The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

A thoughtful, philosophical, intelligent and sensitive Sci-Fi film

Directed by Jack Arnold
Produced by Albert Zugsmith
Written by Richard Matheson
Screenplay by Richard Matheson, Richard Alan Simmons
Based on The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson
Music by Irving Getz, Hans J. Salter, Herman Stein
Cinematography: Ellis W. Carter
Edited by Albrecht Joseph
Distributed by Universal-International
Running time: 81 minutes
Budget: $750,000
Box office: $(US)1.43 million

Cast

Grant Williams as Scott Carey
Randy Stuart as Louise Carey
April Kent as Clarice
Paul Langton as Charlie Carey
Raymond Bailey as Doctor Thomas Silver
William Schallert as Doctor Arthur Bramson
Frank J. Scannell as Barker
Helene Marshall as Nurse
Diana Darrin as Nurse
Billy Curtis as Midget 

Orangey as Butch the cat

The Incredible Shrinking Man is a 1957 American black-and-white science fiction film from Universal-International and was adapted for the screen by Richard Matheson from his novel, The Shrinking Man.

This film together with 20 Million Miles to Earth, Kronos and The Monolith Monsters, all from the same year, left an indelible impression on me for almost six decades. 

Trailer

Spoilers Follow……

"The strange, almost unbelievable story of Robert Scott Carey…” 

The film opens with title and credits in white font over a black background, which then dissolve to a swirling fog. We are then presented with a shot of a shore and waves lapping and rolling on to a beach, followed by a shot of a boat bobbing serenely on the ocean “on a very ordinary summer day.”

The story begins with Scott Carey, a businessman on vacation with his wife of six years, Louise resting on the bow of his brother Charlie’s boat off the California coast.

When Louise goes below deck to get Scott a beer, a strange cloud looms towards the boat and engulfs it. After it passes on, Scott discovers that his bare skin is coated with a peculiar glittering reflective substance.

"People just don't get shorter" 

Life-changing events strike out of the blue 

Lending old minds new insight 

Into certainties long held true, 

Of self, of life, of wrong and right, 

And why we do what we do.

One morning six months later, a normally 6 foot 1 inch, 190 pound Scott notices that his shirt and trousers seem to be too big. He puts the cause of the looseness of his clothes down to the laundry service, his losing weight and his wife’s cooking.

As the problem persists, Scott visits his family physician, Dr. Arthur Bramson and is informed that his height now measures five-feet and eleven inches. Scott tells the doctor, "I've been six foot, one-inch since I was seventeen." The doctor suggests that his weight loss may be the result of overwork and stress.

A week later Scott notices his bathrobe doesn't appear to fit him properly. Not only does his robe seem as Shakespeare’s Angus might say, to “hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe / Upon a dwarfish thief,” but also when he and Louise kiss, she no longer needs to stand on tiptoe to kiss him. 

Scott definitely appears to be getting shorter. However, unlike Macbeth, he is not a thief in possession of what he is not entitled to, but is instead the one who is being systematically robbed of what is rightfully his. We can, therefore, feel sympathy for him.

Bad Fit

My fearful face frowns with worry 

From the mirror that reflects my failure 

To neatly fill a destiny meant for me, 

Bound tightly by form and structure. 

Finally, there is proof that Scott is getting smaller when he returns to see Dr. Bramson who has a series of X-rays taken at different times. By comparing these X-Rays, he is able to show that Scott is indeed getting smaller.

In order to uncover the reason behind Scott’s diminishing stature, Dr Bramson refers Scott to the California Medical Research Institute. After more tests are conducted, Dr. Thomas Silver tells Scott that he is losing vital chemical elements of Nitrogen, Calcium and Phosphorus.

The doctor discovers something that doesn't belong which he describes as an anti-cancer. The doctor then asks Scott about possible exposure to insecticide. Scott tells him that two months before he had passed a truck on the highway that was spraying trees. Dr Silver then asks him about radioactive exposure. Just as Scott says no, Louise recalls the incident involving the cloud of mist on the boat six months earlier. It is just possible that the two types of exposure had combined to cause Scott’s cells to shrink by rearranging his molecular structure.

The implications of Scott’s condition for his and Louise’ marriage is briefly but poignantly highlighted by Scott's wedding ring falling off his ring finger, just before they drive off.

As Scott continues to shrink, his story makes it into the newspapers and is now of nation-wide interest. The consequences for Scott are dire: he is unable to drive and has to give up his job working for his brother, Charlie who informs Scott that the loss of a major account means that there are no more pay- checks.

