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The fortunes of Hollywood - tonight's movie is Tarantula, a 1950's classic "big bug" movie. In this case a big spider terrorizes the usual isolated dusty western town. I recall being a kid and finding a printed ad for this at our local theater. I went and it scared the crap out of me.
It stars John Agar, a star whose career was derailed when his marriage to none other than Shirley Temple ended. He found himself consigned to big bug movies after that. It co-stars Leo G Carroll, a dignified British actor who also found himself in big-bug movies. This one also has a big guinea pig, but the big spider is much more scary.
As a sideline, it also features a short, early appearence of Clint Eastwood as a pilot in an Air Force plane that shoots the big spider.
It stars John Agar, a star whose career was derailed when his marriage to none other than Shirley Temple ended. He found himself consigned to big bug movies after that. It co-stars Leo G Carroll, a dignified British actor who also found himself in big-bug movies. This one also has a big guinea pig, but the big spider is much more scary.
As a sideline, it also features a short, early appearence of Clint Eastwood as a pilot in an Air Force plane that shoots the big spider.
I've seen Tarantula again since the '50s, but I love the way they put those stories together. Them! was good too, but in Tarantula the technical guys made the tarantula scenes life like and believable-- moreso than the ants in Them!.
Agar's problem was booze. He had great supporting roles in a few John Wayne movies, notably She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and Sands of Iwo Jima, both in 1949; but after getting DUIs and some jail time, the big studios dropped him.
Wasn't Mara Corday, who played Carroll's lab assistant, a knock out? One of her many credits was as Playmate of October, '58 in Playboy Magazine. What a dish!
