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...

Thank you Bert I Gordon for making films which nobody else (except maybe Roger Corman) would dare to make, and for making them so definitively that no one would ever dare to remake them.

The Beginning of the End actually has a promising beginning. It follows Audrey Aimes (Castle) a young woman reporter who runs into a military roadblock and begins snooping around by introducing herself to the operation's CO, who happens to have read some of her wartime coverage and is willing to cooperate to a point. Weird and inexplicable happenings have been reported in a nearby town (site of the roadblock). In fact, we discover, the entire town has been wiped out. When Audrey finally gets to briefly tour the site, we are shown some footage of tornado devastation which is supposed to be the result. Then she meets Peter Graves (playing Peter Graves playing an entomologist working with radioactive plants). there is a decent enough amount of back-story, and the characters are all likable and interesting, but then theatrical disaster strikes - in the form of a totally ludicrous plot.

Two words - giant grasshoppers. And they are split-screened (poorly) into stock footage or scraps from some heavily edited war movie. I .... just can't go ... on.

As the absurdities continue to unfold, you will be impressed by the absolute seriousness with which the cast portrays their characters, and positively blown away by the enormously long cinematographic (un)dramatic pauses as we watch hordes of soldiers marching by in different directions with nothing going on around them, giant out-of-focus grasshoppers climbing up postcards of skyscrapers and sometimes slipping on the glossy surface, and 1-2 minute-long fixed frame shots of cars approaching from miles away.

I love giant monster movies, but this is definitely not one of the better ones. Still, it's harmless, more intelligent than the average sex comedy and more relevant than the usual political campaign.

Beginning of the End was one of the scariest movies I ever saw. I saw it at the age of nine at our local first-time A-flick theater, the State. When it ran at the second-run B-flick theater, the Rialto, I dragged my little brother Jeff to see it. He watched it from between the seats. We used to sit up and watch Shock Theater and we knew scary when we saw it.

What a lot of people miss today, is that the popular science magazines at the time "Beginning..." came out were full of speculation about using radiation to enhance crops and livestock, just like the experiments in Peter Grave's agricultural station in the movie. I also remember that Bert Gordon's earlier movie, King Dinosaur, came out after a close approach to earth by an asteroid was in the news. These movies were ripped fresh from the headlines.

Yes, the low budget values are low. There's the ponderous pseudoWagnerian Albert Glasser music Da-DUM-da-da-da-DA-DUM motif for reporter-driving-down-road, cop-driving-down-road, reporter-stopping-at-road-block, etc. We see the mountains of Illinois that look suspiciously like southern California (at least they did not use Bronson Canyon in this one (they didn't did they?).)

Yes, they do use the same stock footage three times for rear projection behind characters "driving" down the road, but, hey, they DO tint the stock footage for the nighttime driving scene.

But the woman reporter, Peggy Castle, is not only a good looker, but a strong woman who is treated as a equal by most of the men, who show her respect. She is a tough cookie like Beverly Garland in It Conquered the World. Not a typical 1950s bimbo or weak sister. I always thought Peggy Castle's character taught Peter Grave's character how to be a man.

And when Morris Ankrum is in uniform, you know however dicey the situation, right and good will triumph in the end. Even in the Beginning of the End.

This movie does have a message: if you park on a lonely road and engage in illicit teenage necking, you will be eaten by giant mutant grasshoppers.