Now reduced to being in debt and unemployed, Scott accepts his brother’s advice to sell his story to the newspapers. He also begins keeping a journal of his experiences which he intends to publish.

As news of Scott’s condition spreads, his house and privacy is besieged by reporters and curious spectators. Louise contacts the telephone company to request an unlisted phone number but they will have to wait for an unlisted line.

Louise soon becomes the recipient of Scott’s misdirected anger as he lashes out at her and the strain is beginning to tell on their marriage. Despite the emotional impact on Louise, she does attempt to reassure her husband that the doctors are working on an anti-toxin.

"The anti-toxin, they found it." 

Now at 36½ inches in height and weighing in at 52 pounds, Scott is informed that an antidote has been found for his condition. At the Institute, Dr. Silver injects Scott but it turns out that there are no guarantees as to the treatment’s success. In fact, there is only a 50/50 chance and that Scott will never return to his former size unless a cure is found. Scott must now stay at the Institute for a week.

The next week it is found that Scott is the same height and weight as the previous week. It seems that the shrinking process has halted. However, re-growing back to Scott’s normal size may not be possible. Scott may therefore have to accept the situation.

With his entire world seeming to fall about him, his marriage deteriorating and his sense of self-worth diminishing, Scott flees from the house for the first time since he sold his story:

“I felt puny and absurd, a ludicrous midget. Easy enough to talk of soul and spirit and existential worth, but not when you're three feet tall. I loathed myself, our home, the caricature my life with Lou had become. I had to get out. I had to get away.”

Little Man

Hey, little man! How come you’re so small

When yesterday you were 10 feet tall?

Did life just get bigger

Or did you get smaller?

They gave your job to some other jerk

When you didn’t measure up at work.

So now you wallow at home in pity and debt

Only able to fuss and fret

About what you’ll lose along the way

And still you’ll continue to pay and pay.

As you lash out at the world and those who love you,

Still you continue 

To diminish

Finish

Adieu.

"That night I got a grip on life again.”

We now find Scott at a carnival where he is introduced to one of the acts, a 36 ½ inch midget. Fearing that the world sees him as being nothing more than a freak, he leaves the carnival and goes to a Café for coffee. There he meets and becomes friends with the female midget named Clarice Bruce, who is slightly shorter than him and who appears at the carnival sideshow in town. Clarice tells him she was born a midget and tries to reassure Scott that life is worth living and that it is not all bad being their size:

“Oh, Scott, for people like you and me the world can be a wonderful place. The sky is as blue as it is for the giants.”

The meeting with Clarice seems to have helped to improve Scott’s mood and outlook by knowing that perhaps he is not alone and by having his dilemma put into some kind of perspective.

"It's starting again." 

Two weeks later, Scott shows Clarice the journal he has resumed working on. Suddenly he notices that he has become shorter than her indicating that the antidote has stopped working. In a panic, he runs back home which brings an end to his friendship with the one person who can understand his plight and with whom he can share his thoughts and feelings on the matter. In a sense now, he is truly alone.

Scott is now small enough (6 inches high) to be living inside a doll house. He is also housed in a private inner abode of bitterness which expresses itself in his tyrannical and demanding behaviour toward Louise and by his inability to end his "wretched existence."

When Louise goes shopping, Scott is attacked by his own cat, the very cat he used to enjoy playing with. The beloved family pet sees his former owner merely as a potential meal.

Eventually (after playing cat and mouse with the cat…Sorry!) Scott ends up being accidentally trapped in the basement of his home. After returning home, Louise discovers a blood-stained scrap of Scott's clothing. Louise joins the dots and assumes that Butch the cat ate her husband.

KIRL news report: 

"From Los Angeles today, a tragic story: The passing of Robert Scott Carey. The report of the death of the so-called Shrinking Man comes from his brother. Carey's death was the result of an attack by a common house cat--a former pet in the Carey home."

Convinced that her husband is dead, Louise prepares to move.

Scott has now descended to the lowest depths of his house - the basement - where he regains consciousness in a sewing box. Being only three inches tall, Scott knows that he can't climb the stairs. He attempts to call to his wife, but she can't hear him. He contemplates his surroundings and observes:

“The cellar stretched before me like some vast primeval plain, empty of life, littered with the relics of a vanished race. No desert island castaway ever faced so bleak a prospect.”

Scott goes quickly into survival mode: Water from a dripping hot water heater. Shelter from a match box. The next requirement, food is more problematic. Without food, the shrinking process will accelerate.

Spotting a piece of cheese in a mouse trap, Scott tries to use a nail to spring the trap, but this only results in the cheese rolling into a floor drain. He then sees a lump of stale cake high up off the ground on a bench or shelf attached to the basement wall. His ability to reach it will involve overcoming the obstacle of a rather dangerous looking spider.

