''The Deadly Mantis'' is a 1957 American

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

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 unde ...

produced by William Alland for

Universal-International Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American film production and distribution company headquartered at the Universal Studios complex in Universal City, ...

. The film was directed by

Nathan Juran Naftuli Hertz "Nathan" Juran (September 1, 1907 – October 23, 2002) was an Austro-Hungarian-born 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 Wa ...

from a screenplay by

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

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 more than 80 feature f ...

, 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 Conway was the son of M ...

Plot

In the

South Seas Today the term South Seas, or South Sea, most commonly refers to the portion of the Pacific Ocean south of the equator. The term South Sea may also be used synonymously for Oceania, or even more narrowly for Polynesia or the Polynesian Triangle ...

, 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 ...

, 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 List o ...

, 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 the most populous city in El Paso County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, a 15.02% increase since 2010 United States Census, 2 ...

. 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 as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

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 (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

, the mantis attacks an

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

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. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

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 as Gen. Mark Ford *

as Sgt. Pete Allen * Florenz Ames as Prof. Anton Gunther * Paul Smith as Corporal, Parkman's Clerk * Phil Harvey as Lou, Radar Man * Floyd Simmons 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 Washington Monument is an obelisk on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father of the United States, victorious commander-in-chief of the Continen ...

. ''The Deadly Mantis'' utilized stock

Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

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''.

Release

The film was released in 1957 as a

double feature The double feature is a Film, motion picture industry phenomenon in which theaters would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which the presentation of one feature film would be followed by various short subjec ...

with the

spy film The spy film, also known as the spy thriller, is a film genre, 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 Jame ...

'' The Girl in the Kremlin''. ''The Deadly Mantis'' received mostly negative reviews upon its debut.

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

awarded it one out of four stars, calling it a "lame rip-off of the sci-fi classic '' Them!''"."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 Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures, and file footage is film or video footage that can be used again in other films. Stock footage is beneficial to filmmakers as it saves shooting new material. A single piece of stock ...

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'', '' The Land Unknown'', '' Cult of the Cobra'', and '' The Leech Woman''. 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 a season eight episode of ''

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

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

''. "The Deadly Mantis" has appeared on Svengoolie on June 28, 2008(season 14 episode 11) Jan. 7, 2012(season 18 episode 1) and April 12, 2025(season 31 episode 14)

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 English-language science fiction horror films Kaiju films American natural horror films Films produced by William Alland Mystery Science Theater 3000