Earth vs. the Spider
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| Earth vs. the Spider | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Bert I. Gordon |
| Written by | Laszlo Gorog George Worthing Yates from a story by Bert I. Gordon |
| Starring | Ed Kemmer June Kenney Eugene Persson Gene Roth Hal Torey June Jocelyn |
| Music by | Albert Glasser |
| Cinematography | Jack A. Marta |
| Editing by | Walter E. Keller |
| Release date(s) |  September, 1958 November, 1962 |
| Running time | 73 min. |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Earth vs. the Spider (also known as The Spider) is a 1958 American black and white science fiction horror film, produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon, who also wrote the story which the screenplay by George Worthing Yates and Laszlo Gorog is based upon. It starred Ed Kemmer and Eugene Persson and June Kenney.
The film's original title was Earth vs. the Spider but when The Fly, also released in 1958, became a blockbuster, the film company changed the name to The Spider on all advertising material. The original screen title, however, was never changed.
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[edit] Plot
Jack Flynn is driving down a highway at night, looking at a bracelet he has bought his daughter for her birthday. Suddenly he hits something and his vehicle crashes. The next morning, his teenage daughter Carol, concerned her "bad-dog" father didn't come home last night, convinces her boyfriend Mike to go looking with her for him. They find his crashed car and the bracelet, but not his body. Thinking he crawled into a nearby cave, they investigate. In the cave they fall onto the gigantic orb web of an enormous spider, a tarantula, which emerges from behind some rocks to get them. They manage to escape and make it back to town.
Carol and Mike have a hard time convincing the Sheriff about the giant spider, but with the help of their science teacher, Mr. Kingman, they go take a look and when they are at the cave again the missing man's body is discovered drained of fluid. The spider attacks again convincing the sheriff, who orders large amounts of DDT to kill the giant spider, and appears successful. The apparently lifeless body of the spider is taken back to town to the high school gym where Kingman wants to study it. A group of teenagers use the gym to practice rock and roll numbers they are going to play for a school dance. As other teenagers enter the gym they begin dancing and the giant tarantula regains consciousness and the kids run out of the gym screaming while the janitor, stopping to call the sheriff, is killed.
The spider breaks out of the gym and terrorizes the town, killing a number of people before it heads back to its cave. The Sheriff along with Kingman decide to use dynamite to seal the spider in, but they discover Carol and Mike are in the cave looking for the bracelet her father had bought her, which she had lost the first time in the cave. The spider chases them out onto a narrow ledge. Kingman acquires a couple of large electrodes. They run cables outside to some power lines as the tarantula is descending on a strand of web to get at the trapped teenagers. Kingman throws Mike one of the electrodes then they turn on the juice and electrocute the spider. The arachnid falls, impaling itself on stalagmites at the bottom of the cave.
[edit] Cast
Ed Kemmer as Mr. Kingman
June Kenney as Carol Flynn
Eugene Persson as Mike Simpson
Gene Roth as Sheriff Cagle
Hal Torey as Mr. Simpson
June Jocelyn as Mrs. Flynn
Mickey Finn as Sam Haskel
Sally Fraser as Mrs. Helen Kingman
Troy Patterson as Joe
Skip Young as Sam (the bass player)
Howard Wright as Jake
Bill Giorgio as Deputy Sheriff Sanders
Hank Patterson as Hugo (High School Janitor)
Jack Kosslyn as Mr. Fraser (camera club teacher)
Bob Garnet as Springdale Pest Control Man
Shirley Falls as the Switchboard Operator
Bob Tetrick as Deputy Sheriff Dave
Nancy Kilgas as a Dancer
George Stanley as One of the men in the Cavern
David Tomack as the Power Line Foreman
Merritt Stone as Jack Flynn (Carol's Dad)
Dick D'Agostin as The Pianist
[edit] Availability
The film was released on VHS by Columbia/RCA on April 28, 1993. The film was released on DVD in February 2006 along with War of the Colossal Beast (1958).
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- A theremin was uaws in the soundtrack of the film
- Earth vs. The Spider was featured in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
- In the opening credits the word "starring" is spelled as "starrring".
- In the movie, when the Sheriff gives the order to have DDT sprayed on the spider, the Tarantula continues to walk forward even as they clearly spray the DDT through a hose onto it, despite the fact that all spiders are very sensitive to smell. In reality, the spider would have shied back before running away.
- In the movie the spider is stored in the high school auditorium for viewing, filling 1/4 of the auditorium. When it awakens and escapes it is seen walking through downtown and is bigger than a two-story building.
- The spider expert refers to the spider as being an insect throughout the film.
- The spider expert believes the DDT killed the spider and has it brought to the high school auditorium to be viewed by other scientists. The spider is clearly sprawled out. In real life, spiders killed by sprays curl up rather than sprawling out.
- The film was shot in the Carlsbad Caverns of Carlsbad, New Mexico and on the same stage set at Universal Studios where the original Psycho was filmed. In fact, if you look closely in the background as the spider expert drives home to check on the safety of his family, the house used in Psycho can be seen.
- The film is mentioned by Para-Medic in the 2004 video game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.
- In the Disney movie Lilo & Stitch there is a scene where Stitch stops to look at a TV inside a display window of a shop and the TV is showing a scene from this film.
