Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Disturbing yet enthralling

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

"Tarantula" is a combination of a science-experiment-gone-wrong movie with a monster movie. Though tame by today's standards (it shies away from any graphic violence), it still boasts nearly-excellent optical effects, nearly-seamless trick photography, and creepy "deformative" makeup. A talkative first half gives way to an eventful second. **1/2 out of 4.

Better than average giant creepy crawly monster movie from the 1950s. Instead of radioactivity from an atomic bomb, this nasty creature grows due to a serum invented by a nutty scientist (Carroll). Things start happening when the scientist's lab is trashed and his rapidly growing tarantula escapes. Pretty soon, it's eating cattle and horses and then humans. A young medical doctor (Agar) and the mad scientist's new assistant (Corday) struggle to find a way to deal with this hairy killer, which eventually is the size of a small mountain, with fangs to match. The story is well played, the desert photography terrific, and the special effects not bad for the period. And no endless stock footage of tanks or artillery! There are some shots of jet fighters, but they are not over-used. The lovely Miss Corday is the biggest reason for watching this.

Jack Arnold's "Tarantula" is mostly your typical '50s sci-fi flick, this time focusing on a typical member of the family Theraphosidae* whom a scientist is using as a test subject in a series of experiments aimed at increasing the world's food supply: the experiments involve making animals grow really quickly. Sure enough, the arachnid gets loose, and so there's an eight-legged, 100-foot killing machine stomping through the desert, devouring anyone in its way.The professor mentions that the world population was growing by about 25 million every year. Nowadays it's closer to 80 million every year (about the population of Egypt or Germany). The professor predicted a world population of 3.6 billion in the year 2000, while in reality it reached 6 billion the previous year, and reached 7 billion last year. It's predicted to be 9 billion by 2050. Meanwhile, resources are drying up. The professor would have to work a lot harder nowadays (preferably without releasing a giant spider).OK, too much analysis. It's mostly the usual, fun sci-fi/horror flick from the era. Starring John Agar (Shirley Temple's first husband), Mara Corday (the October 1958 Playboy centerfold), Leo G. Carroll (Mr. Waverly on "The Man from U.N.C.L.E."), Raymond Bailey (Mr. Drysdale on "The Beverly Hillbillies") and an uncredited Clint Eastwood.*That's the taxonomic family to which tarantulas belong.

My only real criticism of this movie (just to get it out of the way) is that it seemed to try to hold together two plot elements rather than one - and the two didn't fit together all that well (and one wasn't really necessary and I was less than clear on why it was included.) Let's talk about that first.It was a little disconcerting to watch a movie called "Tarantula" and yet in the opening scene to see what looked at first glance to be a primitive cave-man type of creature come stumbling across the desert in his pajamas! It got my attention, yes, but it also made me start out confused by what was going on here. Wasn't this supposed to be about spiders? The man, as it turns out, was stricken with a mysterious condition that caused his face and hands to enlarge and mutate, but the town's doctor (John Agar) was baffled, because this condition is usually a chronic one lasting for years before it kills, whereas the man who died had been perfectly normal just a few days before. This leads Agar's Dr. Hastings to the laboratory of Professor Deemer (Leo G. Carroll), for whom the man had worked and who was experimenting with a new type of nutrient that caused rapid and abnormal growth in animals. That, of course, ties the spider part of the story in, as a tarantula was one of the animals being injected with the nutrient. The movie becomes basically the fight against this behemoth of a spider that's wreaking death and destruction across this part of Arizona.Having a person (and eventually Prof. Deemer) injected with the nutrient and become deformed wasn't really necessary. But if you set that aside, you have a better than average film - actually pretty good for this genre. The special effects were quite well done for the era. The gigantic spider was well photographed, and even though it was clearly a normal spider superimposed on a background landscape, it actually worked pretty well. Agar was a busy enough actor in his day, and you can see why. His performance was really quite decent, Carroll's makeup - once his deformity began - was startling without being as hideous as the man in the opening scene, and the final battle against the giant tarantula as it approached the town was pretty well portrayed. It's a fun 50's creature feature. (7/10)