Tarantula (Jack Arnold, 1955) [RePoPo]

******************************************************************************* Tarantula (Jack Arnold, 1955) ******************************************************************************* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technical Information ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Type..................: Movie Container file........: AVI Video Format..........: H.264 Total Bitrate.........: 2437 Kbps Audio format..........: AC3 Audio Languages.......: English 1.0 Subtitles Ripped......: Spanish Subtitles in Subpack..: Spanish, French Resolution............: 640x480 Aspect Ratio..........: 1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio.: 1.33:1 (according to dvdbeaver) (IMDB wrong here) Color.................: B&W FPS...................: 23.976 Source................: NTSC DVD Duration..............: 01:20:01 Genre.................: Sci-Fi, Horror IMDb Rating...........: 6.5 Movie Information.....: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048696/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release Notes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Plot Synopsis by Bruce Eder A man with a strangely misshapen face wanders out of the desert near a small town and falls to the ground dead. The county sheriff (Nestor Paiva) tentatively identifies the dead man as Eric Jacobs, a laboratory assistant to Professor Deemer (Leo G. Carroll), a research scientist living a few miles out in the desert. But there's something strange about Jacobs; his facial features and bodily extremities are distorted to a point where he's barely recognizable. The sheriff calls in Dr. Matt Hastings (John Agar), the local physician, who makes a diagnosis of acromegalia, a glandular disorder that affects the body's growth. He also tells the sheriff that it can't possibly be acromegalia, because symptoms as pronounced as those he sees in this case take years to develop, and the man was in perfect health just three months earlier. Hastings refuses to believe the professor's account of Jacobs' rapid deterioration, but the sheriff takes the word of the scientist. Back in his laboratory, Deemer continues his work, going over tests of a chemical on various animals, all of which are jumbo-sized, including guinea pigs the size of rabbits, baby mice the size of full-grown rats, and a tarantula three feet long. Suddenly, the professor is attacked by his assistant (Eddie Parker), whose face and hands are distorted in the same manner as Jacobs, and who injects the helpless scientist with the experimental chemical before collapsing dead. A fire starts during the attack and in the confusion, the tarantula's glass cage is broken and it escapes the burning laboratory, wandering out into the desert. Weeks go by, and a new assistant, Stephanie "Steve" Clayton (Mara Corday), arrives to begin work for the professor. When Hastings gives her a ride to Deemer's home, the scientist explains to the doctor that he's been working on a radioactive nutrient, that, if perfected, could feed the entire world's population. He also says that Eric Jacobs made the mistake of testing the chemical on himself and it caused the disease that killed him. Hastings and Steve begin a romance, unaware that wandering around the desert is the tarantula from Deemer's laboratory, now grown to the size of an automobile and getting bigger with each passing day. Soon livestock and then people begin disappearing, and the sheriff is at a loss to explain any of it, or the one clue left behind in each case: large pools of what seems to be some kind of venom next to the stripped skeletons of the victims. Hastings takes some of the material in for a test; meanwhile, Steve notices that Deemer is going through some bizarre changes. His mood has darkened and his features now appear to be changing, as the acromegalia, caused by the injection, manifests itself. Hastings learns that one of the professor's test animals was a tarantula, which was presumed destroyed. When he learns that the pools near the deaths are composed of spider venom -- equivalent to what it would take many thousands of spiders to generate -- he's certain that the tarantula from the laboratory survived. By this time, the title creature is bigger than a house and ravaging the countryside, killing everything in its path and knocking down power lines and telephone poles as it moves. Hastings arrives just in time to rescue Steve from the attacking creature, which destroys Deemer's house and kills the professor. The sheriff and the highway patrol are unable to slow the creature, now the size of a mountain and moving at 45 miles an hour, even with automatic rifle fire, as it follows the road through the desert toward the town. Even an attempt to blow it up with dynamite fails when the monster walking right through the blast. Finally, the creature is poised to attack the town, when jets scrambled from a nearby Air Force base (led by a young Clint Eastwood, barely recognizable behind an oxygen mask) swoop in. When rockets fail to divert the monster from its path, the jets roar in for a second pass and drop enough napalm to incinerate the creature. CAST John Agar - Dr. Matt Hastings Mara Corday - Stephanie "Steve" Clayton Leo G. Carroll - Prof. Gerald Deemer Nestor Paiva - Sheriff Jack Andrews Ross Elliott - John Burch Clint Eastwood - 1st Pilot Edwin Rand - Lt. John Nolan Hank Patterson - Josh Bert Holland - Barney Russell Steven Darrell - Andy Anderson Raymond Bailey - The Old Man / Townsend Dee Carroll - Telephone Operator Edgar Dearing - Miner Donald Dillaway - Jim Bagney Jane Howard - Coed Secretary Jim Hyland - Trooper Grayson Tom London Bob Nelson Eddie Parker - Paul Lund Vernon Rich - Ridley Bing Russell - Deputy Bob Stephenson - Warehouseman Jack Stoney - Helper Stuart Wade - Major Billy Wayne - Murphy Rusty Wescoatt - Driver Bud Wolfe - Bus Driver CREW Jack Arnold - Director William Alland - Producer Martin Berkeley - Screenwriter Robert M. Fresco - Screenwriter George Robinson - Cinematographer Joseph E. Gershenson - Musical Direction/Supervision / Composer Henry Mancini - Composer (Music Score) Herman Stein - Composer (Music Score) William Morgan - Editor Alexander Golitzen - Art Director Alfred Sweeney - Art Director Russell A. Gausman - Set Designer Ruby Levitt - Set Designer Jay A. Morley, Jr. - Costume Designer Leslie I. Carey - Sound/Sound Designer Frank H. Wilkinson - Sound/Sound Designer Bud Westmore - Makeup David S. Horsley - Special Effects Clifford Stine - Special