TUCKER'S TAKE on "The Black Scorpion

Movie review by Lyle Tucker:

1957, starring no-one I've heard of and directed by some guy I've
never heard of, but, man, this is one of the good ones! Giant
scorpions threaten Mexico City after a volcano goes nuts and they
are released from the underground caverns where they existed
for untold millenia. Willis O'Brien, of KING KONG fame, supervised
the stop-animation of the scorpions, and it is wonderful. Not only that,
our two intrepid heroes, geologists Hank Scott and Arturo Ramos,
get lowered down into the caverns and encounter another giant
creature, an armor-plated, two-armed 30-foot long worm, and a
giant spider that doesn't rely on the old tarantula-model chestnut -
both the worm and the spider are excellently designed. Sure, large
portions of the movie are cheesy as hell, but that's a large part of
it's charm. And sure, the ubiquitous little kid who gets into all kinds
of trouble and dangerous situations because, well, he's a kid (named
Juanito), yeah, you want to shoot him first thing and get him out of
the way, but, hell, they *still* use that one today. And yes, the
Mexican patroness is sexy in a kind of squeaky-clean Annette-
grown-large-but-still-in-her-cowgirl-duds way, but the budding
attraction between her and geologist hunk Hank Snow is handled
in a 50s machismo fashion and straightforwardness that would
never play today. Plus, if you get rent the DVD you get extra
features that are well worth checking out! Highly recommended.
Rated "F" for FUN.