Scott locates a pin cushion and gets hold of a pin to use as a weapon. He fashions another pin into a grappling hook which he uses to scale the side of a box. After some effort, Scott reaches the spider’s web which is partially attached to the piece of cake. He uses his pin tool to break off pieces of the stale cake.

"My prison” 

Scott approaches a vent in the wall but finds that the grid is too small to slip through. All he can do is lament his predicament of being in “a grey friendless area of space and time."

After obtaining a few pieces of the cake, Scott is chased by the spider but manages to escape into his match box shelter where he observes;

"In my hunt for food, I had become the hunted. This time I survived, but I was no longer alone in my universe. I had an enemy, the most terrifying ever beheld by human eyes."

Later on the hot water heater springs a leak that quickly causes the basement to be flooded with a gushing torrent of water. Scott is washed down towards the floor drain as Charlie and Louise enter the basement. He calls out to them but they are unable to hear him. Charlie unclogs the drain, retrieves a trunk and departs the house with Louise, while Scott clings on to a pencil and lapses into unconsciousness over the floor drain.

“As man had dominated the world of the sun, 

so I would dominate my world.”

After Scott regains consciousness, he considers his predicament involving his nemesis, the spider. Retrieving his weapons, Scott embarks once again on the odyssey to obtain the cake perched ever so high up the basement wall.

Scott’s plan is to use a pair of scissors as a weight attached to a pin by thread. He will use the pin to spear the spider, then push the scissors over the ledge causing the impaled spider to be dragged over the ledge by the scissor’s weight.

After a couple of harrowing mishaps trying to execute his plan, Scott is able to retrieve one of his pins, plunge it into the spider's body and kill it.

“To God, there is no zero. I still exist!” 

Instead of savouring his victory over the spider and celebrating it by claiming and devouring the spoils, Scott drops the piece of cake. The now inch-tall Scott realizes that he no longer feels hunger. Nor does he fear shrinking.

He exits the vent screen, walks outside and contemplates the night sky with its full moon and its points of illumination arriving from an infinite past, signalling to the immediate present and lighting the way to an immeasurable eternity. He then suddenly becomes aware that the “infinitesimal and the infinite…. were really the two ends of the same concept,” that “eventually meet - like the closing of a gigantic circle.”

A flash of enlightenment comes to Scott as he looks up and suddenly knows “the answer to the riddle of the infinite…. That existence begins and ends in man's conception, not nature's.”

With that knowledge and understanding, Scott feels his “body dwindling, melting, becoming nothing” and with that his “fears melted away. And in their place came acceptance.” He has come to understand that in the whole scheme of things he in “all this vast majesty of creation” and even being “smaller than the smallest… meant something, too.”

I still exist!

Standing a mere millimeter high, 

Can I still stand tall like a man? 

Can I look life right in the eye 

Not knowing who I am? 

Dwarfed by civilisation, 

Reduced to a sub-atomic mite, 

Ignored by all of creation, 

Oblivious to my plight. 

Do I just vanish and slip into an “0”? 

Or do I just do and be what I am: 

Star stuff, infinitely more than zero, 

One that matters – a limitless little man?

Points of Interest

In the flooding of the basement scene, the giant drops of water were simulated by filling up condoms and dropping them by use of a treadmill. No end of uses for the humble condom!

Director Jack Arnold added Scott Carey's moving and though-provoking closing soliloquy.

A cat by the name of Orangey played Scott Carey's cat.

At the completion of the film’s production, studio executives in a rather conventional, mediocre and unimaginative way of thinking wanted to change the ending to a happy one with doctors coming up with a serum to reverse the shrinking process, but director Arnold held his ground and refused. Instead of a neatly packaged resolution, we have a kind of spiritual enlightenment on the part of the main character.

The Incredible Shrinking Man won the first Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation presented by Solacon, the 16th World Science Fiction Convention in Los Angeles.

The film was named in 2009 to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant.

The Incredible Shrinking Man almost stands like a metaphor for much of the human condition particularly in the modern post-industrial context. Scott, like many people find themselves being overwhelmed by fate and circumstances which seem to beyond their control. In the face of world events, geo-politics, the sheer pace of technological change, economic instability, threats to security and privacy and so on, we might very well as individuals experience a sense of powerlessness or of feeling diminished.

Do we then resign ourselves to disappearing unnoticed? Do we wallow in self-loathing and self-pity? Or perhaps we might blame and misdirect our anger and frustration toward the rest of humanity and even those closest to us?

