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30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Warner finally delivers with terrific Black Scorpion DVD, November 2, 2003
After disappointing DVD releases, virtually barren of extras, of some of the finest SF/horror films in their catalog (Them, Thing from Another World, Curse of Frankenstein, Horror of Dracula), Warner Video finally redeems themselves somewhat with this excellent package (and concurrent releases of Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and Valley of Gwangi). While the extras are not exactly generous, they're of great interest to B-movie and stop-motion animation fans.
I have to place Black Scorpion in my top three Big Bug movies, along with Tarantula and Beginning of the End. Fans of Them will probably consider this heresy, but frankly, as fine a film as Them is overall, those big head-nodder ant props just never engendered much suspension of disbelief, let alone horror, in me, even as a kid. In contrast, Black Scorpion inverts the situation, with a pedestrian B-movie scenario framing some of the creepiest, scariest, and convincing Big Bug special effects footage of the era. A volcano in Mexico releases a horde of giant scorpions that roam the countryside, destroying and killing, grabbing people with their pincers and jabbing them with their stinger tails. Several beautifully animated stop-motion set pieces are featured, including the sequence in which the scientists descend into the volcano crater to explore the scorpions' underground lair and encounter cool and creepy wormlike and spiderlike creatures; the scene of the scorpions destroying a train and feasting on the screaming passengers, then battling a supergiant "king" scorpion; and the king scorpion's last stand inside a sports stadium, where it scoops up military vehicles like marbles and plucks helicopters out of the sky, slamming them to the ground, while the military bombards it mercilessly. Black Scorpion was the last monster epic supervised by Willis O'Brien, the legendary stop-motion pioneer (The Lost World, King Kong, Mighty Joe Young, etc.), though the hands-on animation was done primarily by Pete Peterson, who proves himself a close second if not equal to Ray Harryhausen in terms of technical skill. His scorpions, in contrast to most other 1950s movie monsters, are realistic, quick-moving, bloodthirsty, and relentless. Unfortunately, someone had the really bad idea to keep cutting to inserts of a laughable, drooling, life-size scorpion head prop that distracts from and somewhat undermines the otherwise stunning stop-motion animation of the scorpions and other bugs. The "black" scorpion of the title is occasionally shown as an empty black matte silhouette, apparently because they ran out of money, and the special effects scenes also suffer at times from from matting and process work with poorly matched contrast. But when the scorpions are darting around, killing with their spiked tails, there are few 1950s SF creatures that can equal them for pure repulsive horror. The human leads are familiar B-movie stalwarts Richard Denning (Creature from the Black Lagoon, Target Earth, Day the World Ended, etc.), playboy model Mara Corday (Tarantula, The Giant Claw), and Carlos Rivas (Beast of Hollow Mountain). Director Edward Ludwig had previously directed mostly B-westerns and exotica such as Smuggler's Island and Jivaro, and must have seemed like a logical choice to the producers of this monster flick set in the Mexican desert. The story is pretty generic, but moves along reasonably well, and it's really just an excuse for the monster sequences anyway, so pop some popcorn, sit back, and enjoy.
Warner's DVD finally gives fans and collectors reason for praise rather than griping. The movie, presented in full frame, looks simply fabulous, with terrific black level, contrast, grayscale, detail, and sharpness. There is some nearly unavoidable very light speckling and spotting, but overall the print is stunning. (Others have speculated that this film was meant to be matted to 1.85:1, but that doesn't appear to be the case to me.) The extras (!!) include trailers (Black Scorpion, Gwangi, Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, and Clash of the Titans); a three-minute featurette with Ray Harryhausen (talking about seeing King Kong as a child, meeting Willis O'Brien, and working with him on Mighty Joe Young) that's interesting and informative as far as it goes but much too brief; and the long-sought (by animation fans) and little-seen 10-minute dinosaur sequence from Irwin Allen's Animal World, apparently presented here for no other reason than Warner's had it and felt (uncharacteristically) like throwing us a bone. And last, but for me the jewels of the set, are two short (4:00 and :40) animation tests by Pete Peterson for proposed or aborted projects. The first is called The Las Vegas Monster and features a cool outsized astro-mutated baboon demolishing a house and tangling with a truck left over from Mighty Joe Young. The second, Beetlemen, is a clip of an army of walking insectoid creatures that's unfortunately in very poor condition and tantalizingly brief but still amazing and effortlessly beautiful. A comparison of Peterson's animation in these tests and The Black Scorpion with the Animal World footage (and more so Harryhausen's later films) demonstrates that while Peterson was close to Ray on a technical level, Harryhausen's creations project a "life" and "personality" that is noticeably absent in Peterson's otherwise impressive work. It really reinforces for me the true artistry of Ray Harryhausen's achievements (no slight to Peterson intended). I'm amazed that Warner bothered to include these rare tests (lost for years and discovered in a trunk) given their past track record. The only thing to complain about here are the cheap snap-case covers that Warner is still packaging their DVDs in, giving them a second-class, low-budget appearance, and leaving them more susceptible to dust, etc. But that minor grievance aside, this is a really fine release (especially for Warner Video) and needs to be in the collection of every 1950s SF or stop-motion animation fan.
