The Black Scorpion

Produced on a low budget and set in the Mexico desert in the aftermath of a volcanic eruption, this 1957 giant insect movie follows the model of earlier (and better) films like 1954’s Them!, here featuring an invasion of enormous prehistoric scorpions unleashed from an underground cavern. Stiff, stalwart Richard Denning stars as an American geologist who arrives with a Mexican colleague (Carlos Múzquiz) to study volcanic activity and winds up fighting the rampaging monsters. The dialogue is flat, lazy, and full of dry exposition and explanations, while the direction by Edward Ludwig is plodding, and Denning is more one-dimensional than usual as he goes about the obligatory romance with costar Mara Corday. What makes this film memorable is the special-effects work by stop-motion pioneer Willis O'Brien (creator of the original King Kong), who helped design and animate the creatures. Even on the film's low budget, the giant scorpion attacks are dynamic and dramatic, including an attack on a telephone lineman, a train wreck with a small army of scorpions swarming over the cars to hunt the survivors for food, and a final showdown between the Mexican army and the scorpion queen. A minor cult film that may appeal to fans of giant monster movies but will likely be a slog for everyone else, The Black Scorpion makes its Blu-ray debut with extras including an interview with special-effects-master Ray Harryhausen, a clip of Harryhausen’s stop-motion dinosaurs from Irwin Allen’s 1956 documentary The Animal World, and "Las Vegas Monster and Beetlemen" test footage found after Black Scorpion visual effects animator Pete Peterson’s death. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)