After experiencing the full range of responses to his dilemma and struggling tooth and nail for existence, Scott is able to literally break out of and transcend the confining prison of his basement-like existence and the kind of negative and destructive thinking and feeling it produced in him. He has managed to truly move on in a spiritual and dignified way via the realisation that everything in the universe, no matter how small or insignificant, has its own worth and importance.

©Chris Christopoulos 2016

A Tribute To John Agar

(January 31, 1921 – April 7, 2002)

“…. if I give anybody any enjoyment, I'm doing my job, and that's what counts."

Early Life

John Agar was born in Chicago, Illinois into a wealthy Chicago meat packing family as the oldest of 4 children on Jan 31, 1921. He was educated at the Harvard School for Boys in Chicago and Lake Forest Academy in Lake Forest, Illinois. He graduated from Trinity-Pawling Preparatory School in Pawling, New York, but did not attend college.

After the death of his father, John and his family moved from Chicago to Los Angeles in 1942. 

War Service 

During World War II, a 20 year old John Agar left his studies and enlisted and served in the United States Army Air Corps, mostly at the March Field in Riverside, California. He served as a physical fitness instructor on account of his solid physique. He left the AAF in 1946 having achieved the rank of sergeant at the age of 24.

Marriage

John Agar is often best remembered for being the first husband of actress Shirley Temple (a school friend of his sister) whom he married in 1945. Agar was 24 years old and Temple was only 17.

A foretaste of what was to come regarding the marriage soon emerged with the media frenzy and constant scrutiny surrounding Agar’s relationship with Shirley Temple.

Agar and Temple had a daughter, Linda Susan Agar in 1948.

Agar and Temple’s marriage turned out to be a troubled one due in part to Agar's drinking problems and the pressures arising from their high public profile. John Agar hated being constantly referred to as "Mr. Shirley Temple" in the papers. He turned to alcohol to help cope with the mounting pressures. 

After only 4 years of marriage, Temple sued for divorce on the grounds of mental cruelty in 1949.

After his divorce from Temple, Agar remarried in 1951 to model Barnett Combs. They had two sons, Martin Agar and John G. Agar, III. The marriage lasted for 49 years until Loretta’s death in 2000.

Acting Career 

Movie producer and Temple’s boss, David O. Selznick signed Agar to a five-year acting contract starting at $150 a week, including acting lessons!

Agar and his wife Shirley Temple worked together in Ford's classic 1948 Western film, Fort Apache and in the film, Adventure in Baltimore. Agar worked with John Wayne in Fort Apache and again in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. He also worked with Wayne in the classic World War 2 film, Sands of Iwo Jima. Agar went on to make a total of six movies with John Wayne.

John Agar’s career was unfortunately punctuated by alcohol-fuelled incidents. In 1950 Agar was fined for reckless driving and in 1951 was jailed for five months for drunk driving. Agar was released after 60 days on probation. In 1953 he was arrested for drink driving yet again and was sentenced to 120 days’ imprisonment.

The news media turned against John Agar who was not long before considered to have been one of Hollywood's most popular leading men.

No longer having the status of an A-movie star, Agar did manage to continue with his acting career by playing leading roles in low-budget science fiction, Western, and horror B movies in the 1950s and 1960s. He was to eventually achieve something of a cult status among classic science fiction movie fans.

John appeared in many science fiction films, some of which have already been featured in this blog;

Revenge of the Creature 

(1955) 

(sequel to "Creature from the Black Lagoon")

Tarantula (1955) 

The Mole People (1956)

The Brain from Planet Arous  (1957) 

Daughter of Dr. Jekyll (1957) 

Attack of the Puppet People (1958) 

Destination Space (1959) 

Invisible Invaders (1959) 

The Hand of Death (1962) 

Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962) 

Women of the Prehistoric Planet (1966) 

Zontar the Thing from Venus (1966) 

(remake of 1956 Roger Corman’s, "It Conquered the World") 

As the popularity of science fiction films began to wane in the 1960's, John Agar appeared mostly in Western genre films.

Although acting roles grew more scarce for Agar, his loyal friend of over 20 years, John Wayne, gave Agar supporting roles in the Westerns, The Undefeated (1969), Chisum (1970), and Big Jake (1971).

In tribute to John Agar’s contributions to science fiction, director John Guillermin also gave Agar a cameo role in the 1976 remake of the 1933 classic, King Kong.

In addition to these movie roles, John Agar made several guest appearances on popular T.V. programs in the 1970's and 1980's, such as Charlie's Angels, Police Story, and an episode of The Twilight Zone. Agar was also in great demand at sci-fi conventions.

Death 

John Agar died on April 7, 2002 at Burbank, California of complications from emphysema. He was survived by his three children.

