the audience applauded

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Most of the older Scifi classic films like this usually don't turn out to go above the rest, but this movie was certainly one of those lot. I was surprised how well the effects worked in this film. The drone sound created by the vibrations of the Mantis's wings were bone chilling and realistic. The roaring was a bit unusual, but that's okay, because we are supposed to believe it's a monster mantis! I enjoyed the scene with the Greenland Eskimos in that first of all, they used real Eskimo actors, and second, it was believable (though sped up for some reason). I really liked this film, it's not among my favorites should I say, but I thin it's certainly one of the better giant monster films of its time, right among "The Land Unknown" and "The Giant Behemoth".

From that great series of classic prehistoric beasts of the Fifties, The Deadly Mantis is a prehistoric insect the size of about three tractor trailers who gets thawed out of the Arctic ice and begins moving south for warmer climate and food. The Air Force spends a lot of time trying to kill this tough old bug, throwing everything they can at it, save atomic weapons. Given the speeds that this mantis is going which rival and in some cases excel what our latest jet fighters are doing, that would have been impractical.The film focuses on the efforts of three people to bring the mantis down, fighter pilot Craig Stevens, paleontologist William Hopper, and photojournalist Alix Talton. Of course a little romance gets going between Stevens and Talton while Hopper is strictly business.You have to wonder though what ancient prehistoric earth might have been life if indeed insects got that big and were flying around at supersonic speeds. Maybe they're what killed the dinosaur.Other than the special effects to create The Deadly Mantis that were done at a major studio being Universal, the film itself is a no frills affair even with a small romantic interlude. The Deadly Mantis is in keeping with a great tradition of Universal horror classics.

An over-sized prehistoric preying mantis—trapped for millions of years in ice at the North pole—is released by seismic activity and proceeds to make its way south (to New York, of course), attacking US defence stations and military aircraft along the way. It's up to Col. Joe Parkman (Craig Stevens) to save the day, with a little help from paleontologist Ned Jackson (William Hopper) and his plucky assistant Marge Blaine (Alix Talton).I had the 70s Aurora model kit based on this monster movie when I was a kid; it featured a cityscape diorama in which the mantis stood proudly over several crushed cars; now, 35 years later, I've finally caught up with the movie, and am pleased to say that the model they used for filming was far better than the one I built (try as I might, I would always get in a mess with the cement). But even though the big bug is well realised—a nicely detailed marionette with glowing eyes—the film itself leaves much to be desired: it takes an absolute age to get going, there's an over-reliance on stock footage to pad out the action, and the script is extremely talky.Worse still, despite its terrifying appearance, the mantis proves to be a huge embarrassment to the atomic-era big bug fellowship, a lightweight in the chomping department, failing to chalk up the requisite number of human victims during its long journey south, and equally crap in the stomping department: having flown all the way to New York (suspended on clearly visible wires), the big bug neglects to go on a rampage in the streets like any self-respecting B-movie monster, instead opting to hide in the Manhattan Tunnel where a few well-aimed cans of pesticide soon put paid to his antics. Rather pathetic, eh?

Half the movie is stock military footage of jets being scrambled, anti-aircraft guns being fired, and so forth. There's even a little lecture, with graphic, about the air-defense radar and jet base installations guarding us from enemy attack.The bug is sort of goofy. In flying shots, it seems immobile except for blurred wings. It does rock forward and back slightly as it flies. You can almost imagine it mumbling contentedly to itself, "Doop-de-doop-de-doop," as it moves through the air without any exertion.The acting, direction, writing--what can you say? With creature features you're not talking Citizen Kane, but even so this movie is pretty bad.As in so many creature features, our hero follows the big bug every step of the way, from discovery to combat to alerting the public to leading the final attack in the "Manhattan Tunnel." He sure gets around! Also, by being in so many places in such a short time and being multi-skilled to boot, it eliminates need to pay more actors.Unlike the grand-daddy of all big bug movies, Them, this movie does not build a story about the bug acting the way a bug should, only bigger. The mantis roars like a maddened lion, for example. In Them, the writing very cleverly includes real details about ant behavior and then shows it taking place, much to everyone's horror.The best scene is in the tunnel at the end of the movie, as the big bug gasps in its death throes. Suddenly you feel sorry for the guy. Possibly it's the only real drama in the picture.