Insects in Classic Movies

A giant ant in Them!

Be they little specks or large enough to crush a man, insects have long been a big screen pest. A plague of locusts stripped the wheat fields in the climax to The Good Earth (an effect achieved by superimposing coffee grounds over oil-covered wheat). An army of soldier ants destroyed a South American plantation in 1954’s The Naked Jungle, although the crisis served to mend Charlton Heston and Eleanor Parker’s shaky marriage.

That same year introduced a colony of 12-foot-high ants in Them!, the finest giant insect picture ever made. It was also the first to imply that nature was rebelling against man’s misuse of radiation. Imitations quickly followed, featuring giant grasshoppers (The Beginning of the End) and a preying mantis (The Deadly Mantis).

A publicity still from
Return of the Fly.

A single, regular-sized fly proved the culprit in 1958’s The Fly when it interrupted an experiment and merged atomic particles with an affable scientist. Nine years later, The Deadly Bees started an insect film subgenre with its lively shock scenes of swarming bees stinging nice people to death. The number of bee films increased over the next decade, amid real-life reports of killer bees flying up from South America. A popular TV-movie, The Savage Bees, was followed by The Bees, Irwin Allen’s big-budget bust The Swarm, and Terror Out of the Sky.

While bees have been portrayed as dangerous killers, filmmakers have taken a more lenient view of ants. Certainly, the destructive side of ants was displayed in The Naked Jungle, It Happened at Lakewood Manor, Empire of the Ants, and Legion of Fire: Killer Ants. But there have also been cute computer-animated ants (A Bug’s Life and Antz) and intelligent ants seeking to breed humans to create a new super race in Phase IV.

Disney's famous cricket.

In other notable insect-related features: The Devil (Peter Cook) turned Dudley Moore into a fly in one of the episodes of Bedazzled; the Academy Award-winning pseudo-documentary The Hellstrom Chronicle explored the premise that insects will inherit the Earth one day; a government device designed to kill insects raised dead humans in Don’t Open the Window and turned them into flesh-eating ghouls; the moon’s inhabitants were discovered to be the insect-like Selenites in First Men in the Moon; and a nice wholesome family turned out to be roaches in disguise in Meet The Applegates. Burgess Meredith provided the voice for a talking horsefly in Hot to Trot (1988).

The best six-legged singing insect was undoubtedly Jiminy Cricket of Pinocchio fame. Below is a representative sample of pre-2000 films with prominent roles for insects:

The Good Earth (1937)
Pinocchio (1940)
Hoppity Goes to Town (aka Mr. Bug Goes to Town) (1941)
Once Upon a Time (1944)
Them! (1954)
The Naked Jungle (1954)
The Deadly Mantis (1957)
The Cosmic Monster (aka The Strange World of Planet X) (1957)
Secrets of Life (1957)
The Beginning of the End (1957)
The Fly (1958)
The Wasp Woman (1960)
Mysterious Island (1961)
First Men in the Moon (1964)
The Deadly Bees (1967)
Bedazzled (1967)
The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971)
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973)
Phase IV (1974)
Don’t Open the Window (aka Breakfast at the Manchester Morgue) (1974)
Killer Bees (1974 TV movie)
Locusts (1974 TVM)
Bug (1975)
The Savage Bees (1976 TVM)
Empire of the Ants (1977)
Damnation Alley (1977)
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977)
It Happened at Lakewood Manor (aka Panic at Lakewood Manor; Ants) (1977 TVM)
The Exorcist II:  The Heretic (1977)
Terror Out of the Sky (1978 TVM)
The Bees (1978)
The Swarm (1978)
The Beast Within (1982)
Creepshow (1982)
Phenomenon (aka Creepers) (1985)
The Nest (1988)
Hot to Trot (1988)
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)
Meet The Applegates (aka The Applegates) (1990)
Whispers (1990)
Popcorn (1991)  (the movie-within-a-movie “Mosquito”)
Naked Lunch (1991)
Matinee (1993)  (the movie-within-a-movie “Mant!”)
Skeeter (1994)
Ticks (1994)
Jumanji (1995)
Jonny Quest vs. the Cyber Insects (1995 TVM)
Angels and Insects (1996)
James and the Giant Peach (1996)
Microcosmos (1996)
Joe's Apartment (1996)
Ulee’s Gold (1997)
Mimic (1997)
Starship Troopers (1997)
Legion of Fire: Killer Ants (1998 TVM)
Antz (1998)
A Bug’s Life (1998)

Reprinted with the authors' permission from the Encyclopedia of Film Themes, Settings and Series.

10 Classic Film Things to Do This Month

Get out the BIG can of bug spray!

1. Make a pest control company employee watch Them! on TCM (July 11th, 10:00 AM EDT) and ask: "Could you get rid of those ants?"  (Another option is show them The Naked Jungle, where quantity--not size--is the concern.)

2. Host a family reunion cook-out and reenact scenes from Picnic. (I'd opt for the dance scene with Kim Novak...OK, I can't dance, but neither could William Holden and he still got Kim.)

