Number 146 of a series
Remember, readers, I watch these so you won’t have to. This is The Giant Gila Monster from 1959, and it shows. Also I like it when the title gives away the plot. We know what’s going to happen.
Here is the opening scene. We see a young couple parked in a secluded spot. We have seen these movies before. When the opening scene is a couple parked in a secluded spot we know this is the last anybody is going to see them alive. From out of nowhere something bumps their car into a rugged ravine, where it tumbles over and over. What a budget! they sacrificed a car to make this movie.
Just to be sure you know what you’re watching.
About 1959 I was going off to sea with the Navy, and I am sure I never saw this one at the time or even since. Wikipedia has a summary and a cast listing.
- Don Sullivan as Chase Winstead
- Lisa Simone as Lisa
- Fred Graham as Sheriff Jeff
- Shug Fisher as Old Man Harris
- Bob Thompson as Mr. Wheeler
- Janice Stone as Missy Winstead
- Ken Knox as Horatio Alger “Steamroller” Smith
- Gay McLendon as Mrs. Winstead
- Don Flournoy as Gordy
- Cecil Hunt as Mr. Compton
- Stormy Meadows as Agatha Humphries
- Howard Ware as Ed Humphries
- Pat Reeves as Rick
- Jan McLendon as Jennie
- Jerry Cortwright as Bob
- Beverly Thurman as Gay
- Clarke Browne as Chuck
- Grady Vaughn as Pat Wheeler
- Desmond Doogh as hitchhiker
- Ann Sonka as Whila
- Yolanda Salas as Liz Humphries
- Patricia Simmons as Sherry (uncredited)
- Angus G. Wynne III as dumb teen (uncredited)
The plot is for and about teenagers. We see a crowd in the local soda shop.
It’s also about hot rods. Chase drives up in his souped-up rod with his girl Lisa. She’s from France.
He’s an engine wizard, earning his keep at a repair and towing shop. He’s on good terms with Sheriff Jeff.
I had to snap this image. It’s Chase making a phone call. This is 1959, and they are still using these phones. Not even a dial. Full disclosure: I have spoken over phones like this. There’s more. The sheriff drops by a local farmstead to alert the residents, knowing they do not have a phone. People, there were days when not everybody had a smart phone.
Of course, the lizard is going around eating people. Chase and the sheriff investigate. In one case we see somebody in a suit standing beside the highway trying to get a ride. Later all they find is his suitcase.
This could have been a straight horror movie with the lizard attacking and eating people, people running, people searching for the lizard, the final attack on the lizard. Instead there are a number of side plots. There is the case of the little girl who needs braces so she can walk, and we see that accomplished. There is Nick singing and playing the banjo and rescuing a man who crashed avoiding the lizard, and he turns out to be a famous DJ.
There is Old Man Harris, who has an antique car he won’t sell, but he drinks a lot, and we see him racing the train at a crossing. He avoids a crash, but the lizard crawls beneath the railroad bridge, bringing it down and causing the train to crash. The lizard attacks and eats people.
Here the DJ comes to the local dance to spin the platters, and he announces a new song by Chase.
And that’s the climax of the movie. The lizard attacks. The first they know about it is the knocking as the lizard slams its nose against the outside wall and pokes its head through.
Just so you will get the full picture, here is the lizard outside the dance hall, trying to get in and eat the people.
But the sheriff opens up with his shotgun, and the lizard takes off across an open field. People flee the lizard across the field, including the little girl with the braces. Chase and Lisa go back to Chase’s shop to get the nitroglycerine, and they take off after the lizard. Lisa jumps out of the car and covers the little girl, while Chase revs up his hotrod and aims it right at the lizard.
Big explosion, and gone is the lizard, and gone is Chase’s hotrod. And that’s the end of the lizard movie. You can watch it with commercials on YouTube.
Specular Photo of San Antonio 
One thought on “Bad Movie of the Week”