Effects Frank Shaw - First Assistant Director ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOME REVIEWS Fernando F. Croce "The desert gives people wonderful ideas," it is said here. Jack Arnold seizes it with his first image, a lateral scan of the Arizona prairie that catches a furry mutant stumbling about in striped pajamas and dropping dead. The nature of the corpse befuddles doctor John Agar and sheriff Nestor Paiva, but the local scientist (Leo G. Carroll) assures them there's nothing out of the ordinary before retiring to his lab, which houses a rodent the size of a tapir and a tarantula quickly growing "hundreds, even thousands of times its regular size." A scuffle gets Carroll injected with his own "concentrated nutrient" serum (which leads to expressionistic makeup) and frees the arachnid, which proceeds to brunch on cattle and farmers. Curiosity and dread exist side by side in Arnold's view of the unknown, the arid landscape admired by Agar and Mara Corday ("serene, quiet... strangely evil") is tranquil one moment and quaked by boulders the next. The director is a Cold War surrealist with an endless fascination for the strangeness of the cosmos and, like Walt Whitman and Cronenberg, an easeful appreciation for the image of the poet as spider -- the fearsome colossus here is an eight-legged King Kong, imbued with a seismic rattle and a lion's roar, emerging unscathed from a dynamite blast to creep toward the camera. The dreamlike effects have the tarantula dismantling an edifice to claim its creator and then facing a napalm blitzkrieg (led by a young Clint Eastwood), but Arnold sees nature as no less beguiling than artifice, and includes a couple of choice documentary minutes of a spider defending its home against a marauding serpent, all "part of the world around us." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Jenn Dlugos, 2004-10-01 Tarantula was one of Universal’s first "giant-animal-type-monster wreaks havock on helpless civilians" movie. The times of the more humanistic monsters, like Frankenstein and Dracula, have passed and now bigger = better. As far as mutant monsters go, Tarantula is one of the most solid films ever created. Professor Gerald Deemer (played by the brilliant Leo G. Carroll. *bursts into song* Leo G Carroll was over a barrel, when Tarantula took to the hill... er... sorry) is a typical mad scientist who is working on a formula to end world hunger. Mainly, he is injecting animals with this serum that make them larger. For some reason, his lab is full of animals most humans would not eat despite famishment, such as rats and oh, say, giant tarantulas. But whatever. The tarantula escapes and gets exponentially larger. This is complicated by the fact that Professor Deemer has injected himself with the serum (the first Viagra, apparently) and only has several days to live. So, like all monster movies, it is up to some hot guy and some beautiful chick to save the day. Atomic creatures were all the rage in this period because science was just understanding the capability of the atom (atomic bombs, etc.). Today, most of these monster movies seem dated, but Tarantula still seems to hold up. This is probably due to the fact that we are still battling many of these issues today (i.e. world hunger, and when I leave my aquarium cage unlocked - giant tarantulas on the loose). Not to mention, everything came to a frightful conclusion that involved nukes which is surely a modern day issue. And here’s a little trivia point for the rest of you. Look very closely at the pilot of the plane in the climax. It’s none other, than a very young Clint Eastwood. I can see how this movie was considered absolutely terrifying in its time. For a 1950s film, the special effects were excellent. Sure, there were some blatant use of movie screens, but some shots -- especially when the giant spider is off in the distance -- are absolutely chilling. Even for me, a person who has tarantulas as pets, the film was downright eerie. I can’t imagine what it would be like for someone who is terrified or even apprehensive of all things arachnid. I’m pretty sure some of my friends would slip into terror-induced comas. Special effects alone do not make terror; there are many lesser giant spider films. The plot of Tarantula is what sold me. I always gives a thumbs up for creativity, and inflating animals in an attempt to stop world hunger is something I couldn’t think of. And I have all sorts of strange things going on in my head (shut up, Nate). Sure the tarantulas were a bit of a stretch, but tarantulas are a delicacy in some countries (pauses for readers to cringe. Better? Proceeding…). Tarantula has a trio of storylines that dovetail nicely into each other. The giant tarantula on the loose was the primary story, but Prof Gerald Deemer’s struggle with his science, and the two main heroes’ struggle with their love for each other braided together into a film that was “more than your typical monster movie.“ This film had heart and soul as well as scares which is what made it a step above the rest. Tarantula is a staple in the classic horror community and a movie you absolutely should have seen by now. It is monster movie cinema at its absolute finest. It has its share of comic relief (keep an evil eye out for the tarantula training video in the middle of the movie -a personal favorite arbitrary piece of celluloid). It’s especially fun to watch with someone is an arachnaphobe. Especially if they do not know that you have no qualms about holding your pet tarantula at all. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE NOTICE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Check you have installed the right codecs, as listed in this .nfo file, before trying to play it. VLC will play this file without having to install any codec. If you don't like the codec(s), container, resolution, file size, languages or any technical aspect on this rip, keep it to yourself and go and do your own. Serious feedback on quality will always be welcome -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Inthemuck (2008-11-13)

Thank you "repopo" for this ultimate classic movie.

mir60899 (2008-12-21)

I saw this just once about 30 years ago on late night tv. Thanks for uploading, I thought I would never see it again.

op9618 (2010-07-30)

Thank you for all amazing uploads!
/op

_Yvy_ (2011-03-01)

Thanks !
Although I know the movie I was frightened by the synopsis. Great story
Great comment, too... Fine movie, know what you mean.
If we ever meet I'll pay you a beer :-)