The Deadly Mantis starts as a Volcano erupts somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere which has an opposite reaction as a Glacier melts in the Northern Hemisphere releasing a huge Praying Mantis from it’s icy rest place, after it thaws out it decides to fly to a warmer climate. En-route it attacks several American military bases & planes which brings the giant insect to the attention of the American army, they call in palaeontologist Dr. Nedrick ‘Ned’ Jackson (William Hopper) who advises them on the best way to destroy the killer Mantis as it continues it’s rampage across modern day America…
Directed by Nathan Juran The Deadly Mantis is another giant bug creature feature from the 50’s, after the likes of Tarantula (1955) & Them! (1954) some bright spark decided to make a film about one of the few fearsome insects left the Praying Mantis. Unsurprisingly the idea didn’t take off & to date this remains the only film to feature a Praying Mantis as it’s main monster. Anyway, the script by Martin Berkeley is a little slim. The explanation given for this huge Mantis is that it had been frozen in a Glacier millions of years ago when such creatures were common, that’s pretty thin stuff & I’m surprised Berkeley didn’t use the old ‘bug mutated to giant proportions because of Atomic Radiation’ which was the common cause for giant monsters during the 50’s & 60’s much like genetic experimentation is now the modern standard equivalent. Also I find it very hard that the US Army could ‘lose’ a huge giant Praying Mantis, surely once they have it locked on radar they would be able to follow & track it indefinitely even back in the late 50’s? Get over the extremely simplistic plot then one has to say The Deadly Mantis isn’t too bad a film at all, sure it has all the problems one associates with these cheap monster films from the 50’s but it moves along at a decent pace, at less than 80 minutes it’s short, the character’s are alright, the film builds up to a good climax & there’s just about enough monster action to keep ones interest maintained.
Director Juran made several of this type of monster film including 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), The Brian from Planet Arous (1957) & The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) along with numerous episodes from TV show’s such as World of Giants (1959), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1965 – 1966), The Time Tunnel (1967), Lost in Space (1965 – 1968) & Land of the Giants (1968 – 1970) with The Deadly Mantis being his first. He does alright & the film is well made although there’s a lot of stock footage, in fact the first ten minutes is probably 95% stock footage. The Mantis effects are not too bad, in the 50’s there would be guy’s in rubber monster suits, photographically enlarged real creatures or puppet effects & the Mantis is almost entire puppet work. This gives the appearance of the Mantis actually being in the location which it is supposed to be but also means you can tell it’s attacking toy cars & the like. I also think I spotted one use of a real Mantis as it climbs up the side of a scale model of some building in Washington. To be fair the effects aren’t too bad at all, sure they can’t even hope to compare to todays multi million dollar CGI computer effects but they serve their purpose well enough & it helps that Juran films a lot of the model sequences in & around mist & smoke which helps.
Technically the film is fine, it’s functional & looks alright even if it isn’t going to win any awards. The black and white cinematography is OK & helps make the special effects look a bit better than they probably were. The acting is alright, it’s not quite as stiff & awkward as a lot of 50’s monster films. I am reliably informed the Craig Stevens who appeared in this wasn’t the same Craig Stevens who won medals at the 2002 Olympic’s in Atens for swimming!
The Deadly Mantis is better than the usual giant bug creature features from the 50’s although not by much & it still has all the same problems that plague this type of thing. Interestingly the IMDb states that The Deadly Mantis (1966) was subsequently edited down to 9 minutes (!) to make an affordable movie for home use! Presumably on 8mm film to be played on a projector? I can’t imagine The Deadly Mantis being edited down to 9 minutes though, I doubt it played very well!
