Earth vs. the Spider (1958)

Director:

Bert I. Gordon

Writers:

László Görög (screenplay) and
George Worthing Yates (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

September 1958 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

It Must Eat You to Live!

Plot:

Teenagers from a rural community and their high school science teacher join forces to battle a giant mutant spider.

Plot Keywords:

High School | Cave | Night | Ddt | Giant Spider

Cast

Ed Kemmer	...	Professor Art Kingman
June Kenney	...	Carol Flynn
Eugene Persson	...	Mike Simpson (as Gene Persson)
Gene Roth	...	Sheriff Cagle
Hal Torey	...	Mr. Simpson
June Jocelyn	...	Mrs. Jack Flynn
Mickey Finn	...	Sam Haskel, Road Foreman
Sally Fraser	...	Mrs. Helen Kingman
Troy Patterson	...	Joe
Skip Young	...	Sam the Bass Player
Howard Wright	...	Jake
Bill Giorgio	...	Deputy Sheriff Pete Sanders
Hank Patterson	...	Hugo the River Falls H.S. Janitor
Jack Kosslyn	...	Mr. Fraser, Camera Club Teacher
Bob Garnet	...	Springdale Pest Control Man
Shirley Falls	...	Switchboard Operator
Bob Tetrick	...	Deputy Sheriff Dave
Nancy Kilgas	...	Dancer
George Stanley	...	Man in Cavern
David Tomack	...	Power Line Foreman
Merritt Stone	...	Jack Flynn, Carol's Dad
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Dick D'Agostin	...	Pianist (uncredited)

Directed by
Bert I. Gordon

Writing credits
László Görög		(screenplay) (as Laszlo Gorog) and
George Worthing Yates		(screenplay)
Bert I. Gordon		(story)

Produced by
Samuel Z. Arkoff	....	executive producer
Bert I. Gordon	....	producer
James H. Nicholson	....	executive producer
Henry Schrage	....	assistant producer

Original Music by
Albert Glasser

Cinematography by
Jack A. Marta		(as Jack Marta)

Set Decoration by
William F. Calvert		(as Bill Calvert)

Makeup Department
Kay Shea	....	hair stylist
Allan Snyder	....	makeup artist (as Allen Snyder)

Production Management
Marty Moss	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Marty Moss	....	assistant director
John W. Rogers	....	assistant director

Art Department
James Harris	....	property master (as Jim Harris)
Walter E. Keller	....	set designer (as Walter Keller)

Sound Department
Al Overton	....	sound recordist
Bruce Schoengarth	....	sound effects editor

Special Effects by
Bert I. Gordon	....	special technical effects
Flora M. Gordon	....	assistant technical effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Calvin A. Maehl	....	chief set electrician (as Cal Maehl)
Del Nodine	....	key grip

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Marjorie Corso	....	costumer (as Marge Corso)

Editorial Department
Ronald Sinclair	....	editorial supervisor
Paul Wittenberg	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Albert Glasser	....	conductor
Samuel Hoffman	....	musician: theremin (uncredited)

Other crew
Jackie Blaisdell	....	special designer
Paul Blaisdell	....	special designer
Jim Dannaldson	....	spider handler
Elayne Garnet	....	script supervisor
Thol Simonson	....	special devices

Production Companies

• American International Pictures (AIP)

Distributors

• American International Pictures (AIP) (1958) (USA) (theatrical)
• Lions Gate Films Home Entertainment (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (????) (USA) (DVD)
• RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (1993) (USA) (VHS)
• Video Film Express (2003) (Netherlands) (DVD)

Other Companies

• The United States Department of Interior, National Park Service  settings of the world famous Carlsbad Caverns, Carlsbad, New Mexico courtesy of (as The Department of the Interior National Park Service)
• Ryder Sound Services  sound

Also Known As:

Earth vs. the Giant Spider
The Spider (USA) (promotional title)

Runtime:

73 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (Certificate #19120) | USA:Not Rated (DVD) | UK:A (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company:

American International Pictures (AIP)

Trivia:

This was filmed as "The Spider". Prior to completion, the title was changed to "Earth vs. The Spider" and that was used for the main title on the film itself. When The Fly (1958) became a blockbuster for 20th Century Fox, American International decided to ride on their success by changing the title back to simply "The Spider" on all advertising material. The main title on the film itself was never changed.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The so-called teenagers look more like post-graduate students than high schoolers. Skip Young, who was also a regular on "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," was 28 and Tony Patterson, who played "Joe," was 35 years old.

Quotes:

Sheriff Cagle: [to a deputy after finding a desiccated body in a cave] Uh, you get back to town and make up a coroner's report. Just put down Jack Flynn as the name and the cause of death... uh...
Mr. Kingman: It was a spider drained all the liquid out of his body.
Sheriff Cagle: [Officiously] Just put down "cause unknown" and let the coroner worry about the rest. That's the trouble with you eggheads - you jump to conclusions! I know what I see and I see a dead man, but, uh, I don't see any spider.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Bees (1998)

A Few People vs.Little Fred

Some films are so bad they're good, or so it's said. This film has some nice touches of humor and is fairly entertaining, but it's also Z-grade. Mind you, I suppose it depends on whether or not you're scared of spiders. Watching a cute tarantula walking across shoe-boxes with windows and doors painted on them might be a terrifying experience for some people. But the effects are laughable. The giant spider's web is a rope net and there is a full-sized prop intended as a spider leg which looks nothing like one. And even in black-and-white it's obvious that a different tarantula is used in later parts of the film. Also, the spider has a large bald patch on its back at the beginning of the film but later on the hair seems to have re-grown. Physically impossible unless the spider sheds its skin, which it doesn't.

The plot, such as it is, has more holes in it that a string vest. Where exactly does the spider come from? Logically speaking there would have to be a whole population of giant spiders for them to survive. So where are all the others? And as for a spider being woken by rock-and-roll - idiotic.

It's true that this film is a good laugh, but that's all it is. If you want a more serious film containing a big spider then you're better off watching 'Tarantula' or 'The Incredible Shrinking Man'. Even documentaries about tarantulas are scarier than this.