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Actually, geologists Scott (Richard Denning) and Ramos (Carlos Rivas)
are in the Mexican mountains only to take some samples after a volcano has
broken out - but then they find a squashed police car, a killed police
officer, a poisoned herd of cattles ... and it all leads to one thing: an
invasion of giant scorpions, who like nothing better than to come out at
night and to, well, kill people and lifestock. (On the plus side, Scott
also finds a love interest in cattle baroness Teresa [Mara Corday].) You
would think geologists Scott and Ramos were right out of their league when
it comes to fighting scorpions, but not so - in the 1950's, a scientist
was first of all a scientist, his field of expertise did not matter all
that much ... and thus, the two geologists soon volunteer to go down into
the scorpions' cave (which they have located in no time) to assess the
situation first hand. For some reason, one of these annoying kids (Mario
Navarro) that has a talent for getting into trouble, goes down into the
cave with them, and the three of them narrowly escape death repeatedly -
but they make it out of course, and the army blows the whole cave to
Kingdom Come. The end? Of course not, a few days later, when Scott and
Teresa find themselves on a romantic trip to Mexico City, the giant
scorpions are spotted again, again killing whatever is served to them on a
silver platter. But now the scorpions have a foe - an even bigger
scorpion, who kills all the others in no time without reason. Scott and
Ramos are called to the aide of the army again, and they find a solution
to kill the big giant scorpion in no time: There is a small unarmoured
spot at its neck that ought to be harpooned, and then the animal ought to
be electrocuted. So the scorpion is lured into a stadium, then the army
throws everything it has got at the scorpion, who takes apart cars and
tanks like nobody's business, and even takes out the harpoonist who ought
to kill the beast. But of course our two geologists don't only know
everything there is to know about giant scorpions but are also expert
shots, so they kill the big one in no time ... On the plus
side, the scorpion effects in The Black Scorpion by stop motion
veteran Willis O'Brien are great, there is no denying that - and they are
pretty much what makes the movie. Because let's face it, the rest of the
film is less than great, even by 1950's drive-in-sci-fi standards.
Basically the film lacks proper buildup of tension and suspense, and the
monsters seem to thrown into the mix at a random moment rather than when
narration dictates it. Furthermore, the first climax (the confrontation
with the scorpions in the cave) is totally destroyed by the annoying young
boy character who serves no narrative function, and the actual climax (in
the stadium) might be great in execution, but is never properly set up,
which quite simply takes tension out of the equation. Still, if vintage
yet great stop motion effects are your thing (and they should be), watch
this, if you like nonsensical 1950's genre entertainment, give it a try,
but if you expect something really good (even within the film's drive-in
limitiations), you might want to look elsewhere ...
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