Beginning of the End (1957)

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Movie
Original title Beginning of the end
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1957
length 76 minutes
Rod
Director Bert I. Gordon
script Fred Freiberger ,
Lester Gorn
music Albert Glasser
camera Jack A. Marta
cut Aaron Stell
occupation

Beginning of the End is an American science fiction film from 1957 set in the state of Illinois . When the radioactivity passes through the food chain to grasshoppers through atomic irradiation of plants to promote growth , these grow into monsters and threaten to destroy the city of Chicago .

action

The reporter Audrey Aimes, with its car in Illinois on the search for traces of an air accident when she suddenly on a road barrier of the National Guard abuts the state. She is told that a young couple has disappeared from their car in the cordoned off area and that she is not allowed to pass through the area.

Curious, Audrey begins her own investigation into the matter. She learns that months earlier the population of an entire town had disappeared and the town itself was completely destroyed by unknown forces. She then consults her boss, who gives her the green light for further investigations. With his backing, she appears confidently to the leading military and finally comes across an interesting lead. There is an agricultural experimental station in the area run by Dr. Ed Wainwright, and who could possibly have something to do with the mysterious occurrences.

In the ward, she learns from Dr. Wainwright that nuclear energy is used to stimulate crops such as pumpkins and tomatoes to grow. The first positive results are already visible. However, a Wainwright employee suffered an accident during the experiments and has been deaf and dumb ever since.

Audrey manages to convince Captain Barton of the National Guard to take a trip to the area where the locals have disappeared. Together with a group of soldiers they are exploring a piece of forest when suddenly strange noises can be heard. They come from several giant locusts that attack the soldiers who only have to flee.

Although Audrey is now certain that the growth of the locusts must be related to the research station and that there is a huge threat to the country, Colonel Sturgeon, head of the National Guard, refuses to call on the regular army for reasons of prestige. The US Air Force is only alerted when the National Guards fail in another attack by the locusts .

Since the locusts appeared to multiply rapidly and now Chicago attack, General Hanson decided to use a nuclear bomb , with a Boeing B-52 - bomber to be dropped, but this would also mean the destruction of the city. Then Dr. Wainwright proposed an alternative solution. He remembers the experiment and constructs a voice simulator to lure the locusts to Lake Michigan . The attempt succeeds at the last moment. The locusts are attracted by the simulator and die in the cold water of the lake. The use of the atom bomb could be averted. However, the question remains whether other animals have not also eaten the radioactively manipulated plants and are possibly subject to the same growth process as the grasshoppers.

Production background

The film leans heavily on Formicula and Tarantula, both dramatically and optically . Leading actor Peter Graves was the brother of James Arness , who in Formicula as an FBI officer cast one of the two leading male roles, and is staged similarly. As in Formicula , a documentary is used to demonstrate the way animals live to laypeople .

The production was equipped with a very small budget, which is reflected in the trick design. The skyscrapers in Chicago, where the giant locusts climb up, are just a photo wallpaper that naturally cannot create a three-dimensional effect. Documentary recordings of the US armed forces, which were more or less successfully assembled, were also used extensively to save costs.

literature

  • Bill Warren: Keep Watching the Skies! American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifthies , Jefferson, NC 1997.

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