Awards & Legacy 

John Agar was awarded the "Lifetime Career Award" by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films in 1981.

Agar was quite realistic about his career, and the films he appeared in:

“To me the idea of just working is what's fun, I don't give a doggone what kind of part.” However, “a lot of the pictures I made were not released--they escaped.” 

Thank you John Agar for doing your job: giving us a lot of fun!

©Chris Christopoulos 2016

The Deadly Mantis (1957)

An entertaining low budget sci-film with lots of action

Directed by Nathan H. Juran
Produced by William Alland
Written by William Alland, Martin Berkeley
Music by Irving Gerts, William Lava
Cinematography: Ellis W. Carter
Edited by Chester Schaeffer
Distributed by Universal-International
Running time: 79 min

Cast

Craig Stevens: Col. Joe Parkman
William Hopper: Dr. Nedrick Jackson
Alix Talton: Marge Blaine
Donald Randolph: Maj. Gen. Mark Ford
Pat Conway: Sgt. Pete Allen
Florenz Ames: Prof. Anton Gunther
Paul Smith: Corporal
Phil Harvey: Lou
Floyd Simmons: Army Sergeant
Paul Campbell: Lt. Fred Pizar
Helen Jay: Mrs. Farley

“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” 

The Deadly Mantis opens with a camera zoom-in on a map showing the North Atlantic Ocean followed by a small island in the Weddell Sea close to the Antarctic Circle. A huge volcanic eruption then occurs after which the camera tracks across the map to Greenland and then on to a point close to the North Pole.

For those of us today who are accustomed to experiencing the increasing effects of global warning, we witness with somewhat less surprise than what might be expected such as huge areas of ice breaking up.

What is surprising is that the breakup and melting of the ice reveals the body of a giant praying mantis!

Trailer

What If?......... 

Spoilers follow below

(Lines within inverted commas taken directly from the film)

WASHINGTON OBSERVER

Special Feature: Dew Line Draws the Line!

America is guarded day and night by a fence – an electronic fence made of RADAR “designed to protect us against attack.”

Our way of life, our values and freedoms are continually being protected by successive impenetrable electronic radar barriers: The Pine tree radar fence, The mid-Canada radar fence and The Dew Line or Distant Early Warning line.

Rest assured that “the work continues day and night around the clock….”

*********************

WASHINGTON OBSERVER – City Edition

(Special Report) 

POLAR TRAGEDIES REVEALED! 

AIRFORCE DISCLOSES MYSTERIOUS CRASHES AND DISAPPEARANCES 

Weather Station Found Destroyed 

On _____, at an advance warning radar station outpost in northern Canada called “Weather Four,” two technicians reported having detected something unusual on their radar. It appears that before they could work out what was going on, the entire outpost was destroyed.

Pilots of the aircraft that were dispatched to investigate reported to radar station “Red Eagle One” (part of the DEW line early warning system) evidence of heavy damage to the building.

Col Joe Parkman of Red Eagle One station flew out to the destroyed outpost to inspect the damage. Col Parkman found that the outpost building was totally destroyed and all the electronic equipment had been smashed. He was at a loss to explain the disappearance of the two men who were stationed there but was convinced that the shack had not been destroyed by a gale.

Upon checking the perimeter of the outpost, Col Parkman discovered a series of strange marks resembling furrows scratched into the snow. Each long furrow ended in what appeared to be three prongs.

While the mystery of the furrows was being puzzled over, Red Eagle reported a strange intermittent radar contact. A red alert was sounded and jet fighters were scrambled to intercept the contact. 

With the bogey at 90 miles’ distance, it suddenly disappeared and the jets were subsequently ordered to “return to home plate.”

It was later reported that a C47 transport plane flying in the same vicinity was attacked and destroyed. The plane’s wreckage was located on a glacier.

When Col Parkman went to investigate the C47 wreckage, he discovered similar furrow-like markings as those at the weather station. As was the case at the weather station, no human remains were found at the crash site.

What was discovered, however, was a strange 5-foot-long appendage embedded in the plane’s fuselage. By all accounts it looked “like it had been broken off something.”

The situation involving the destroyed outpost, the detection and attempted “bogey” interception, the C47 crash and the finding of the mysterious object was soon referred to CONAD in Colorado Springs.

CONAD or the “Continental Ait Defence Command” is the “focal point of the sonic shield that guards the North American continent.” In essence, its existence could mean the difference between “life and death for millions of Americans.”

