The Deadly Mantis is a 1957 science fiction film produced by William Alland for Universal-International Pictures. It was directed by Nathan Juran from a screenplay by Martin Berkeley, and stars Craig Stevens, William Hopper, Alix Talton, and Pat Conway.
“For every action, there is an equal — and opposite — reaction.” 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. Soon after, the military personnel at Red Eagle One, a military station in northern Canada that monitors information gathered from the Distant Early Warning Line, realize that the men at one of their outposts are not responding to calls. Commanding officer Col. Joe Parkman flies there to investigate, and finds the post destroyed, its men disappeared and giant slashes left in the snow outside…
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. From there on, it’s almost as if Universal-International were being paid by the CIA to explain the terror of the potential ‘invasion’ (a notion not without plausibility as the Agency did pay for a 1954 British animated adaptation of Orwell’s Animal Farm). “Sound the red alert” has never been so poignant.
Despite the bogus bogeyman fears, the real terror is obviously is a giant praying mantis. Yet, even when the presence of a massive 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, thus reinforcing the ‘Uncle Sam knows best’ ethos. Mention of the 400,000 members of the ‘Civilian Ground Observer Corp’ make it clear that The Deadly Mantis is a metaphor for the real deadly menace: “Take no chances, report any unusual flying object”. This Cold War rhetoric is scarier than any giant insect could ever be.
Several references to “skid marks” will doubtlessly induce mild sniggering for some, but the biggest laughs come from the creature’s frenzied attacks (with defending flame throwers and bomber planes a go-go) which are combined with an overly dramatic score by Irving Gertz (The Alligator People) and William Lava. This is a crude creature feature that’s peppered with bombastic militaristic nonsense so quite sad, yet enjoyable for its titular monster, at least.
Adrian J Smith
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