BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Sean Kaye Well, I guess I'm the only one but I found this movie incredibly boring. I loved the sets, the old cars and how it was filmed -- very Spartan, and I really wanted to like it but I just couldn't. There's also some odd holes which others have mentioned too, like they find the virus in a box under a rock in a river and when the guy takes it out to check it, suddenly these two bad guys step out of nowhere. Why were they there? That part was pretty cheesy and unforgivable. Also, near the end there is a ridiculous struggle that takes place in a helicopter which is pretty laughable and the end of the movie literally comes out of nowhere.However, if you have nothing else to do and it happens to come on TV it might be worth watching if you have time to kill.

blanche-2 George Maharis, Richard Basehart, Anne Francis, and Dana Andrews look for "The Satan Bug," a 1965 film based on a novel by Alistair MacLean.The subject is something that certainly holds sway today: biological warfare. Lee Barrett (Maharis) who had been a security officer at a top secret government lab until he was fired, is summoned back to duty. Biological warfare agents have been stolen from the facility, and it is most urgent that what is referred to as the "Satan Bug" is found. The bug has the capacity to wipe out all of mankind if it is released. The thief, apparently a wealthy dissident, is threatening to release it in a public place. He wants the Security 3 division shut down. Barrett suspects the crook had help from the inside.The film's pacing is a little off, and the film is a little too long, though it's nice-looking and has one of those great '60s casts familiar to baby boomers. George Maharis had hit stardom with his TV show "Route 66" and Anne Francis, who was a starlet at Fox, was TV's "Honey West." Richard Basehart, besides a fine film career, was the star of "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea." I also spotted ex-Mike Karr on "The Edge of Night," John Larkin, and Ed Asner in a very small role. Film star Dana Andrews, whose career declined due to alcoholism, is here as General Williams.The casting of a pivotal role gives away some of the plot, but that won't be true for everyone who sees it. Worth seeing, and certainly the topic is timely.

ruffrider I was an usher at the Silver Spring Theater (now restored as the AFI Film Institute) in Silver Spring, MD when "The Satan Bug" came out and so I got to see it more than once. It's a taut thriller with a germ warfare theme that seemed very cutting edge in 1965 and it was the first time I'd seen George Maharis since he played "Buz" on TV's "Route 66." Other veterans of that defunct TV series were Satan Bug players Ann Francis, Ed Asner and Richard Basehart. I got to speak to Asner several times on the phone and we discussed "The Satan Bug." Apparently director John Sturges was busy having meetings for his next film project, so Ed had to rely on his own intuition to add certain things like the gravelly voice he adopted after the chop to the throat he received from Maharis' character Lee Barrett.However absent Sturges may have been during filming, the film doesn't show it and moves briskly along as Barrett races to find the stolen flask containing a deadly virus that threatens all life on Earth. This film still works for me 47 years after I first saw it and seems relevant in the post-9/11 world of terrorist threats. "The Satan Bug" remains an overlooked gem of suspense and cold-war era paranoia and is well worth a look.

lotus07 SYNOPSIS: Insane genius seeks to destroy all life on the planet by developing the ultimate biological weapon....what could possibly go wrong?CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Fear. Fear that the overworked and stressed-out brainiacs in Station #3 will loose it, go postal and create the ultimate lethal chemical agent. If exposed to the air, the population of the planet has 2 weeks to live. This is all about men playing God, and what happens when technology overtakes our collective wisdom. This is still going on in society, with stem-cell research, genetic engineers, the human genome project and steroids, but the possible results are much more frightening and terrifying here.PROS AND CONS: This film started out on the slow side and at first appeared somewhat low budget. The sets and dialog seemed sparse and almost empty. As the film went on, it became apparent that this was intentional in order to give an overall feeling of alienation and loneliness. The entire cast of the film is minimal. Anne Francis is the ONLY woman you even see on screen for the whole picture. The stark and empty desert landscapes of Arizona and Southern California almost gave a sense of a world abandoned. There aren't a lot of plot twists in this film, but there is a lot of 'motivational' dialog. Questions regarding man's right to exist and the folly of runaway science. The scenes of death by bacterial toxins in the film are riveting and emotional. There is no blood or gore, just a momentary realization that they are about to die, and then they collapse and are gone.There aren't a lot of cons in this film, because you have to take it for what it is. Stark, minimalist film making on a terrifying subject. It does appear odd that with the fate of the world at stake, all the forces that the US government requires are about 12 men in trench coats that pick up a pastel colored rotary phone to bark orders and have things done. This makes you wonder how ever accomplished anything before cell phones and the internet. We like to see more detail and drama these days, but like I said, this is minimalist film making on a large scale.