| The Giant Gila Monster | |
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Promotional poster for The Giant Gila Monster |
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| Directed by | Ray Kellogg |
| Produced by | Ken Curtis B.R. McLendon Gordon McLendon |
| Written by | Ray Kellogg (story) Jay Simms (screenplay) |
| Starring | Don Sullivan Fred Graham Lisa Simone Shug Fisher Bob Thompson |
| Music by | Jack Marshall |
| Cinematography | Wilfred M. Cline |
| Editing by | Aaron Stell |
| Distributed by | McLendon-Radio Pictures Distributing Company |
| Release date(s) | 25 June 1959 |
| Running time | 74 min |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $138,000 (estimated) |
The Giant Gila Monster is a 1959 black-and-white science fiction film directed by Ray Kellogg, and produced by Ken Curtis. It stars Don Sullivan, Lisa Simone, as well as Fred Graham, Shug Fisher and Bob Thompson. This low-budget B-Movie featured a cast of unknown actors, and the effects included a live gila monster filmed on a scaled-down model landscape. The movie has been released on DVD and is considered a cult classic.
Contents |
The movie opens with a young couple parked in a bleak, rural locale overlooking a ravine. A giant gila monster attacks the car, sending it into the ravine and killing the couple. Later, some friends of the couple decide to assist the local sheriff (Fred Graham) in his search for the missing teens. Chase (Don Sullivan), a young mechanic and hot rod racer, locates the crashed car in the ravine and finds evidence of the giant lizard. However, it is only when the hungry reptile attacks a train (a model train set substituted as a low-budget effect) that the authorities realize they are dealing with a (roughly) 70-foot poisonous lizard. By this time, emboldened by its attacks and hungry for prey, the creature attacks the local town. It soon makes straight for the local dance hall where all the teenagers had gathered for a sock hop. However, Chase packs his prized hot rod with nitroglycerin and rigs it to speed straight into the monster, terminating the lizard in a fiery explosion and heroically saving the town.