At a conference of scientists called by General Mark Ford, it was determined that the appendage-like object did in fact come from some living creature and was therefore organic, but that the identity of the creature it belonged to was unknown. It was then proposed that Prof Nedrick Jackson, a palaeontologist at the Museum of Natural History be contacted to help determine the object’s origin.

*******************************

From Prof Nedrick Jackson’s diary

After examining the 5-foot-long mottled green object, I am convinced that it is like cartilage but definitely not bone. I know that it “can’t be from an animal.” Now that we “know what it can’t be” we can with more confidence determine “what it can be.” I am certain that the object is a torn-off hook or spur from an insect's leg. It is also a creature that can eat human flesh. What flesh eating insect of normal size would have such a hook? Grasshoppers or crickets are not meat eaters. Or course! “There is no more deadly or voracious creature than the praying mantis.” The appendage we have is a spur or hook section of that creature’s forelimbs. Yes, that’s it! A gigantic praying mantis!

In prehistoric times insects grew to much larger sizes as evidenced by fossils of 2 foot dragonflies. I believe that if a creature was frozen quickly enough, like say, the frozen mammoths that were found in Siberia, there might be a chance that if the creature thawed out, it may be able to reanimate.

“I'm convinced that we're dealing with a Mantis in whose geological world the smallest insects were as large as man, and now failing to find those insects as food, well... it's doing the best that it can.”

At the institute, Marge has been pressing me for information. Can’t say I blame her as she only wants the chance to run a scoop in her museum magazine. She certainly has not lost her nose for news.

***************************

THE WASHINGTON GLOBE

Greenland Eskimos Terrorized

In Greenland, Eskimo or Inuit villagers have reported seeing a gigantic beast which has attacked them causing death and injuries to an unknown number of locals.

Whole communities are reported to have scrambled to evacuate to safety in their canoes……

******************

Shortwave Broadcast from Moscow 

This is Radio Moscow. Reports have reached us here in the Soviet Union that the Imperialist American war-mongering Government is now afraid of being attacked not by the peace-loving peoples of the USSR and like-minded defenders of Socialism, but instead by giant insects! In the last few years we have had reports of giant ants, spiders, locusts and even scorpions! What is next? Mosquitos? So what is going on in the paranoid minds of the capitalist military and Industrial bourgeois establishment?

Oh come Imperialist swill in Washington! Your so-called free media and the public is hungry for information. And so what is the response? Authority in the form of your administration’s lackey, Gen Ford trots out the same tired worn out excuse for withholding information from your public and I quote;

‘…cooperate with us to avoid panic and hysteria…. I know I can count on you.”

Is this the kind of America you want where your media, your military and your government collude against you, the American public and your so-called democratic ideals and values under the guise of acting to protect you and that somehow you’re all in this together in some concocted crisis?

INTERMISSION

You may as well take the time to Go to The Lobby and get some treats while Jackson and Marge visit Parkman at Red Eagle One. There’s no need to stick around and cringe at a bunch of adolescent military praying mantises as they gather around and ogle Marge. They’re almost robbed of the power of speech but not enough to prevent them from babbling such inane lines as;

“He’s with a woman. A FEMALE woman!”
“I thought they stopped making them.”

Dr. Ned Jackson: It looks like you don't have too many women up here, Colonel.
Col. Joe Parkman: Well, we have a little joke up here. The boys say there's a girl behind every tree. Only try and find a tree.

Oh of course, there’s the odd wolf whistle too.

If the Soviets decided to invade the US, all they had to do was send in an advance force of pretty Russian women causing the American GI’s to stop in their tracks and wonder if they’re women – FEMALE women! By the time they had worked out whether or not they had stopped making them, it would be all over. 

**************

Excerpt from Report of Col Parkman to Dept. of Defense

Prof Nedrick Jackson reported from crash site the presence of strange marks measuring over 8 and a half feet in length.

Red Eagle One attacked by giant Mantis. Base personnel ordered to combat stations, ‘Condition Red.’ Aircraft scrambled. Threat driven off by use of flame throwers and machine guns.

After a nine-hour period “Hunter 4” from the air patrols that were sent out in response to threat posed by giant Mantis reported failure to locate the creature after its attack on the base. Pilots ordered to continue search.

Reports received of a fishing boat out at sea in heavy fog attacked, most likely by the hostile mantis creature. Two deck hands reported missing, presumed killed by the creature.

Group Capt. Hawkins of Mid Canada Line radar station reported an intermittent unidentified radar contact at 0400.

By plotting the previous attacks, it has been confirmed that the creature appears to be heading south to the tropics and specifically to South America where the conditions will be similar to what it is used to.

Creature last sighted heading south from Newfoundland.