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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Madre dios! That's one big friggin' bug..., February 17, 2004
Released in 1957, The Black Scorpion followed in a long line of giant bug movie, probably most notable 1954's Them!, which dealt with giant ants. The main difference being that in most of those movies, the gigantism in the creatures was caused by atomic radiation (I wonder how many men pondered radiating their private parts given that Hollywood seemed so determined to make us believe radiation would have the effect of embiggening things so?) and in this movie the cause was of a more natural reason.The Black Scorpion stars Richard Denning, who I remember most from the movie Target Earth (1954) and Mara Corday, a darkened hair beauty whose other notable films include Tarantula (1955) and The Giant Claw (1957). The plot involves a very active volcano in Mexico and geologists Hank Scott (Denning) along with a colleague are interested in seeing this activity first hand. Corday plays Teresa Alverez, a ranch owner whose cattle is being mysteriously slaughtered and is having difficulties keeping locals around to help her round up the cattle as they believe some devil bull or something is responsible. Turns out the active volcano has ripped open some giant fissures in the Earth, exposing a vast underground cavern containing mostly giant, prehistoric scorpions. The scorpions, being a might bit peckish after years of living under the ground, start venturing out into the Mexican deserts, stinging and eating whatever gets in their path. They are soon discovered, the military comes in, blows them up real good, and that's the end of that...or is it? Okay, no it's not, as the humongous scorpions find another way out, and begin to do cool stuff like attack trains and find their way into populated areas. What really worked so well in this movie is the special effects...well, at least the ones done by Willis O'Brien (King Kong) and Ray Harryhausen using stop-motion animation. Harryhausen isn't credited, but he ended up doing about 90 percent of the effects, under the supervision of O'Brien. The scenes with numerous scorpions attacking the passenger train are probably among the best in this feature. These effects contrasted greatly with the 'live' effects, the ones showing the drooling visages of the beasties up close. These were pretty bad, and they kept using the same visual over and over again, a gaping maw of a scorpion with custard-like drool leaking from between its' mandibles. At some point the production ran out of money, so some of the effects are of the cheapest kind, basically looking like a real scorpion placed on some kind of empty matte invading a Mexican city. In the end, there is a climatic battle, one with tanks, explosions, army guys and such...do they destroy the primitive creatures? I guess you'll have to see the movie (ain't I a stinker?) There are some great special features included in this release, which is strange as Warner Brothers really isn't known for this (they still use the cheap cardboard and plastic casing which drives me nuts). A feature called 'Stop Motion Masters' has Harryhausen talk about his greatest influence, Willis 'Obie' O'Brien, the man behind King Kong. Another clip included is one from the short called 'The Animal World', a feature created by disaster movie mogul Irwin Allen, which highlights HarryHausen and O'Brien's prehistoric segment, the highlight of the film. Also included are some short test footage found by another stop motion artist involving a mutant ape attacking a house and truck, using props from The Black Scorpion, and a small bit dealing with Beetlemen who were actually astronauts affected by cosmic radiation and ended up growing exoskeletons. Finally, there are some trailers provided, showcasing other Harryhausen and O'Brien films. Oh yeah, if the noise you hear the scorpions making sounds familiar, I was told that's because it's the same noise that the giant ants made in the movie Them! (1954). Cookieman108
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
very underrated 50's sci-fi, October 6, 1999
By A Customer
I caught this on AMC a couple months ago and was really impressed. I had never heard of this movie, and it certainly doesn't get mentioned with other 50's classics like Them, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Beast From 20,000 Fathoms or The Thing. Of course, it's a pretty standard formula of giant scorpions wreaking havoc in the wild, and then eventually making their way to civilization. The stop motion SFX are by Willis O'Brien, of King Kong, and they are really top notch in this movie. Especially in one scene where the heroes are lowered down into the cave of the giant scorpions--it ranks up there with some of the best sci-fi images ever filmed. I've always been a big fan of the O'Brien/Harryhausen stop motion work--maybe it doesn't look as realistic as the modern computer stuff--but to me it looks BETTER. I mean, we don't watch movies like this for realism, right? Those stop motion animators were real artists--not computer technicians. If you're a fan of this genre--check out The Black Scorpion.
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