News

Back in 1975, director Bill Rebane brought the world The Giant Spider Invasion, an independent sci-fi action horror film that managed to get network play on both ABC and CBS, was mocked on Mystery Science Theater 3000, and made somewhere in the range of 15 to 22 million dollars on a budget of $300,000. Now, Julien’s Auctions has announced that the rights to the film are going up for public auction this week! This includes remake and sequel rights. The winning bidder will also receive the original 35mm negative of the film. The rights to The Giant Spider Invasion are being offered by the current rights holder, who happens to be Rebane.

This auction is part of the Julien’s Auctions and Turner Classic Movies collaboration A Week of Hollywood Legends: Sci-Fi, Horror, & Action, which will take place at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills, California on December 12th. The man-eating spider prop, which...

Wisconson-based regional filmmaker Bill Rebane’s no-budget wonder ($300k to be exact) The Giant Spider Invasion was a hilariously cheesy 1975 throwback to the giant-monster flicks of the 50s, a trend then enjoying a revival with films like Empire Of The Ants and Food Of The Gods. This outrageous mix of giant monster motifs and backwoods sleaze plays like a hybrid of Tarantula and The Blob with its mixture of giant spiders and falling meteors. I saw The Giant Spider Invasion at the long-shuttered Ellisville Cinema in West St. Louis County (on a double bill with the David Niven vampire comedy Old Dracula). I recall the poster in the lobby which featured a gargantuan spider bearing down on a group of terrified people. In the air above the mega-arachnid was three helicopters and lying crumpled at the spider’s legs were burning cars as spotlights filled the sky. One of the...

A 35-minute cut of The Giant Spider Invasion will be shown on Super-8 sound film at Super-8 Giant Monster Movie Madness next Tuesday, May 1st at The Way Out Club in St. Louis.

Wisconson-based regional filmmaker Bill Rebane’s no-budget wonder The Giant Spider Invasion was a hilariously cheesy 1975 throwback to the giant-monster flicks of the 50s, a trend then enjoying a revival with films like Empire Of The Ants and Food Of The Gods. This outrageous mix of giant monster motifs and backwoods sleaze plays like a hybrid of Tarantula and The Blob with its mixture of giant spiders and falling meteors. I saw The Giant Spider Invasion at the long-shuttered Ellisville Cinema in West St. Louis County (on a double bill with the David Niven vampire comedy Old Dracula). I recall the poster in the lobby which featured a gargantuan spider bearing down on a group of terrified people.

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Feb. 14, 2012

Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Olive Films

Christiane Schmidtmer has a layover with Jerry Lewis (l.) and Tony Curtis in Boeing Boeing.

The 1965 bedroom farce film Boeing Boeing, starring Jerry Lewis (The Nutty Professor) and Tony Curtis (Insignificance), is actually based on the 1960 French play of the same name by Marc Camoletti. (The play was revived in London’s West End and on Broadway a few years back to much success.)

The comedy movie follows the lives of two American journalists in Paris, Bernard Lawrence (Curtis) and his friend Robert Reed (Lewis). Bernard, the ultimate bachelor, is juggling romances with three stewardesses who just happen to have different schedules and nationalities. Robert, meanwhile, is scheming to take over for his buddy after Bernard’s job relocates him to another country. Lots of zany situations, close calls and bedroom door-slamming inevitably follows.

Directed by John Rich (Roustabout...