The Deadly Mantis 1957

First we see a volcano blow up way down in Antartica. Then a narrator says: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." Then we see some icebergs melting up in the Artic. This is how they explain away the mantis thawing out up north. Now the narrator gives us a history lesson on the radar defenses in North America.

A weather station near the North Pole is attacked and destroyed leaving no bodies. Colonel Joe flies out to investigate and finds marks in the snow similar to landing tracks. Then a military plane crashes, once again with no bodies and the strange landing tracks are present here also. This time in the plane wreckage they find a mottled green, five foot long hook that was torn off some kind of living creature.

Scientists at the Pentagon can't figure out what type of beast it came from so they call up Doctor Ned, a palentologist at the Natural History Museum. He goes to the Pentagon and examines the hook through a magnifying glass that is obviously for the benifit of the camera since he's not looking through it. Dr. Ned figures it could be from a giant insect and of course is proved right. He then further deduces that it can only be from a praying mantis.

Dr. Ned and his and his lovely female assistant, Marjorie, shoot up to the base up north where the the mysteries are happening to do some snooping. Now the hicks up there must have been in isolation too long because they act like dogs in heat when they lay eyes on the lovely and talented Marjorie. But she don't want no part of these boneheads, she heads straight for Col. Joe and sinks her claws into him.

Later on, Marjorie is standing in front of a window at the base where the mantis is peeking in. She doesn't notice the beast at first but lets out the required major ear-piercing scream when she does. It starts attacking the base station but some guy gives it a flame thrower in the mush and it flies away and snacks on two guys on a fishing trawler at sea.

At one point the base is contacted by a Canadian radar station. Of course the Canadian guy speaks with a British accent as they always do in these flicks. Hey, I got some news for you Hollywood guys, the only people in Canada that speak with a British accent are people from Britain. Get it? Good.

The creature is forced down near Washington by some lovely stock footage of fighter planes firing off wing rockets. The mantis derails a train and gobbles up some bus passengers before it lands on the Washington Monument.

The creature now flies over to New York where some more stock footage of fighters launching some more wing rockets right over the heart of the city. None of the rockets seem find their target leaving me to wonder what kind of damage they must do when the finally hit something below. Col. Joe rams his jet into the side of the beast knocking both him and it from the sky. He ejects from the plane and parachutes down to earth with the plane going down in the heart of the city.

Anyway, the mantis tries to hide out in the Manhattan Tunnel. Col. Joe goes into the tunnel and bombs the hell out of it with poison gas grenades. Later, while surveying the scene, Col. Joe and Marjorie get all outta control and start neckin' up a storm right there in front of the dead 100 foot long praying mantis. Hey, works for me.

Definitely not a top of the line thriller. But it's not too bad.