MAINE HERALD

MANTIS REPORTED AT BANGOR

NEW ORLEANS GLOBE

CURFEW ORDERED IN NEW ORLEANS

WASHINGTON OBSERVER

CONGRESSMAN CALLS MANTIS “HOAX”

DEMANDS INVESTIGATION

******************

Special Broadcast

“This program is being presented by the Continental Air Defense Command”

Gen Ford: “I want to say at the outset that contrary to speculation and rumour and certain newspaper headlines, the so-called ‘Deadly Mantis’ is no imaginary scare…. It’s a very real and present danger.”

Col Parker: “I saw this creature attack our base…. It will be one of you, the devoted men and women of Civilian Observer Corps that will spot it the next time it appears.”

“TAKE NO CHANCES: REPORT ANY UNUSUAL FLYING OBJECT!”

Radio News Broadcast 

We interrupt this transmission to bring you the latest news from an aircraft carrier patrolling along the Atlantic coast. The “Deadly Mantis” has been spotted and aircraft were immediately dispatched to intercept the creature. It appears that the attack was successful but one of the pilots was not able to confirm the kill due to low overcast conditions.

If the creature has managed to survive, it is thought by experts that it would have flown low into the clouds and close to sea level under cover of the fog.

TV News Broadcast 

Reporter: I’m here in Maryland at the scene of a freak train accident in which an engine and five cars were overturned.

(Walks slowly further on with the scene of destruction in the background)

I am about to speak with one of the local police officers to see if any further light can be shed on this horrific incident. Officer, what seems to have been the cause of this train crash?

Police Officer: (As a man wearing a military uniform and a woman he had been speaking to move off) All we know so far is that the accident seems to have been caused by the fog ……

(Unnoticed on the sodden soil is an impression made by something huge….) 

TV News Broadcast

Reporter: As you will remember, I had earlier reported from Maryland on the train crash incident. It turns out that it may not have been an accident after all. Another incident, possibly related has occurred in which an Interurban bus has been demolished.

(Shot of mangled metal carcass of bus lying on its side like a mortally wounded disembowelled beast)

According to an eye-witness who was on the bus, not long after she disembarked, a giant Mantis using the fog as cover ambushed and attacked the bus. Rescue workers who arrived to attend to the injured witness found the bus empty.

So far this makes a total of 7 “accidents” in the last 24 hours!

***************

Emergency Broadcast System

This is a general alert!

“The mantis has been sighted over Washington”

All defense personnel are to be on high alert!

Military Chiefs Briefing the US President

General Blunthammer: Mr President, the creature has penetrated the airspace over Washington. Reports have come in of its flying low over the city causing widespread panic. It even proceeded to climb the Washington monument!

The President: I heard of worse behaviour from some tourists! So, what do you propose we should about this entomological intruder?

(A functionary scuttles into the room and hands the general a message)

General Blunthammer: Mr President, the bug has left Washington and has swung north east towards Baltimore. Sir, I recommend ordering all AA guns along its flight path to open fire on anything unidentified, unusual, untoward and unexplained!

The President: Very well general, make it so. Things were so much easier when all we had to worry about were just the Russians!

********************

As the creature drops below radar coverage range and heads North East towards New York City, aircraft are scrambled in an attempt to engage and destroy the creature. On board one of the jets is our erstwhile Col Parkman:

Parkman: (Singing) Here we go into the wide blue yonder, heading straight into the sun!

(Suddenly the giant mantis looms up right in front of him and rams his plane)

Parkman: (bailing out) Here we go……. wo, wo, wo, wo……

Pilot of Beagle 17: “We’ve splashed mantis.” One jet hit. Pilot bailed out.

**********

Television Interview:

Interviewer: So after you bailed out of your crippled jet and were picked up by military personnel, what happened next?

Col Parkman: I learnt that the creature had been badly hurt by the accident involving my jet and had landed in New York where it managed to crawl into the Manhattan Tunnel.

The Tunnel was filled with smoke and sealed by using water saturated tarpaulins. Even though it was felt that the creature had been mortally wounded by the aerial attack and accident, Gen Ford was of the opinion that it might try to break out.

Interviewer: What measures were taken to prevent this from occurring?

Col Parkman: I was given permission to lead an assault on the creature. Donning protective suits and armed with guns and special chemical mines, my team pushed into the tunnel under cover of the smoke.

The smoke formed a heavy eerie mist-like atmosphere in the tunnel and the only sounds that could be heard were strange echoing footfalls, a peculiar roaring coming from the injured creature, and the heavy thumping of our hearts beating. Strangely missing was the sound of my own breathing within the protected little environment of my suit.

