The Giant Gila Monster

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.

I know this film is bad. I know the gila monster is nothing more than a live one put on the ground with some miniature trucks, cars, buildings, and even a train. I know the acting is overall very poor. The script is full of holes, and the special effects are not special. But I really like this film overall. What this film DOES have is a whole lot of heart. The story deals with people missing in a very small town. The sheriff(played very nicely by Fred Graham) is pressured by the local industrialist to find his son that has been missing. Where does the lawmen go for help? Well, he goes to a teenager that happens to work at a local garage, drive a souped up hot-rod, sing rock and roll in his spare time, and is a swell guy in general. Don Sullivan plays the young man, and I think he is actually pretty good. Sure, the film is hokey. What film wouldn't be with a title like The Giant Gila Monster? But this film is more than your typical B science fiction film of the 50's. It really tries hard to create characters rather than just stereotypes. There are scenes that you just would not find in your average teen science fiction flick. The scene where Chase sings to his crippled sister is just one example. This film was produced by Festus..I mean Ken Curtis who also had his hand in that other fun, campy science fiction film of the same year The Killer Shrews.

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.

Well... maybe I'm in strong like.

The Giant Gila Monster is undeniably idiotic, but it is also a thoroughly enjoyable fusion of stereotypes - the '50s sci-fi craptacular, the 1950s teen rebel film complete with really sexy hot rods and a modern day Tex-western - all genres well overdue for retro movements.

The film features some of the most inept special effects of all time, vast continuity chasms, and shockingly good characterization. Regardless of how sub-cretinous the script sometimes becomes, the characters are actually well developed human beings with interesting relationships to one another - united by their existence in a town where nothing interesting ever happens, until a giant gila monster starts terrorizing a long, lonely stretch of highway on the outskirts of town.

Don Sullivan is likable but sickeningly sweet as the bad-boy Texas drag racer turned responsible budding good-boy rock-a-billy star. His acting is not too bad, and some of the rest of cast act as well, but generally, the performances are a bit ridiculous. Nevertheless, the film really does develop its characters and its plot in somewhat unique and original ways. And besides, when you're not being entertained by the virtual variety show which passes by between the action scenes, you can laugh at the tonka toys getting walked on, the flaming toy train, and the giant sand grains (almost as large as the grain of salt you should take this film with) that appear near the camera in most of the scenes featuring the gila monster.

If films are supposed to entertain, this will certainly satisfy fans of pulpy sci-fi like me. I can't honestly recommend it for those who do not enjoy camp and kitsch. Enjoy!

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...