Starring Ed Kemmer, June Kenney, Gene Persson, Gene Roth, Hal Torey
Directed by Bert I. Gordon
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
A young woman and her boyfriend go in search of her missing father, and find his remains in a cavern inhabited by a giant spider, which soon threatens their small town.
Although it's not quite the equal of the other giant spider film of the 1950s, Tarantula, this is a fun outing by Gordon and crew, with an appealing cast, and a convincing portrait of small-town America. Not all of the special effects hold up well, but the spider scenes that probably come off best are the sequences filmed in Carlsbad Caverns, with its eerie craggy scenery making a proper home for the giant insect, where it can easily trap its human prey. Kemmer, the likable protagonist of Edward Cunha's Giant From The Unknown, who also brings along his love interest Sally Fraser from that film, is again likable, and fills a perfect need in the story as the believable scientific expert who devises the spider's downfall. Familiar '50s character actor Gene Roth is welcome as the local sheriff who laughs at the notion of a giant spider at first, but soon receives his comeuppance. Albert Glasser provides the proper notes of menace in his music score, according to IMDB, including the decade's ubiquitous theremin instrument among his orchestra. As for Gordon's direction, it keeps things moving along well enough, making this I think one of his better films.
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