''The Deadly Mantis'' is a 1957 American

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

monster film A monster movie, monster film, creature feature or giant monster film is a film that focuses on one or more characters struggling to survive attacks by one or more antagonistic monsters, often abnormally large ones. The film may also fall und ...

produced by

William Alland William Alland (March 4, 1916 – November 11, 1997) was an American actor, film producer and writer, mainly of Western and science-fiction/monster films, including ''This Island Earth'', ''It Came From Outer Space'', ''Tarantula!'', ''The Dead ...

for

Universal-International Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

. The film was directed by

Nathan Juran Naftuli Hertz "Nathan" Juran (September 1, 1907 – October 23, 2002) was a Romanian film art director, and later film and television director. As an art director, he won the Oscar for Best Art Direction in 1942 for ''How Green Was My Valley'', ...

from a screenplay by

Martin Berkeley Martin Berkeley (August 21, 1904 − May 6, 1979) was a Hollywood and television screenwriter who collaborated with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the 1950s by naming dozens of Hollywood artists as Communists or Communist sy ...

based on a story by producer William Alland. ''The Deadly Mantis'' stars Craig Stevens,

William Hopper William DeWolf Hopper Jr. (January 26, 1915 – March 6, 1970) was an American stage, film, and television actor. The only child of actor DeWolf Hopper and actress and Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper, he appeared in predominantly minor ro ...

, Alix Talton and

Pat Conway Patrick Douglas Conway (January 9, 1931 – April 24, 1981) was an American actor best known for starring as Sheriff Clay Hollister on the Western television series ''Tombstone Territory'' (1957–1960). Early years The son of Metro-Goldwy ...

Plot

In the South Seas, a volcano explodes, causing North Pole icebergs to shift. A 200-foot-long

praying mantis Mantises are an order (Mantodea) of insects that contains over 2,400 species in about 460 genera in 33 families. The largest family is the Mantidae ("mantids"). Mantises are distributed worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats. They ha ...

, trapped in the ice for millions of years, stirs. The personnel at Red Eagle One, a military station in northern Canada that monitors the

Distant Early Warning Line The Distant Early Warning Line, also known as the DEW Line or Early Warning Line, was a system of radar stations in the northern Arctic region of Canada, with additional stations along the north coast and Aleutian Islands of Alaska (see Proj ...

, 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 gone, and giant slashes left in the snow outside. Joe sends his pilots out to investigate when a radar blip is sighted, but their target disappears. An Air Force plane is attacked by the mantis. Joe searches the wreckage and, in addition to the huge slashes, finds a five-foot-long spur in the snow. He takes it to General Mark Ford at the Continental Air Defense (CONAD) in

Colorado Springs, Colorado Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

. Ford gathers top scientists, including Professor Anton Gunther, to examine the object. When they cannot identify it, Gunther recommends calling in Dr. Nedrick Jackson, a

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

at the Museum of Natural History. After examining the object, Ned recognizes it as a torn-off spur from an insect's leg, and narrows it down to a gigantic praying mantis. In the

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...

, the mantis attacks an

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

village. Ned is sent to Red Eagle One to investigate further. Museum magazine editor Marge Blaine gets permission to accompany him as his photographer. All the men at the base, including Joe, are smitten by Marge. That night, Marge and Joe join Ned in his office and discuss the mantis. The mantis attacks the building. Although the full unit opens fire on the mantis with automatic rifles and a flame-thrower, it is unscathed and moves away only after aircraft encircle it. Hours later, the base remains on red alert. The mantis attacks a boat off the Canadian coast, which means that it is flying at a speed of 200 miles an hour. Ford calls a press conference to announce the mantis's existence and ask the

Ground Observer Corps The Ground Observer Corps (GOC), sometimes erroneously referred to as the Ground ''Observation'' Corps, was the name of two American civil defense organizations during the middle 20th century. World War II organization The first Ground Observer ...

to track its whereabouts. Over the next few days, Ned, Marge, and Joe track the bug's progress with the help of military and civilian observers. One night, Joe drives Marge home, stopping briefly for a kiss. They are distracted by reports of numerous unexplained wrecks in the area. A woman leaving a bus sees the mantis, and all emergency personnel are put on alert. The mantis is sighted in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Joe is one of the pilots who attempt to drive the mantis toward the sea, but a dense fog throws him off course, and he flies directly into it. As the wounded mantis drops to the ground and crawls into the Manhattan Tunnel, Joe safely parachutes to the ground. Ford leads a team that seals off the tunnel, filling it with smoke to provide cover for Joe and his special unit, who enter the tunnel armed with rifles and three chemical bombs. They shoot at the mantis, but it lumbers on, forcing them backward. Joe throws a bomb in its face, and it collapses, dead. Ford, Ned, Joe, and Marge enter the tunnel to examine the bug. Marge photographs its face. Joe sees the mantis' leg move and runs to protect Marge. Although Ned explains that the movement was merely an autonomic reflex, Joe takes the opportunity to pull Marge into an embrace.