Suddenly, the sound of metal being hurled about shattered the tense stillness of the tunnel as the creature began moving around and attacking abandoned cars as if it held them responsible for its predicament.

Upon spotting my team the creature emerged out of the cloud of thick smoke like some impossible monstrous gargantuan behemoth entering our world from another dimension.

Interviewer: How did you respond to this threatening situation?

Col Parkman: As the giant Mantis advanced towards us, we opened fire with our guns and special mines. Our initial response only managed to slow the creature down, not kill it. It took one final assault until the creature finally succumbed.

Interviewer: Colonel, I along with our viewers feel proud of our brave military personnel who will go to any lengths to protect our country from all threats to our way of life and all we hold dear. Don’t you agree, Professor Jackson?

Jackson: Well, yes, but I can’t help but feel sorry for that giant Mantis that found itself out of place and out of time through no fault of its own. It only acted on its instinct to survive but how could it possibly survive in our world?

Interviewer: Thank you Col Parkman and Professor Jackson. We’ll be back after this word from our sponsor, Garden Grub and Pest Power Pellets……...

Points of Interest

• Of particular note in The Deadly Mantis, are the night scenes involving the Mantis, as well as the final tunnel sequence. The black and white photography combined with the use of a fog and smoke-shrouded atmosphere as well as a forceful and suspenseful musical score are all combined quite effectively. 

• As it moves through the smoke-filled Manhattan Tunnel, the giant Mantis seems almost like a forerunner to the impossible monsters in more recent films as The Mist (2007) and Cloverfield (2008). 

• The Deadly Mantis is definitely a film that reflects the Cold War period. It is almost as if it sets out to let the Soviets know about the strength of the US air defense system and that a sneak attack on their part would not succeed. There’s also a measure of reassurance for the domestic audience who are expected to believe that they are all in it together when it comes to national defence and security. 

• In the movie, the Ground Observer Corps are asked to help in spotting the Mantis. This was an actual group that existed during and after World War Two. 

• The first Ground Observer Corps was a World War Two Civil Defense program of the United States Army Air Forces to protect against air attack. The 1.5 million civilian observers at 14,000 coastal observation posts used the naked eye and binoculars to search for enemy German and Japanese aircraft. This program ended in 1944. 

• The second Ground Observer Corps operated during the Cold War as an arm of the United States Air Force Civil Defense network which provided aircraft tracking and had more than 200,000 civilian volunteers. This program ended in 1958 with the introduction of the automated 1959 USAF radar network (SAGE) and the automated Army networks (Missile Master). 

• The Dew Line or The Distant Early Warning Line, referred to in the film was an actual system of radar stations set up in the far northern Arctic region of Canada, with additional stations along the North Coast and Aleutian Islands of Alaska, including also the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It was set up to detect incoming Soviet bombers during the Cold War, and provide early warning for a land based invasion. DEW Main and Auxiliary site operations ended in the 1990s becoming part of the North Warning System (NWS). It seems that whoever was behind this part of the film depicting The Dew Line had some detailed inside knowledge of the early warning system. 

• CONAD or Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) was the Cold War military organization of Army, Navy, and USAF air defense commands for the Continental United States. The primary purpose of continental air defense was to provide sufficient attack warning of a Soviet bomber air raid to ensure Strategic Air Command could launch a counterattack without being destroyed. 

• William Hopper who plays Ned Jackson has also appeared in Conquest of Space (1955) as Dr George Fenton and 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) as Col Bob Calder.

Praying Mantis Fact File

Mantises are an order (Mantodea) of insects that contains over 2,400 species and about 430 genera in 15 families.

The praying mantis is named for the way its prominent front legs often seem to suggest that the insect is at prayer.

Mantises are;

• Formidable predators. 

• Green or brown and well camouflaged on the plants among which they live. 

• Distributed worldwide in both temperate and (mostly) tropical habitats. 

• Preyed on by vertebrates such as frogs, lizards, and birds, and by invertebrates such as spiders and ants. 

Mantises have;

• Two large compound eyes and three other simple eyes located between them. 

• Triangular heads poised on a long elongated thorax. 

• Stereo vision. 

Mantises;

• Turn their heads 180 degrees to scan their surroundings. 

• Locate their prey by sight. 

• Lie in ambush or patiently stalk their prey. 

• Use their front legs to snare their prey. 

• Prey on moths, crickets, grasshoppers, flies, and other insects 

• Sometimes eat others of their own kind such as during mating when the adult female may sometimes eat her mate just after and even during mating! 

• Live for about a year 

The earliest mantis fossils are about 135 million years old! Yes, they were here long before us!

We will take back our world!

©Chris Christopoulos 2016