The Giant Gila Monster

As an offering on AMC's Friday Fright Night, this film hardly qualified, other than being frightfully nostalgic and silly...but after ample quantities of Labatts and Yukon Jack, I thought this flick was big fun.

Okay, so that ukelele should've been broken over the dude's head the minute he started strumming it; so his crippled yet perky little sister was badly in need of an upper-lip wax; and I won't even reference the titular monster, as it's been commented on ad infinitum...

This is classic "ancient" cinema, the stuff your parents were supposed to be watching while they steamed up the windows in the back seat of your daddy's Plymouth; and I still think it beats the CGI "blockbusters" being pooped out of Hollywood every year.

To paraphrase Geena Davis in that remake of another cheesy sci-fi flick: "Be drunk...Be VERY drunk!" Highly recommended at 4 in the morning...

As a monster movie, this is far from the best, but as a look at life in 50's rural Texas, it's top notch. The settings are authentic and realistic and the people talk like real people. Especially good is Fred Graham as the kind-hearted Sheriff...the opposite of the way most cops were portrayed in teen movies. Don Sullivan is not bad at all as hero Chase, a decent kid who just happens to love racing fast cars. With the exception of the rich Dad, everybody in the movie seems decent.

As for our title monster, he's pretty sleepy looking, but I always thought Gila Monsters were pretty cool. The somber, eerie background music helps this one a lot. Speaking of which, some of Sullivan's singing is OK, but "Laugh, Little Children" should be taken out and shot.

If the effects had matched the rest of the movie, it would have been a minor classic. As it is, it's a fun "time capsule" type movie.

When I was a kid in the early 1960s, this movie came on TV and I watched it with my mother. She said she was an extra in the scene where the dance hall is torn down by the monster. There's a fairly good shot of her for a second or two.

She told me that Don Sullivan hit on her. Not bad for a mother of 4. When he asked her out, she said, "I'll have to ask my husband first", and he just walked away.

The Giant Gila Monster is another creature feature from Ray Kellogg (The Killer Shrews) that usually gets passed over with bad reviews. The story is about a giant, people-eating gila monster, which usually lurks in the thick brush near an isolated community. The main character, Chase Winston, (Don Sullivan) is a teen leader, car mechanic, and rockabilly/folk singer who sort of reminds me of singer Jimmie Rodgers. The acting is fine to passable for this type of low-budget movie, and the film is well shot. The Giant Gila Monster may be too slow for younger audiences used to today's action-packed fare, but for older audiences it might be a fun reminder of the era in which it was made. The music is creepy and nicely captures the mood of the isolated areas. The special effects (like the gila monster attacking a wrecked train) may bring on some good laughs. Throw in some rock & roll, teen lingo, a French exchange student (Lisa Simone, who was also in Missile To The Moon), a big city disc jockey, and some hot rods, and you've got a late 50's, drive-in flick which can be easily enjoyed for the type of movie it is.

"The Giant Gila Monster" is one of those films of old that despite its numerous flaws retains a certain charm that adds a special mystique to the experience of watching them. Often labeled as one of the movies with worst special effects in history of cinema, this small Drive-In classic shines among similar movies due probably to the same naiveté that made Ed Wood's movies legendary. Like Wood's movies, "The Giant Gila Monster" has more good intentions than talent behind the camera, and that probably is what makes it so special.

The plot starts when people starts disappearing in the roads near a small Texan town. The sheriff Jeff (Fed Graham) is puzzled by the case as the victims seem to vanish leaving no trace. With the aid of his good friend Chase (Don Sullivan), he starts an investigation that will lead them to discover that a monster of huge proportions has been hiding and is eating its victims.

The movie is centered around Chase and the Sheriff's friendship, and the parental relationship that exists between them. Despite having no father and with a handicapped sister, Chase never loses his optimism and is willing to help everyone, from his best-friend the Sheriff to his girlfriend Lisa (Lisa Simone), who is an immigrant and wants to get a job. All this is charged with the 50s innocence and that naiveté that gives the film its charm.

Acordign to history, this movie was the brainchild of Gordon McLendon, a Texan millionaire who wanted to make movies with good Christian values and moral lessons to fight against the movies that were "corrupting" the youngsters of his time. This purpose is notorious through the film as the victims of the monster seem to be punished because of their sins, and becomes blatantly obvious when Don Sullivan sings the movie's theme.

While the movie may have failed as a Christian movie, it has gained a popularity among fans of 50s B-movies because it presents the classic elements of the Atomic Age creature-features. The primitive and simple special effects and the poorly written dialogs are really obvious flaws but the film as a whole has a certain charm due probably to the innocence of its makers and probably of the 50s as a whole.

Don Sullivan is a good lead, and also performs his songs with natural ease. Fred Graham and Lisa Simone are also quite good despite the silly dialog the movie has. Director Ray Kellogg handles the movie with the typical 50s style probably to make it appealing to mainstream audiences. The special effects are indeed poor and it is easy to notice that the Giant Gila Monster is nothing more than a normal Gila Monster walking over a cheap scale model.

To judge "The Giant Gila Monster" under the standard of our times would be a mistake, so it's better to say that the film delivers entertainment and a good glimpse to the idealized society of the 50s. People expecting a classic horror movie will definitely be disappointed, but fans of Atomic Age monsters or of B-Movie classics will find a minor gem to enjoy. 5/10