The Black Scorpion
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Movie Reviews of The Black Scorpion
Movie Review: a forgotten wonder
Summary: 4 Stars
With special effects sequences created in Willis O'Briens garage, you shouldn't expect too much of this movie. But I love it! Giant scorpions on the loose, mysterious caverns and some of the weirdest monsters ever put on film! Richard Denning puts in another good performance, as the other players do, with the exception of the inevitable annoying kid. Most of the extras are worthwhile as well.Movie Review: lot of black/white
Summary: 4 Stars
good orig. show but the scorps where too,same loud. some repeated scorp scenes of itself and robotic. the scorps face closeups where too stiff lookin and a dark shadow of the scorp superimposed 2 lg. over the peo. of mx.-dumb. rather ent. movie; worth buyin fer monsta buffs. i rem. seein this flic in a motel in 69, in biloxi ms. b/4 hur. camile hit. funny how some memory stix.Movie Review: BIG, BAD BLACK SCORPION...SUB-PAR SPECIAL EFFECTS
Summary: 3 Stars
THE BLACK SCORPION (1957) 88 minutes
Any SciFi movie with Mara Corday is for me. Playboy pin-up Miss October 1957 has had other grade B sci-Fi roles in the "unforgettable " Giant Claw and also in Tarantula.
The premise for the movie is volcano's and earthquakes cause giant fissures in the earths crust and thru these passages come the giant black scorpion and his fellow arachnida to wreck havoc on the unprepared citizens of Mexico City.
Special effects were co-designed with King Kong's Willis (Obie) O'brien. All I can say is the special effects were not near the level of King Kong shot some 24 years earlier. Minatures looked like minatures, the black scorpion at times was just a black shaded figure which looked just plain bad.
Some goofs that I caught :
......In the scene where the scorpion attacks the passenger train, on the lead engine you can plainly see " Lionel Lines", which of course is the famous toy train manufacturer.
......When the scorpion attacks Mexico City , a couple a shots actually show the Empire State building in the background.
.....In some of the lab scenes you can actually see the shadow of the boom mikes on the sets walls.
The extra's provided on this DVD were more interesting than the feature movie:
...." Stop-Motion-Masters" with an interview with Ray Harryhausen.
.... Never before seen test footage of some Willis O'Brien idea's that were never filmed. " The Las-Vegas Monster" and " The Beetlemen" These looked great.
....A 1956 Harryhausen + O'Brien animated dinosaur sequence from Irwin Allen's " The Animal World " Just some amazing stuff for its time, I have never seen this before.
I could'nt go wrong with the price of this DVD. Bought this for a cheap price of $5.79 thru Amazon.
Movie Review: Excellent queso!
Summary: 3 Stars
Yes, that's some high quality cheese. A giant bug movie set in Mexico and for the most part, the Mexicans are treated with respect and dignity. For the most part. So here's what happens. An earthquake/volcano montage of exploding volcanoes from all over the world occurs in Mexico, near the village of San Lorenzo. Two geologists, one from Mexico and one from the USA travel long and hard to "study" the effects. Along the way, the rescue a baby from an empty, thrashed house with a dead policeman in it! They arrive at San Lorenzo where everyone miraculously speaks perfect English. Thank goodness for us viewers! Anyway, the rumbling earth is not the only thing the locals have to deal with...something is picking off folks one family at a time! So the geologists venture forth, rescue a beautiful woman, discover the giant, scary scorpions, go into a cave full of them ("stay, Juanito, stay!"), get tricked back to Mexico City, devise an electric prod to kill the giant bug and a Mexican Army General in the only laugh-out-loud scene in the movie, kill the bug and all ends well. The American leaves early with the girl and everyone else has to stay behind to clean up.
Not bad at all, really, considering that they re-used a lot of footage and the bug scenes were either pretty good or laughably bad. My six year old declared it "The best movie EVER" so there you go. He was quite concerned about the giant bugs and how to kill them, as they were not effected by bullets. He especially liked the final scene where they get the bug into an arena and attack from all sides. Recommended for Family Night!
Movie Review: Gwangi in a scorpion suit
Summary: 3 Stars
Yep it is the standard big bug 50's sci-fi with a Mexican twist.
We start with the obligatory narrative and a description of what may come. The narrator thinks that volcanoes are evil and bring destruction to farmland. To this land comes a pair of archaeologically strange doctors. They discover a fallen girl (that was just horsing around) and one of the scientists falls in love. The other states "man is born single."
I will not reveal the ugly threat that you already see on the cover. However, I think they used them again in "Attack of the Crab Monsters". In addition, it is fun to look at the technology of the time; they use huge walkie-talkie's, flash cameras (out of flash range), and Bakelite phones. The annoying part of the movie is the kid that will not stay in the car; we all hope he is eaten early in the story.
Attack of the Crab Monsters