The Black Scorpion (1957)

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

A Masterpiece!

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The Black Scorpion has a lot going for it: very horrific scorpions, plenty of mostly well-rendered destruction, and an unusual 'natural' cause for the monsters' appearance. The parallel volcano disaster story puts the police and military on the scene even before encountering the scorpions, so we avoid the awkward 'hmm, there's wrecked cars, dead cows, and some weird murders, should we call the authorities?' debate that occurs in weaker sci-fi films.The remote setting, the intrepid scientists, and 'the girl' supply the expected plot/character devices of the 50s sci-fi film. There's too much romantic subplot junk; Theresa has a key role without having to make-out with Hank. The acting is generally quite good, as everyone seems to pitch-in realistically. The characters are believable types who show fear and courage without exaggeration. Clearly, as in the better films of the genre, it's the monsters that are the stars.The cavern scene is great--sort of an extra goodie that adds more tension, more monsters, and another creepy setting. And all that leads to the best of monster movie scene stand-bys: the false hope that the danger is over. With this device, again achieved within the movie's logic, the story gets to start all over again, promising even greater danger ahead.Then we get the 'how-do-we-kill-it?' conference. The sense of urgency is highlighted by the ensuing train attack. Sure, we see a toy train; but the engineer is suitably astonished seeing a giant scorpion on the tracks, the interior sequence does show traumatized passengers tossed about, with at least one survivor picked off by a scorpion as he tries to flee.Plausibility is maintained by luring the scorpion to the stadium with meat as bait. The climactic battle scene at the end works great. The first shot of the 'miracle weapon' misses, the scorpion destroying tanks, trucks, and helicopters as the soldiers blast away at it. Of course Hank gets to finish it off.We don't get much monster mayhem in the streets of Mexico City as we do in the Godzilla-thrashing-Tokyo tradition. But that's ok, plenty has happened already. No one seems too concerned that there might be other scorpions lurking here and there--we have just seen in the train attack that there's more than one. But we are reminded that it won't be too difficult to kill them, as the army now has a good countermeasure.The Black Scorpion has a well-scripted story allowing our suspension of disbelief to stay intact throughout, even acting, and plenty of creepy monsters running amok. Some of the effects betray the low-budget nature typical of the genre, and the romance eats up screen time better spent on the monster v. mankind theme.This one is well worth checking out.

Volcanic activity frees giant scorpions from the earth who wreak havoc in the rural countryside and eventually threaten Mexico City.The man responsible for this film, Edward Irving Ludwig (1899–1982), was a Russian-born American film director and writer. He directed nearly 100 films between 1921 and 1963 (some under the names Edward I. Luddy and Charles Fuhr). And yet, despite this prolific output, you probably never heard of him because they were all these cheap films.What makes this film memorable at all is that Willis O'Brien, creator of the stop-motion effects for the original "King Kong", was the special effects supervisor, albeit on a smaller budget. Pete Peterson, who worked with O'Brien on "Mighty Joe Young", did most of the actual hands-on animation. O'Brien borrowed heavily from other previous movies he worked on for the special effects in this film. The models used for the trapdoor spider and the giant tentacled worm have been reported to be the same ones that were used in the famous "Lost Spider Pit Sequence" from the original "King Kong". So they were not wasted after all!

Well, this movie had a black scorpion in it, but it had more than that. It had multiple black scorpions! Oh, they were giant too. I think the worst thing about this is probably the pacing. After about an hour, it looked like they were going to just stop it. There were too many boring moments but I will admit that the stop motion effects are quite good. I'm not even into stop motion that much. It helps that we get some good close ups of the scorpions showing off the practical effects. Wait, does stop motion count as practical effects? It doesn't seem to hold up well.I was disappointed the scorpion didn't appear at first, but to be fair, most of the movie did in fact feature it. I didn't know there would be other giant creepy crawlies in this film. It was hard to even recognize that worm. Well, realize it was a worm is what I mean. It would have worked better if it was trimmed by a half hour. Then again, that wouldn't have been enough for a full length movie. As a cheesy little 1950's sci-fi movie, it's just mediocre. I remain impressed by how it looks with the designs. **1/2

A textbook, cut-and-paste example of a '50s monster movie, with all the typical ingredients including strange isolated deaths, a rampage through a city. Really, you could swap the scorpions in this film for a group of giant ants, or a scaly lizard, and it would still make sense.However what these kind of films all have in their favour are the special effects. For THE BLACK SCORPION, Willis O'Brien, the creator of the original King Kong, is on hand near the end of his career, and he creates some superb scenes with the scorpions. Highlights include a battle between a scorpion and a giant worm (in these stop-motion fests, two monster always end up fighting each other. It's an unwritten rule) and a scene where the scorpions smash apart a model train. And then of course there's the rampage through a city, something which I'll never get tired of.The actors all do their bit but it's the stop motion effects which we are really watching for, and they don't disappoint at all. The scene where the scorpion smashes the helicopters is exciting, but unfortunately there is no pathos to be spared for insects, and this element is missing. However you do have to feel a bit sorry for something that has just been killed by a man wearing a tank top! THE BLACK SCORPION is a generic film with some excellent special effects to keep things moving along. It's an average example of a monster movie in every respect, but it'll keep you entertained if you're a fan of these things.