Bert I. Gordon's The Food of the Gods

Marjoe Gortner as Morgan.

Is it possible to feel nostalgic about a Bert I. Gordon movie?

Mr. B.I.G. was known for making movies about giant people (The Amazing Colossal Man), enormous insects (Beginning of the End), and large prehistoric creatures (King Dinosaur). He was not known making good movies. Thankfully, there is no correlation between a film's quality and its nostalgic value. Hence, I feel no guilt about enjoying a recent viewing of The Food of the Gods (1976), which I originally saw at a tiny cinema in my hometown of Winston-Salem, NC.

Very loosely based on H.G. Wells' 1904 novel, The Food of the Gods finds a professional football player named Morgan (Marjoe Gortner) taking friends on a hunting trip to a remote island off the coast of British Columbia. When one of the friends is killed by what appears to be a giant wasp, Morgan seeks help at a local farm. He discovers that the farmer and his wife (Ida Lupino) have been feeding a mysterious substance to their chickens--which has caused the animals to grow to gigantic proportions.

Pamela Franklin in a bad hat.

After burying his friend on the mainland, Morgan returns to the island and learns that the substance has also been consumed by wasps and rats...causing them to grow dangerously large as well. A businessman (Ralph Meeker), whom the farmer had approached, wants to buy the rights to the growth substance. He and his associate (Pamela Franklin) soon find themselves trapped on the farm with Morgan, the farmer's wife, and three others as the giant rats strategize how to surround and devour the humans.

The Food of the Gods was one of several Man vs. Nature films produced during the 1970s. Other similar-themed movies include Frogs (1972), Grizzly (1976), and Day of the Animals (1977). It's to Bert Gordon's credit that The Food of the Gods might actually be the best of this bunch. Yes, the characters are two-dimensional, the dialogue sometimes silly, and--let's be honest--acting expectations are low when your leading man is Marjoe Gortner and your chief villain is a white rat.

On the plus side, The Food of the Gods moves quickly, takes advantage of its atmospheric location (Bowen Island in British Columbia), and boasts passable special effects. Plus, it features Pamela Franklin (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Innocents) and I'd watch her in any movie. That said, it's hard to stomach the scenes where she flirts with Marjoe as they battle giant rodents.

Giant rats destroy an RV!

The Food of the Gods made $5 million at the box office, making it one of the forty highest-grossing films of the year. Bert Gordon followed it up with the wacky Empire of the Ants (1977), starring Joan Collins and Jacqueline Scott (one of our favorite interviewees). A belated sequel to Gods, titled Food of the Gods II or the slightly better Gnaw: Food of the Goods II, appeared in 1989. It bears no resemblance to the first film, other than a growth serum and giant rats.

Interestingly, Bert Gordon made an earlier, even looser adaptation of The Foods of the Gods in 1965. Called Village of the Giants, it stars a young Ron Howard as a boy genius who invents a "goo" that causes humans to grow to 30 feet in height. Several teenagers consume it and proceed to terrorize their town. It's sometimes listed as one of the worst films ever made--and I wouldn't argue with that. However, it's admittedly fun to watch because of the cast. In addition to Howard, it stars Beau Bridges, Tommy Kirk, Tisha Stirling, Johnny Crawford, Joy Harmon, and Ryan O'Neal's lookalike brother Kevin. The Beau Brummels are also on hand to perform a couple of songs.

The B.I.G. Bugs of "Empire of the Ants"

Bert I. Gordon isn't known as Mr. B.I.G. just because of his initials. This low-budget director established his reputation by specializing in movies about giant people (Village of the Giants), big rats (Food of the Gods), and over-sized spiders (The Spider). But today, we are focusing on ginormous ants, which are on prominent display in Gordon's 1977 cult opus Empire of the Ants.

Let me be clear that we're not talking about Them-sized ants nor a movie that can be compared in any way to that 1954 sci fi classic. Still, this is the kind of movie I would have watched at a movie theater as a college student in 1977. To my credit, I did see Food of the Gods, but, hey, it had Marjoe Gortner and Ida Lupino fighting the kind of people-eating rats that would put Willard and Ben to shame. Yet, somehow I missed Empire of the Ants on its original release and never caught it on television.

Jacqueline Scott and Robert Lansing.

Thus, I was pleased to find it on the movie schedule at the 2016 Williamsburg Film Festival. Even better, the showing included an introduction by Jacqueline Scott, who co-starred with Joan Collins and a bearded, almost unrecognizable Robert Lansing (who, of course, could still be identified because of his distinctive eyes...which really deserved to be the subject of a pop song).

Jacqueline Scott introduced Empire of the Ants by telling a funny story about Joan Collins crying over something in her trailer. Jacqueline overheard it, walked over to Robert Lansing's dressing room, and suggested that maybe he check on Joan. Lansing disappeared for a moment. He reappeared and handed Jacqueline a box of candy. "Give this to her," he said...and closed his trailer door.

Joan Collins looking very 1970s-ish.

Joan stars in Empire of the Ants as a real estate developer trying to induce unsuspecting folks into buying a lot in Dreamland Shores, which is apparently located in isolated Florida "swamp land." She takes her potential clients on a tour of the properties--completely unaware that nearby ants are munching on radioactive waste that has washed ashore.

Before long, giant ants (I'd estimate them at five feet in height) are eliminating extraneous characters like the elderly couple and the coward who left his wife behind during a bug attack. But the ants don't kill everyone and Robert Lansing, who pays the boat captain, wryly observes: "My god, they're herding us like cattle."

A giant ant confronts Joan.

Sure enough, the final third of Empire of the Ants evolves from a big bug movie into a variation of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It was an unexpected plot development and, for that reason alone, I'd classify Empire of the Ants as one of Bert I. Gordon's best movies (that's not saying a whole lot...but, honestly, it was kinda interesting).

The screenplay was loosely based on a 1905 short story by H. G. Wells. In Wells' tale, a gunboat captain discovers species of large (but only five centimeters), intelligent ants in the Amazon. He tries to destroy them, but fails. At the end of the story, the narrator speculates that the ants will reach Europe by 1950 or 1960.

Bert I. Gordon's Empire of the Ants was one of many later 1970s movies about nature taking revenge on humankind. Other films in this mini-genre included Grizzly, Day of the Animals, Squirm, and--the best of the bunch--John Frankenheimer's Prophecy.

Of course, Empire of the Ants had one thing none of these other movies had. It has an ant coordinator. Really. I saw it in the closing credits!