Not quite sure about the scene you describe, but "The Spider" is a pretty awful movie, even though I loved it as a kid (I confess I was 8 years old when I saw it with my Dad. On its first UK theatrical release!) If you buy the Cult Classics DVD edition, you'll get 2 movies - the other half of the double-bill is Bert I. Gordon's equally awful "War of the Colossal Beast" (known in the UK, for some reason I've never fathomed, as "The Terror Strikes") which is intriguing only for its use of Griffith Park Observatory in the silly climax, the Observatory being up on the hill above where I live. Never yet have I seen a Colossal Beast prowling up there carrying a school bus full of screaming kids. Almost as fun as the Bronson Caves and Bronson Canyon featuring in "The Spider", which claims to use the Carlsbad Caverns as a location but as far as I can tell Carlsbad figures only as postcard image in back projection. Anyway, Bronson Caves are even closer to my house and I walk my dog there often. Not a Spider in sight, or any of the other beasties that have threatened that marvelous location through the decades. But "Tarantula", well now "Tarantula" is in a different class altogether, although some of the effects are a little, um, let's say ... of their era. Nonetheless "Tarantula"'s an intelligent, moody and convincing example of the 1950s Giant Bug genre - second only to the supreme example, which of course is "Them!" And "Tarantula" is available in a wonderful multi-disc set called "The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection", which includes the clever and highly watchable "Monolith Monsters" and the brilliant, classic "Incredible Shrinking Man". Have fun.
reply
share