"I didn’t consciously decide to make films with giant kids, men, spiders, grasshoppers, ants, prehistoric creatures and more because they would 'make good pictures'; the ideas came to me as stories I wanted to see on the big screen..I loved horror, sci-fi and action movies since childhood, and it became my lifelong ambition to make them." — Bert I. Gordon
"It takes a village." — Hilary Clinton
Director Bert I. Gordon made a career out of horror and sci-fi movies that employed his specific brand of trick photography, from his '50s epics The Amazing Colossal Man, Attack of the Puppet People, and Earth Vs. the Spider to his '70s drive-in classics Empire of the Ants and Food of the Goods.
In the '60s, Gordon struggled to bring his vision to the screen, only producing four films in the decade, including the ghost-themed Tormented and the Zsa Zsa Gabor shocker Picture Mommy Dead. Only two of his '60s flicks employ his trademark BIG special effects, the kiddie fantasy The Magic Sword, and 1965's Village of the Giants, Gordon's first attempt at adapting H.G. Wells's Food of the Goods.
Unlike the more literal '70s version of the Wells classic, Village of the Giants is more of a goofy, Beach Party-type treatment of the material, with a great cast featuring Beau Bridges, Johnny Crawford ("The Rifleman") former Disney star Tommy Kirk, Mickey Rooney's son Tim (Riot on Sunset Strip), and Ronnie Howard, on hiatus from his role as Opie on "The Andy Griffith Show," as "Genius."
Even better, the film is stocked with eye-poppingly beautiful '60s chicks, including the underrated Tisha Sterling, the zaftig Joy Harmon (best known for her car-washing scene in Cool Hand Luke), Toni Basil (the choreographer and later recording artist who had a big hit with "Hey Mickey"), and the lovely Gail Gilmore (Gerber), the future wife of Terry Southern.
Also featured in the movie are '60s recording stars Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon and The Beau Brummels, who are seen performing the garage rock nugget "Woman" for the dancing pleasure of the soon-to-be-giant teens. Also used to great effect on the soundtrack is Jack Nitszche's thundering instrumental "The Last Race," which you may recognize from Quentin Tarantino's made-in-Austin exploitation homage Death Proof.
The Alamo's "Weird Wednesday" programmer Lars Nilsen describes the movie's plot in a sociological context:
"Bizarre mod fantasy about a group of juvenile delinquents who take a growth potion created by young Ron Howard and become giant hell-raising teenagers. It's a pretty extreme cautionary parable about the inevitable youth revolt that was already germinating fast in the initial wave of baby boomer puberty. But sociology aside, it's a lot of fun, there's a kind of careening irresponsibility in it all, as the young people literally walk all over the adult establishment. It's also sexy in that inimitable mid-'60s way. When the teenagers grow, they naturally grow out of their clothes so we're treated to the spectacle of radiant, healthy young 60 foot-tall beauties wearing a scrap or two of improvised clothing."
Village of the Giants screens as part of the "Weird Wednesday" series at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz, 320 East Sixth Street in downtown Austin, tonight Wednesday August 25th at 11:55 p.m.
Subscribe to the Austin Classic Movies Examiner HERE.
Your comments, suggestions, and requests are welcome.
Recent articles by JM Dobies:
Swamp Things: Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959)
Teenage Pygmalion: Lord Love a Duck (1966)
Beach Bomb: The Fat Spy (1966)
Master Pancake Theater Takes on 'The Breakfast Club' at the Alamo
Director William Grefé on 'Mako: The Jaws of Death' (1976)
The Greatest Horror Movies of the '70s
The Greatest Horror Movies of the '60s
The King in Vegas: Elvis - That's the Way It Is (1970)
Teenage Rampage: The Runaways (2010)
Oliver Reed's Greatest Hits
Racing for Nowhere: Monte Hellman's Two Lane Blacktop (1971)
Comments