Cast

* Craig Stevens as Col. Joe Parkman *

as Dr. Nedrick 'Ned' Jackson * Alix Talton as Marge Blaine *

Donald Randolph Donald Randolph (January 5, 1906 – March 16, 1993) was a film, television, and radio actor. The actor, who appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's '' Topaz'' (1969), acted in dozens of radio dramas, television programs and over thirty films. Randolph ...

as Gen. Mark Ford *

as Sgt. Pete Allen *

Florenz Ames Florenz may refer to: * Florenz Regalado (born 1928), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines * Florenz Ziegfeld (1867–1932), American Broadway impresario * Karl-Heinz Florenz (born 1947), German Member of the European Parlia ...

as Prof. Anton Gunther * Paul Smith as Corporal, Parkman's Clerk * Phil Harvey as Lou, Radar Man *

Floyd Simmons Floyd Macon Simmons (April 10, 1923 – April 1, 2008) was an American athlete and actor who competed mainly in the decathlon. He was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. Biography Raised in Charlotte, Simmons was the son of a builder a ...

as Army Sergeant * Paul Campbell as Lt. Fred Pizar * Helen Jay as Mrs. Farley

Production

''The Deadly Mantis'' was the first science fiction film made by director

, who has said that he came up with the idea for the opening sequence. A massive ''papier mâché'' model of a mantis was built for the movie, fitted with a hydraulic system. It measured long and high, and had a wingspan of . Two smaller models were also created, one long and another long; these were used for the scenes where the mantis walked or flew. Shots of a real praying mantis were used for the scene in which the deadly mantis climbs the Washington Monument. ''The Deadly Mantis'' utilized stock Air Force footage taken from short films such as "Guardians All", "One Plane– One Bomb", and "SFP308." The footage of the Inuit village was taken from Universal's 1933 film ''

S.O.S. Iceberg ''S.O.S. Eisberg'' (aka ''S.O.S. Iceberg'' and ''Iceland'') is a 1933 German-US pre-Code drama film directed by Arnold Fanck and starring Gustav Diessl, Leni Riefenstahl, Sepp Rist, Gibson Gowland, Rod La Rocque, and Ernst Udet. The film was writ ...

''.

Release

The film was released in 1957 as a

double feature The double feature is a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatres would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown. Opera use Opera ho ...

with the

spy film The spy film, also known as the spy thriller, is a genre of film that deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way (such as the adaptations of John le Carré) or as a basis for fantasy (such as many James Bond films) ...

The Girl in the Kremlin ''The Girl in the Kremlin'' is a 1957 American film noir mystery film directed by Russell Birdwell and starring Lex Barker, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Jeffrey Stone. Plot In Moscow, four terrified women prisoners are brought to the office of Joseph Sta ...

''. ''The Deadly Mantis'' received mostly negative reviews upon its debut.

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

awarded it one out of four stars, calling it a "lame rip-off of the sci-fi classic ''

Them! ''Them!'' is a 1954 American black-and-white science fiction film, science fiction monster film from Warner Bros. Pictures, produced by David Weisbart, directed by Gordon Douglas (director), Gordon Douglas, and starring James Whitmore, Edmund ...

''"."Movie Reviews and Movie Ratings: 'The Deadly Mantis'."
''TV Guide.com'', November 1, 2018.

Retrospective criticism

Andrew Smith from ''Popcorn Pictures'' gave the film a score of 4/10, writing, "Devoid of anything fresh, featuring a tired storyline, an overuse of stock footage and peppered with lifeless characters, it’s no surprise to see this drop off the radar whilst true classics ''Them!'' and ''The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms'' reign supreme."Smith, Andrew
"Review: 'Deadly Mantis, The' (1957)."
''Popcorn Pictures.co.uk'', (Andrew Smith), November 1, 2018. On his website ''Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings'', Dave Sindelar criticized the feature's unmemorable characters, clumsy story, and occasionally poorly handled scenes. However, Sindelar noted, "despite all this, the movie is fun and quite energetic".Sindelar, Dave
"Review: 'The Deadly Mantis' (1957)."
''Fantastic Movie Musings.com'' (Dave Sindelar), November 1, 2018. The website ''Atomic Monsters'' looked at the film in a somewhat positive light, giving it a "radioactive rating of 5 atomic blasts out of 5".

Home media

Universal released ''The Deadly Mantis'' on DVD in a boxed set called ''The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection Vol. 2'', which includes four other films: ''

Dr. Cyclops ''Dr. Cyclops'' is a 1940 American science fiction horror film from Paramount Pictures, produced by Dale Van Every and Merian C. Cooper, directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack, and starring Thomas Coley, Victor Kilian, Janice Logan, Charles Halton, ...

'', ''

The Land Unknown ''The Land Unknown'' is a 1957 science fiction CinemaScope adventure film about a naval expedition trapped in an Antarctic jungle. The story was allegedly inspired by the discovery of unusually warm water in Antarctica in 1947. It stars Jock M ...

'', ''

Cult of the Cobra ''Cult of the Cobra'' is a 1955 American black-and-white horror film from Universal-International Pictures, produced by Howard Pine, directed by Francis D. Lyon, that stars Faith Domergue, Richard Long, Kathleen Hughes, Marshall Thompson, Ja ...

'', and ''

The Leech Woman ''The Leech Woman'' is a 1960 black-and-white US horror film from Universal-International, produced by Joseph Gershenon, directed by Edward Dein, and starring Coleen Gray, Grant Williams, Gloria Talbott, and Phillip Terry. The film was actual ...

''. Shout released ''The Deadly Mantis'' on Region 1 Blu-ray on March 19, 2019, with an audio commentary track by Tom Weaver and David Schecter.

Legacy

In February 1997, ''The Deadly Mantis'' was featured on an episode of ''

Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. ...

''."Season 8, Episode 4 The Deadly Mantis"
. ''

''.

References

Citations Bibliography * Halliwell, Leslie. ''Leslie Halliwell's Film Guide''. New York: Harper & Roe, 1989. . * Rajewski, Genevieve. ''Introducing the Deadly Mantis''. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 2006. .

External links

* * * *
MST3K Episode Guide: The Deadly Mantis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deadly Mantis, The 1957 films 1950s science fiction films Universal Pictures films 1950s monster movies Giant monster films American black-and-white films American disaster films American aviation films Films about insects Films directed by Nathan Juran 1950s English-language films 1950s American films