Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2.0 out of 5 stars
The Giant Gila Monster, August 20, 2005
Pretty cool 50's fright movie. Normal romance and plain good old fun. I have it in my collection. NOT BAD!! Count Wolfenstein
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3.0 out of 5 stars
A hot rodder takes on a giant Gila monster in West Texas,, May 23, 2005
"The Giant Gila Monster" is one of those films where you take a real animal and having it crawl through miniature sets so it looks like a big old hairy (or scaly) monster. The tagline for this film was: "Only Hell could breed such an enormous beast. Only God could destroy it!" But this 1959 film from director Ray Kellogg ("The Killer Shrews," "The Green Berets"--how is that for a credit combo?), filmed in north Texas for $138,000, is a lot more low-keyed than those lines would suggest. In fact, what is interesting given when this film is made is the key relationship between Sheriff Jeff (Fred Graham) and young Chase Winstead (Don Sullivan). The kid is working on his hot rod and instead of busting his chops the sheriff really functions as a mentor: he says he is concerned about the kids in town, and you actually believe it. The idea of having a movie in which a teenage hot rodder, who also sings like Pat Boone who is not a juvenile delinquent, or at least treated like one by the cops, is rather refreshing, although admittedly the character is a bit heavy on the saccharine. But Sullivan has a natural charm and the guy wrote his own songs, so give him some credit.
But since we are talking letting a Gila monster wander through miniatures in a film with teenage hot rodders, of course this movie received "MST3K" treatment (Season 4, when Joel turned Crow and Servo into "The Thing With Two Heads" as inspired by the movie of the same name"). My major complaint about this film is that the day for night shooting is so dark I have a hard time figuring out what is happening. Obviously the special effects budget is such that most of the "horror" is suggested by quick cuts rather than actually showing everything. Still, I like the way that everybody is pretty level headed in this film and deal with the giant Gila monster in a relatively intelligent manner without wasting a lot of time and effort. Yes, finding the monster, which is the size of several houses, should not take so long, but then the movie would be shorter and it is only 74 minutes anyway.
Be aware that you have several options for checking out this drive-in classic on DVD. Specifically you can have it as part of a double-feature with Kellogg's first directorial effort, "The Killer Shrews," or with one of Roger Corman's best quick & dirty films "A Bucket of Blood," or with the infamous "The Wasp Woman," or with "Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter." Gee, I hardly know which one to recommend. Or you can go for a triple feature of "The Killer Shrews" "The Giant Gila Monster," and "Human Gorilla." Hard to go wrong with choices like these.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
A huge slithery tongue, March 23, 2005
This is a picture of life before CGI. The contrived dialog is part of the mystique. You get to see hotrods and large lizards (every thing is bigger in Texas.) The blob it is not; but it is a necessary addition to any 50' collection. Now why does the Giant Gila look like a Mexican Beaded Lizard? Oh all right to be precise Heloderma horridum alvarezi.
A teenage boy and a teenage girl disappear together and the law Sheriff Jeff (Fred Graham) is getting suspicious.
I want to ask the monster if teenagers taste like chicken.
Watch for yourself.
The Lost Continent ~ Cesar Romero
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