fire, resulting in a rather more convincing monster than the giant antsin the earlier big-bug film Them! (1954). Jack Arnold said of this and the entire film, "We decided to do this filmbecause generally, people are very afraid of spiders".The movie was filmed in and around the rock formations of "Dead Man's Point" in Lucerne Valley California, afrequently used movie location for many early western films. It takes place in the fictional town of Desert Rock,Arizona.[4]

Like Them!, Tarantula makes atmospheric use of its desert locations; and although a radioactive isotope does makean appearance, it differs from most big-bug films in having the mutation caused by the peaceful research of awell-intentioned scientist rather than nuclear weapons and/or a mad genius. Director Jack Arnold was to use matteeffects again two years later to show miniaturisation rather than gigantism in The Incredible Shrinking Man, whichalso featured an encounter with a spider. It was the same one that appeared in this film.Wikipedia:Citation neededThe film's poster, featuring a spider with two eyes instead of the normal eight and carrying a woman in its fangs,does not represent any scene in the film.

ReferencesNotes

[1] The poster shows the spider (inaccurately depicted with only two eyes instead of eight) carrying a woman in its fangs, la Fay Wray in KingKong, though such a scene does not appear in the film.

[2] 'The Top Box-Office Hits of 1956', Variety Weekly, January 2, 1957[3] Thompson, Nathaniel. "Tarantula" (article) (http:/ / www. tcm. com/ tcmdb/ title/ 92350/ Tarantula/ articles. html) TCM.com[4] Exclamation Point at Wordpress website (http:/ / exclamationmark. wordpress. com/ page/ 12/ ). Accessed March 29, 2011.

External links Tarantula (http:/ / www. imdb. com/ title/ tt0048696/ ) at the Internet Movie Database Tarantula (http:/ / tcmdb. com/ title/ title. jsp?stid=92350) at the TCM Movie Database Tarantula (http:/ / www. allmovie. com/ movie/ v48656) at AllMovie Tarantula (http:/ / www. afi. com/ members/ catalog/ DetailView. aspx?s=& Movie=51679) at the American Film

Institute Catalog Suite of the film score re-recorded on "Monstrous Movie Music" label (sound samples available) (http:/ / www.

mmmrecordings. com/ More_Monstrous/ more_monstrous. html)

Article Sources and Contributors 4

Article Sources and ContributorsTarantula (film) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=615352334 Contributors: After Midnight, Alan Smithee, Andrzejbanas, Aspects, Austriacus, Baseball Bugs, Bearian,Bejnar, Beyond My Ken, Bibliomaniac15, Casliber, Cooksi, David Gerard, Dominic Hardstaff, Dr. Cox, Drmies, Dutchmonkey9000, Dutchy85, Edwardx, Foofbun, Gareth Griffith-Jones,Gedney1121, Hal Raglan, Horrorwood, Immunize, JGKlein, JamesBWatson, Jason Palpatine, Kindii, Mallanox, Marcok, Milancholiu, Mrund, Ohnoitsjamie, PhilipC, Santamiraguy, Savolya,SkippyDevereaux, Slowmover, Str1977, Supernumerary, TheMovieBuff, Tjmayerinsf, TubularWorld, Uncle G, UnneededAplomb, Wahkeenah, 58 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsFile:Tarantula 1955.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Tarantula_1955.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Beyond My Ken, Crisco 1492, Deanlaw, Easchiff

LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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