The Deadly Mantis

1957 "This Was the Day That Engulfed the World in Terror!"
5.1| 1h19m| en
Details

A giant prehistoric praying mantis, recently freed from the Arctic ice, voraciously preys on American military at the DEW Line and works its way south.

Director

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Universal International Pictures

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Reviews

mraculeated The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Jerrie It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Julian R. White Most of the older Scifi classic films like this usually don't turn out to go above the rest, but this movie was certainly one of those lot. I was surprised how well the effects worked in this film. The drone sound created by the vibrations of the Mantis's wings were bone chilling and realistic. The roaring was a bit unusual, but that's okay, because we are supposed to believe it's a monster mantis! I enjoyed the scene with the Greenland Eskimos in that first of all, they used real Eskimo actors, and second, it was believable (though sped up for some reason). I really liked this film, it's not among my favorites should I say, but I thin it's certainly one of the better giant monster films of its time, right among "The Land Unknown" and "The Giant Behemoth".
Woodyanders A huge prehistoric praying mantis gets unleashed from an iceberg in the Artic and embarks on the expected destructive spree. Shrewd and helpful paleontologist Dr. Nedrick "Ned" Jackson (a lively and engaging performance by William Hopper) joins forces with the military to find a way to stop the pesky critter. Director Nathan Juran, working from a tight and straightforward script by Martin Berkeley, relates the entertaining story at a steady pace, does a nice job of creating a spooky and mysterious atmosphere in the opening third, maintains a serious tone throughout, and stages the monster attack scenes with real aplomb. This film further benefits from solid acting by an able cast, with especially praiseworthy work by Alix Tilton as perky journalist Marge Blaine, Craig Stevens as the stalwart Col. Joe Parkman, Florenz Ames as the wise Prof. Anton Gunther, and Donald Randolph as the no-nonsense General Mark Ford. The big bug looks pretty gnarly and the climax with the wounded over-sized insect trapped in the Holland Tunnel is both tense and exciting. Ellis W. Carter's sharp cinematography makes neat occasional use of artful fades and dissolves. The robust score by Irving Getz and William Lava does the rousing trick. Best of all, this movie has an earnest quality to it that's impossible to either dislike or resist. A very enjoyable creature feature.
gavin6942 A giant prehistoric praying mantis, recently freed from the Arctic ice, voraciously preys on American military at the Dew Line and works its way south.This film is just bad. I like the map in the beginning, but after that it gets cheesy. Why is there a giant praying mantis? I mean, you know, just one? And why is it at the North Pole? And why did they steal footage from "S.O.S. Eisberg" (1933) to show Eskimos fleeing? If you like seeing a big bug fly across the sky for 80 minutes, this is your film. But, for me, it just was not as good as many of the other big animal pictures out there... it was not menacing, and really made no sense. The scientific attempt to explain it? Non-existent!
sol1218 **SPOILERS** The movie "The Deadly Mantis" has the identical storyline of that of "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms". In that the big bug has been frozen alive in an arctic glacier and released by a violent geological shift, in the case of the "Beast" a nuclear explosion, under the earth's surface.Coming to life the mantis starts to fly south in search of food that's almost nonexistence in the arctic's frozen wasteland. Attacking boats planes and even an Eskimo village on its trip it's not until Washingto D.C Museum of Natural History paleontologist Dr. Nedrick "Ned" Jacksonn, William Hooper, positively identifies a broken off five foot appendage of the mysterious creature as that of a praying mantis that the USAF and Army goes into action in trying to bring the big bug down! That's before it destroys everything that's in its path on its flight down south! Which includes Boston Philadelphia Washington D.C and finally the Big Apple" itself the city of New York ! After the mantis was injured in an air to air combat confrontation with a USAF combat jet it hid itself inside the Holland Tunnel in New York City where the final battle between man and mantis was to take place in the movie. A battle that the very fate of mankind's existence hinged on with the US Army using it's most deadly and destructive WMD, Weapon of Mass Destruction, in its entire arsenal: A super powerful bug-bomb that it kept under lock and key as a last resort to finally stop and kill the thing!Despite it's gigantic and threatening size, some 200 feet long, the deadly mantis was more comical then scary. On the ground the big bug could barley walk and just slumped along barley being able to stand up straight. It's as if the mantis was still suffering from the frostbite that some 2,000,000 years of being frozen in ice caused it. When airborne the mantis seemed to be immune to rocket and missile attacks from attacking USAF jet planes, even knocking down a number of them, but for some reason a USAF pilot got a lucky shot at it and ended up bringing it down! That's after dozens of other rocket attacks had absolutely no effect on the mantis. It was also puzzling why the mantis choose to barricade itself in of all places the sealed off, from the both New York and New Jersey side, Holland Tunnel when it has so many other and safer places to hide in!P.S The most interesting thing in the movie was the face of the mantis itself that in the many closeups of the bug looks exactly like the descriptions and drawings of alien, with their wrap around eyes, from other space by those who claimed to have been kidnapped by them!