3. Get ready for the Olympics and watch the charming Wee Geordie (1955), the tale of a "99 lb. weakling" who sends off for a bodybuilding program and becomes a champion hammer thrower.

4. Watch a Samuel Fuller cult classic. TCM is showing several Fuller pics on July 13th; my top pick is The Naked Kiss, a terrific low-budget drama that packs a wallop (and not just for the telephone scene).

5. Avoid the heat and watch a good snow movie, such as Where Eagles Dare, the 1965 Ten Little Indians, or The Fearless Vampire Killers.

6. Embrace the heat, have a glass of cold lemonade, and watch Paul Newman woo Joanne Woodward in The Long, Hot Summer.

7. Watch Scaramouche on TCM (July 9th, 6:00 PM EDT) and stage a formal debate over whether Stewart Granger should have chosen Eleanor Parker or Janet Leigh at the film's conclusion.

8. Director Anthony Mann is known for his first-rate Westerns (e.g., Winchester '73) and film noir (e.g., Raw Deal). But don't miss the opportunity to watch his nifty historical thriller The Black Book (aka Reign of Terror) on TCM (7:00 AM EDT).

9. Check out Spencer's Mountain on TCM (July 21st, 3:30 PM EDT). In the 1980s, when TBS showed classic movies (yes, it did!), this family drama was shown three or four times a year. If the premise sounds familar, that's because Spencer's Mountain later spawned The Waltons (James MacArthur plays Clayboy, who evolved into John-Boy).

10. Always wanted to see Singin' in the Rain on the big screen? You're in luck! For its 60th anniversary, TCM is showing it at selected movie theatres nationwide on July 12th.

And the Beasts Shall Reign Over the Earth: Them!

The title appeared in color, though
the film was shot in B&W.

In a New Mexico desert, two state troopers pick up a six-year-old girl wandering aimlessly in a bathrobe and slippers, carrying a broken doll. When Sergeant Ben Peterson (James Whitmore) tries to question the little girl, she remains silent, staring in space--a victim of shock. Up the road, Peterson and his partner discover a trailer with a large hole ripped in one side. Bloody clothes and dollar bills litter the floor...as well as a corpse. Outside the trailer, the troopers discover an unusual footprint in the sand, made by neither man nor known beast. As the desert wind whistles, an eerie sound causes the girl to look up in trepidation.

The young survivor of the first attack.

This brilliant opening scene sets the stage for the first-third of Them!, which unravels more as a mystery than a science fiction film. The clues are revealed one by one: a hardware store destroyed in the same manner as the trailer; the sudden arrival of scientists from the Department of Agriculture; an autopsy that reveals a victim may have died from an injection of formic acid; and finally the little girl screaming "Them! Them!" after taking a whiff of the acid.

The first we see a giant ant
is during a sandstorm.

By the time Dr. Medford (Edmund Gwenn) reveals that the culprits are giant ants, it's almost anticlimactic. It also marks a shift in approach as the mystery gives way to a standard science fiction formula. To be sure, Them! executes the formula with precision, with three marvelous set pieces: the first glimpse of the ants as one becomes visible during a sandstorm; a cyanide gas assault on the ants' nest; and the climax in Los Angeles storm drains.

Yet, its very success is what makes Them! slightly disappointing on second and later viewings. Certainly, it ranks above all but a handful of science fiction films produced during the 1950s; it's a unqualified genre classic. However, stripped of its novelty "mystery approach" and big pay-off scenes, it lacks a potent theme that resonates in the same way as truly timeless genre films like The Day the Earth the Stood Still, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and even The Incredible Shrinking Man.

One could argue that Them! is the definitive example of the "nuclear power-caused mutant creature subgenre." Still, that's nothing new thematically. Man invented nuclear power, so we're back to the old sci fi staple of man messing around in areas he shouldn't and inadvertently creating monsters. This is a theme at least as old as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and featured in earlier sci fi films such as The Invisible Ray (1936). What Them! brings to it is a dark sense of humor, in that through man's intervention, the tiniest of creatures threatens to wipe out all of mankind.

Whitmore opens fire as Gwenn's
scientist observes the giant ant.

It seems unfair perhaps to criticize Them! because of its own high standards. To be sure, the cast is above average for a 1950s sci fi opus, with Edmund Gwenn giving new life to the standard role of the scientist that figures it all out. The special effects, while not on a Harryhausen level, work well enough, aided considerably by the inspired settings (e.g., the sandstorm, the tunnels). And although there is some sexism directed toward Joan Weldon's Dr. Pat Medford (e.g., she's introduced legs first), she evolves into a strong character. True, she investigates the first crime scene in a dress suit and high heels. But later, she ditches that for a military uniform and accompanies the male heroes in the tunnels to make sure the ants are dead.

Even if its potency fades during repeated viewings, Them! has earned its status as a genre classic. Its "mystery approach" alone makes it a unique sci fi film. There can also be no doubt that it was an influential film, inspiring 1950s imitators such as Beginning of the End (giant grasshoppers), Tarantula, Earth vs. the Spider, and The Deadly Mantis (as in big preying mantis).