I watched the 1957 black and white Warner Bros., Sci-Fi/Horror movie, The Black Scorpion on Svengoolie. It was filmed at Estadio Universitario, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. The stop-action animation was by King Kong expert Willis O’Brien with the help of Pete Peterson who did most of the hands on animation. Due to the low budget, most of it was created in Peterson’s home garage. The 30 foot long inch worm was an unused prop from the King Kong movie.
The Black Scorpion has been used several times on Mystery Science Theater 3000. When an earthquake strikes Mexico a new volcano is unearthed. Geologists investigating the site find a destroyed house, police car, a dead officer and slaughtered livestock.
Soon the find the culprit, giant prehistoric scorpions. The movie stars Richard Denning (Some Like it Hot, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Target Earth, Creature with the Atom Brain, Day the World Ended, the Governor on the 1968-1980 Hawaii Five-O),
Mara Corday (Playboy Playmate, Tarantula, The Giant Claw, The Gauntlet, Sudden Impact, Pink Cadillac, The Rookie),
Carlos Rivas (The King and I, The Beast of Hollow Mountain, They Saved Hitler’s Brain, True Grit, The Undefeated, Topaz) and Mario Navarro (The Beast of Hollow Mountain, Geronimo, The Magnificent Seven).
The narrator and others voices just heard in the movie was Bob Johnson (most famous for giving Mr. Phelps his orders on the tape recorder in Mission: Impossible).
The film was directed by Edward Ludwig (The Fighting Seabees, Wake of the Red Witch, The Gun Hawk) and produced by Jack Dietz (The Ape Man, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms) and Frank Melford (Scattergood movies).
I liked the movie and will give it 3 out of 5 stars. For more information read Wikipedia, IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.
