Year: 1957
Director: Nathan Juran
Country: US
Language: English
The Deadly Mantis begins with a paranoid beware-of-the-Commies pseudo documentary look at the good work being done by the obliquely named ‘Red Eagle One’ military base (go capitalism! hurrah hurrah!) It’s almost as if Universal-International were being paid by the CIA to explain the terror of the potential soviet ‘invasion. Ah, it's a film of its time! The height of the cold war had some remarkable monster movies.
In the South Seas, a volcano explodes, eventually causing North Pole icebergs to shift. Below the melting polar ice caps, a 200-foot-long praying mantis, trapped in the ice for millions of years, begins to stir.
Wait...what!? That's right, besides the typical red boogermen fear there is also real terror in a giant praying mantis (what does it want and who is it praying to!?) Perhaps the film pokes fun at patriotism a little, as even when the giant insect is suspected the flag-waving nuttiness continues; with shots of four “hot phones” connected at the ready to “save millions of Americans”, and scenes of devoted scientists slavishly working for Pentagon generals.
When defending flame throwers and bomber planes a go-go are in-tune with a quite dramatic score by Irving Gertz, you know you're in for a treat. The Deadly Mantis is an undeniably crude creature feature that’s peppered with bombastic militaristic nonsense (yes, we all know what the REAL threat is *wink* *wink*)
Surprisingly the acting is pretty good and the dialogue isn't bad. It's a bit too pro-America but definitely tests the imagination in terms of creativity. It's not a very believable monster, but some people get terrified at the tiny insect real-life version, so I'm giving it a pass. Watch it when you can.
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