Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo (1977) (TV)

User Rating:

4.0/10   

Director:

Stuart Hagmann

Writers:

John Groves (writer) and
Guerdon Trueblood (writer)

Release Date:

28 December 1977 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Terror has 8 legs.

Plot:

An airplane carring coffee beans from South America has some unpleasant stowaways: a hoard of tarantulas...

Plot Keywords:

Tarantula | Airplane | Spider | Insect | Child Killed By Animal

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys.

Cast

Claude Akins	...	Bert Springer
Charles Frank	...	Joe Harmon
Deborah Winters	...	Cindy Beck
Bert Remsen	...	Mayor Douglas
Sandy McPeak	...	Chief Beasley
Pat Hingle	...	Doc Hodgins
Tom Atkins	...	Buddy
Howard Hesseman	...	Fred
John Harkins	...	Sylvan
Charles Siebert	...	Rich Finley
Penelope Windust	...	Gloria Beasley
Edwin Owens	...	Frank
Alex Colon	...	Hector
Lanny Horn	...	Harry Weed
Jerome Guardino	...	H.L. Williams

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Moorpark, California, USA

Company:

Alan Landsburg Productions

back in the day, this was pretty entertaining...but now...?

I used to catch all the made-for-TV horror/thriller stuff in the 70's, because there were no VCR's or DVD players & this was all there was (well, except for movies at the theater, most of which I couldn't go see because of the ratings and because I was too young to have money to go see them). Now though, this particular films makes for a rather nostalgic time, but it's truly not a very good movie. Two hot-shot "importers" (Howard Hessman & Tom Atkins) are flying a planeload full of Ecuadorian coffee & a few stowaways to San Francisco, but they have engine problems & are looking for a place to land. They pick the small town of Finleyville but before they can land the inside of the plane is swarmed with tarantulas and the plane crashes. Of course, the townspeople swarm the site and the fire department shows up, with fire chief Claude Akins, a TV movie staple. We're also treated to a stellar performance by Charles Frank, who plays Joe, and who RUNS everywhere shouting and waving his arms. Now, the tarantulas, of course, disembark, and before you know it they've made their presence known over apparently SEVERAL square miles, which is pretty silly considering how slowly they seem to move. They do manage to bite a few people too, and after one teacher at a school for autistic children is bitten, another teacher captures one & good old Doc sees what's biting (and killing) the folks that have expired in his exam room. An expert is called in and finds that this is not your everyday household tarantula, it's not even a true tarantula, but it's extremely aggressive & its bite is poisonous. No kidding. Eventually the things all converge on the local warehouse which is full of oranges, and the townspeople rig some kind of ridiculous device up that will cause the spiders to go into a sort of immobile state when they hear amplified wasp sounds. And those that are alive still live happily ever after..or do they? This has several familiar faces in it, and a little boy played by Matthew Laborteaux, who was an 80's teen-film face. Deborah Winters & Charles Siebert were also in another film together (the same year?) called "Blue Sunshine", which is NOT made for TV and is a far better film. "Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo" is not really unwatchable, but it's also not particularly good, unless you're up for a nostalgic "movie of the week" fix. 4 out of 10.