Beginning of the End

Bert I Gordon.....you gotta love this man. He was the maven of cheapo science fiction films in the 50's and gave us a lot of laughs and fun from his efforts. Don't get me wrong....I think his films are worth watching. There was always a message of some kind, albeit ludicrous and his "special effects" were of the superimposed, see-through type.....but still you get a kick out of viewing people running from oversized insects, amazing colossal men, etc. This film, like most during the 50's deals with mutation of some life form (here it's grasshoppers) into giant beasts who wreak havoc on the world.....in this case Chicago or postcards of Chicago as in the building climbing sequence at the finale. Peter Graves, who seemed to be stuck in this type of film for several years, does a serviceable job as the hero but probably wished he could be someplace else. Peggy Castle plays it straight as the gal pal and some other faces that we all know pop up in supporting roles. But it's the grasshoppers who steal the show.....crawling around on pictures, flying through the air and apparently eating people alive. We salute you, Bert I. Gordon!!! You made late night TV viewing worthwhile!

This is another in the long line of movies that dared to make a fast buck by ripping off a classic. This was made by the master of cheap giant monster movies, Burt I. Gordon. Instead of ants, the basic premise of this film is what would happen if grasshoppers were irradiated. Also, the scene where the locusts climb the tall buildings is probably the most pathetic thing about this junk. If you look closely, you will see the the "buildings" are actually pictures of buildings. Apparently, Gordon was too cheep to hire someone to build miniatures, which probably would have made it look at least a little better. This film is so much of a imitation of "Them" it's pathetic. Gordon wanted to copy that classic so much that he even went and hired Peter Graves, whose brother James Arness starred in "Them". I only look at this movie to laugh at the cheap effects and the bad acting.

A pair of amorous teenagers disappear, their car found... destroyed! A small town is demolished, its inhabitants... gone! Police are baffled! The military gets involved! Could all of this be somehow connected to a government project using radiation to grow beach ball sized tomatoes?

It's up to photojournalist, Audrey Aimes (Peggie Castle) and the project's director, Dr. Ed Wainwright (Peter Graves) to solve this mystery before more tragedies strike.

BEGINNING OF THE END is Director Bert I. Gordon's "big bug" extravaganza. He uses a horde of hungry, super-imposed grasshoppers to provide the sheer terror. These huge, mostly disinterested hoppers are a hoot! The Army's first, disastrous encounter with them is a gut-buster as well! The ultimate weapon used against the angry insects is also quite amusing. One of Gordon's most entertaining efforts...

Audrey Ames (Peggie Castle), an enterprising journalist, tries to get the scoop on giant grasshoppers accidentally created at the Illinois State experimental farm. She endeavors to save Chicago, despite a military cover-up.

Whether or not you will enjoy this film comes down to whether or not you are ready for good, cheap fun. Yes, the effects are not that amazing and in some cases are incredibly fake. The acting is nothing special, and there are some scenes that are most likely stock footage. But this is a fun, popcorn-eating film! Director Bert Gordon (a Wisconsin native) had his special niche, and he deserves more credit than he usually gets. Maybe some day we will see a nice box set of his work...

This is one of the most enjoyable of the 1950s "big bug" movies. Filmed in 1957, in the middle of my favorite sci-fi era, this film enjoys a better than average cast than you would expect for B science fiction.

People begin to disappear in the surrounding communities outside Chicago. Photographer/journalist Audrey Aimes, portrayed by the lovely Peggy Castle, stops to visit Dr. Wainwright, the Dept. of Agriculture scientist who has used radiation on his plants to make them larger, only to discover that grasshoppers have feasted on them, thus making an army of giant sized locusts. This sounds pretty lame by today's standards but this was standard fare for 1950s science fiction, in the days when we were scared to death of having a nuclear weapon dropped on us and being taken over "from within."

After the discovery of what has happened and why, the rest of the story deals with what to do before the grasshoppers destroy Chicago. Fortunately for all, this did not happen. I won't give the ending away be will provide a hint: View 1963's Day of the Triffids.

Reviewers have not been kind to this film and perhaps rightfully so. However, within the context of the preposterous story and extremely limited budget, its not so bad. Beginning of the End starred Peter Graves, a sci-fi regular of that time in his pre-Mission: Impossible days and whose brother, James Arness, was riding high as Marshall Dillon in television's Gunsmoke. (You may recall that Arness starred in 1954's Them!, about huge ants terrorizing Los Angeles. This was the film that started the big bug craze). Peggy Castle was cool and calm as the female lead and was a forerunner of sorts to today's' strong woman in action films. And, this was yet another film of many whereas Morris Ankrum played a military general.

Special effects were not too good even for that era and are downright atrocious by the standards of today. We see grasshoppers walking upon photos of various places in Chicago and the super imposed shots are of very poor quality. The storyline stretches even the keenest imagination, as we are led to believe that Chicago can be 100% evacuated within 24 hours, and this with thousands of homeless refugees from the outlying communities camping out in the inner city!

Even so, Beginning of the End possesses the low budget charm that subsequent eras have not been able to duplicate. This is one of those films that is fun to watch and is the sole reason one should do so. Saturday night late is the best time. I like to view it alone and recall a far simpler time in my life and our world at large. At least, the times seemed simpler. Perhaps they were not and that may be what films such as these were all about.