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Released by: Film Masters
Released on: September 26th, 2023.
Director: Ray Kellogg
Cast: Don Sullivan, Lisa Simone, James Best, Ken Curtis, Ingrid Goude
Year: 1959
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The Giant Gila Monster/The Killer Shrews – Movie Review:
Film Masters offers up a double dose of late-fifties drive-in schlock directed by Ray Kellogg with their double feature Blu-ray release of The Giant Gila Monster and The Killer Shrews.
The Giant Gila Monster:
First up is 1959’s The Giant Gila Monster. This is the story of Chase Winstead (Don Sullivan), a teenager who lives in a small Texas town. Chase, along with his pals, likes to have a good time with their gals and their hot rods. What they don't realize but soon learn that is out of the nearby desert, a giant Gila monster has emerged, and it's not friendly.
After it kills off a few townsfolk and sends the town into a tizzy, the sheriff (Fred Graham) starts to learn about the giant lizard's existence but isn't quite convinced it's real. When more townsfolk disappear and a train gets knocked off of its tracks, however, he starts to believe... just as the local town dance is about to go down. Will the sheriff stop the beast in time or will it be up to Chase and his bad-ass car to save the day?
Every bit as silly and goofy as it sounds, The Giant Gila Monster actually uses a real lizard as its main antagonist rather than a created monster. As such, we get all sorts of wonky camera work trying to convince us that this regular sized lizard is actually giant, and some pretty fun miniature work accompanying it. A few things blow up, we get some fifties rock and roll clichés, and loads of corny dialogue to go along with all of this nonsense.
There are a few stretches where the movie is too talky for its own good but when the ‘giant’ lizard is zipping about hissing and destroying things, the movie is a blast to watch even if the acting is as hokey as it comes.
The Killer Shrews:
The second feature, also made in 1959, introduces us to a sea Captain named Thorne Sherman (James Best) and his First Mate, Rook (Judge Henry Dupree) whose latest job is to deliver a bunch of supplies to an island somewhere in the middle of nowhere that houses a research facility run by Dr. Marlowe Craigis (Baruch Lumet).
Here, Craigis and company conduct all manner of unorthodox experiment that they hope will help them abolish famine and food shortage across the globe. Craigis and his assistant Radford Baines (played by Gordon McLendon, who produced both films) live with Craigis's foxy daughter Ann (Ingrid Goude) and her goofy fiancé Jerry Farrel (Ken Curtis), all watched over by a servant named Mario (Alfredo de Soto).
When a hurricane approaches, Captain Sherman opts to dock the boat and spend the night on the island, although the doctor and his cronies are none too happy about having to put up any guests. When Rook disappears and Sherman wants to go look for him, he's held at gun point and forbidden from leaving the facility. Why? Well, as Craigis explains, it seems that some of his experiments have gone wrong and that some shrews he was experimenting on have mutated into dog-sized man-eaters (played by... actual dogs in funny costumes)...
This one is actually a lot more fun than the top-billed The Giant Gila Monster. The pacing is better, the characters more interesting and the awesome ‘dogs running around in funny costumes attacking things’ really is insanely entertaining. When the movie isn’t using dogs, it’s using equally wonky looking puppets that are just as amazingly ineffective, so you’ve got that to look forward to as well.
Fine, we don’t get the cool fifties rock ‘n’ roll angle or the hot rods that the first movie offers up, but the tradeoff is worth it. A predictable but amusing love triangle subplot that is worked into the storyline won’t really shock anyone but it does add a bit more depth and intrigue to the plot.
The Giant Gila Monster/The Killer Shrews – Blu-ray Review:
Film Masters bring these two films to Blu-ray for the first time with the black and white AVC encoded 1080p transfers framed in your choice of the original 1.85.1 theatrical aspect ratio or 1.33.1 fullframe format, each movie on its own disc. The widescreen framing looked better to my eyes but your mileage may vary. Both films look pretty solid here, with good detail and nice contrast. The second feature shows a bit more print damage than the first but there isn’t anything so severe here that it should take fans of older genre films, undoubtedly the target audience for this release, out of the picture even if there does appear to be some noise reduction used resulting in a slightly smoother looking picture than purists might want.
Both films get English language 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Mono mixes with optional English subtitles. Audio quality is a little flat but for a pair of older low-budget B-movies, they sound fine. Expect a bit of sibilance here and there, but the scores generally sound pretty strong and the dialogue is always easy to understand and follow.
Extras for The Giant Gila Monster include a commentary track by Larry Strothe, James Gonis, Shawn Sheridan and Matt Weinhold from The Monster Party Podcast. It’s a fun track that offers up plenty of information about the cast and crew, the locations, the film’s director and producer and more. There’s also an archival interview with actor Don Sullivan by author Bryan Senn. This thing runs about ninety-three minutes and it does a pretty solid job of covering his career over the years and it makes for an interesting listen.
We also get a trailer for the feature.
Extras for The Killer Shrews include a commentary by Professor and Film Scholar, Jason A. Ney that is also quite good. It details Kellogg’s work and the cast and crew, covering pretty much all the bases you’d expect it to. This second disc also includes Ray Kellogg – An Unsung Master, which is a new documentary written by C. Courtney Joyner and narrated by Larry Blamire. This sixteen minute piece does a great job of covering Kellogg’s life and times, touching on some career highlights and doing a nice job of detailing his work.
The second disc also includes a selection of original radio spots for both movies.
Included inside the keepcase alongside the two discs is a full color insert booklet with an essay by Don Stradley titled ‘Pirate Radio, Presidential Assassinations And Gila Monsters – All In A Life’s Work For Gordon McLendon’ that goes over the life of the producer of these two movies and a second essay by Jason A. Ney titled ‘The Unkillable Killer Shrews’ that covers the odd history of the second feature.
The Giant Gila Monster/The Killer Shrews - The Final Word:
Film Masters’ double feature Blu-ray release of The Giant Gila Monster/The Killer Shrews offers up two enjoyable B-movies from the drive-in era in nice presentations and with some quality extra features as well, making this worth checking out for fans of the genre.