Fúria de uma Região Perdida

I saw this on MST3K, and it's one of my great favourites. The endless map sequence at the beginning is quite hilarious, but my weakness for this movie stems from the fact that almost the first third of it takes place in Canada's arctic, and my dad actually worked on the DEW Line while I was a kid. The stock footage of the building of the radar lines up in the Arctic was fun (stirring music and all), but I think that someone connected with making the movie must have either been on the DEW Line, or knew someone who had. There were so many odd little details I've never seen in another movie, even though 'The Deadly Mantis' is not original in its use of the military to fight off a giant invader. The giant "Check Your Antifreeze" sign prominently displayed at headquarters was one - who would think of a detail like that, unless they'd actually seen it somewhere? And the most bizarre thing was the guys dancing together at the little party on the base; when you think about it, it makes sense - no women up there, so if you want to dance, you'd have to have men dancing together, but it's just not something a writer would just dream up while writing a movie. Alas, my dad died before I saw this movie, so I couldn't ask him how authentic it was in its portrayal of life on the DEW Line, but I think of him every time I watch it, and I'm sure he would have laughed uproariously.

I'd gladly watch this one without the benefit of MST3K, as it wasn't half bad, considering the genre and era in which it was made. But then I'm a sucker for movies which open with giant maps, and story lines that offer military responses to life's problems.

To those of you who think this movie sucked, I suggest you view "Beginning of the End," another '50s era bug spectacular, this one featuring Peter Graves vs. a giant mutant grasshopper. I think after that you'd agree that the Mantis wasn't so bad.

Well I can tell you this scared the bejeesus out of me when I was kid.

Watching it today, there are three things of note.

The first is the military footage. The virtual budget of this was millions of dollars because of the military supplied footage. It was defense policy to let the Soviets know of our massive three-tiered air defense and there was an office to so publicize. The idea was to convince the Russians that an attack couldn't possibly work, that the thing really existed. That's why the Pentagon subsidized these things. The scripts were therefore friendly to military success at the end, too.

A solid third of this is from the department of defense, no model planes here.

Perry Mason, the detecting lawyer was a literary phenomenon when this was made, the books about him being outsold only by the Bible. And there was a very popular TeeVee show based on him. Perry's own detective was a guy played by the detective here. And his sidekick is a Della Street (the third member of the gang) lookalike. It was like having Indiana Jones appear. The effect is lost today but was quite something in the day.

The third remarkable thing is what scares us. What we fear in our imagination is largely defined by movies. And what movies use to frighten us is tightly constrained by what they can show. In the fifties, that was often disappearing or morphing things, guys in rubber suits and small things made big by trick photography. "Them" was probably the first giant bug movie, but it used real bugs. This is already a second generation, using stop motion.

The footage of Aleutians — borrowed from an older film — is great, really great.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

When a military outpost and an airplane in Artic are destroyed, the investigation finds a mysterious object near the crashed airplane. The scientists advise that the famous paleontologist Dr. Nedrick Jackson (William Hopper) should give his opinion and he identifies as part of a spur of the leg of a giant insect. Soon Dr. Jackson and the military discover that a mantis is the responsible for the attacks and is heading to Washington.

"The Deadly Mantis" is an entertaining and funny movie released by Universal with a giant praying mantis that awakes with hunger and frightens the population. The special effects may be lame in 2018, but they were top-notch in 1957. The good guys are military, still a reflex of the WWII and the romantic conclusion was sort of standard in those years. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Fúria de uma Região Perdida" ("Rage of a Lost Region")

From that great series of classic prehistoric beasts of the Fifties, The Deadly Mantis is a prehistoric insect the size of about three tractor trailers who gets thawed out of the Arctic ice and begins moving south for warmer climate and food. The Air Force spends a lot of time trying to kill this tough old bug, throwing everything they can at it, save atomic weapons. Given the speeds that this mantis is going which rival and in some cases excel what our latest jet fighters are doing, that would have been impractical.

The film focuses on the efforts of three people to bring the mantis down, fighter pilot Craig Stevens, paleontologist William Hopper, and photojournalist Alix Talton. Of course a little romance gets going between Stevens and Talton while Hopper is strictly business.

You have to wonder though what ancient prehistoric earth might have been life if indeed insects got that big and were flying around at supersonic speeds. Maybe they're what killed the dinosaur.

Other than the special effects to create The Deadly Mantis that were done at a major studio being Universal, the film itself is a no frills affair even with a small romantic interlude. The Deadly Mantis is in keeping with a great tradition of Universal horror classics.