Warner Bros. Pictures
Ah, the 1950s. A simpler time when all America had to worry about was Communism and nuclear annihilation … and what all that nuclear testing in the desert might have done to the insects that live there. The 1950s saw a plethora of giant monster movies, most of them due to radiation mutation — but not all, which kicked off with the classic Godzilla. In the US, radioactivity and other factors gave us such monsters as the giant ants from Them, the giant Tarantual, the giant grasshoppers from The Beginning of the End, the self-explanatory The Deadly Mantis, and the Attack of the Giant Leeches, not to mention all of the revived prehistoric monsters that terrorized the land.
Probably due to the success of Warner Bros. Them, the studio continued the trend with The Black Scorpion, another giant bug movie with a twist — they’re not a result of radiation, but prehistoric beasts unleashed after a volcanic eruption near Mexico City. After the eruption, geologists Dr. Hank Scott (Richard Denning) and Dr. Arturo Ramos (Carlos Rivas) venture to the village of San Lorenzo to get a closer look at the results of the eruption. Along the way, they find an abandoned home with just a baby left behind, and a mysteriously wrecked police car … and the body of one of the officers with no visible signs of trauma (a mark is later discovered on his neck and a natural toxin is found in his body). The villagers believe a demonic bull is the culprit.
Warner Bros. Pictures
On their way to the volcano the two men spot a woman on a horse, until she falls off the horse which then leads to her ‘rescue’ and a return to her lavish ranch which was unaffected by the volcanic activity. In the blink of an eye, Dr. Scott and Teresa Alvarez (Mara Corday) are practically married, but another eruption reveals the true cause of the earlier destruction and mysterious death — giant scorpions! The monsters attack a telephone line repair crew and head to the Alvarez ranch but return to their lair during the daytime. Scott and Ramos decide to journey down into the crevasse from where the insects emerged in the hopes of killing them all with poison gas. Of course the plan goes awry when they’re attacked, but they have one more thing to worry about … the Black Scorpion, a beast much larger than the others, and much more dangerous. Can they stop the monster before it destroys Mexico City?
Warner Bros. Pictures
The Black Scorpion was probably entertaining in a different way when it was first released to theaters, but now it’s more campy and unintentionally humorous than intended with the quick romance and the precocious child Juanito (Mario Navarro) who just can’t stay out of trouble. The real star of the film was intended to be the stop motion animated scorpions courtesy of Willis O’Brien and company. O’Brien was the mastermind behind King Kong and Mighty Joe Young, and for the most part his scorpions (animated for the most part by Pete Peterson) are impressive. It’s just the giant mechanical scorpion face, complete with teeth and drool, that diminishes O’Brien’s and Peterson’s work, leading to many of the unintentional laughs (not to mention the roaring that accompanies them, combined with a re-used and altered sound effect of the giant ants from Them). But, The Black Scorpion is definitely a movie of its time and it does offer some entertainment value and the animation is quite fluid with some impressive camera movement all done one frame at a time.
The movie has been available for years on VHS and DVD, but the Warner Archive has given this film a very nice HD upgrade for the new Blu-ray release. The image is pristine, probably looking better than it ever has, with nice contrasts in the black and white cinematography and a hint of fine film grain. For a low-budget, 1957 movie about giant bugs, the Warner Archive team has done a spectacular job. The mono audio as well is crisp, clear, well-balanced with nary a trace of hissing, popping or crackling. All in all it’s a very nice presentation. I’ve seen complaints of the wildly varying film quality but that is inherent in the original source material and not a reflection on the great job the video technicians have done sprucing up a low-budget creature feature.
The Blu-ray’s extras are all leftovers from the 2003 DVD release and in standard definition. These include:
- Stop Motion Masters (3:16) – A very short segment from a longer piece featuring an interview with stop motion master Ray Harryhausen.
- The Animal World (11:33) – The ‘Prehistoric Sequence’ from Irwin Allen’s documentary The Animal World with dinosaur animation by O’Brien and Harryhausen.
- Las Vegas Monster and Beetleman Test Footage (4:34) – Animation test footage created by Pete Peterson and discovered after his death for some projects that were never made.
The Blu-ray does also include the trailer for The Black Scorpion, which is not listed on the packaging, which has been remastered in HD. The target audience for the movie will probably remember seeing it on local TV afternoon movie shows or even in theaters so those who appreciate this type of film or want to see more of the animation work of Willis O’Brien should enjoy this Blu-ray presentation.
Warner Archive generously provided Hotchka with a Blu-ray of the film for reviewing purposes.
The Black Scorpion has a running time of 1 hour 28 minutes and is not rated.
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